Ha Ha Ha Your Way to Better Singing: Silly Breathing Exercises You Never Knew You Needed
- Mayank Mittal
- Jan 21, 2024
- 3 min read
Good day, my melodious minions! It is I, Eternal Ramblings, your GRU, musical maestro and trusted vocal guide here to help you unleash your inner diva!
Singers are like athletes, except instead of running, jumping, and lifting weights, they're running on vocal cords, jumping octaves, and lifting notes. Though, if you see your sensei on stage live you’ll see the former three too.
Just like athletes really hone their breathing mechanisms, singers need to have good breathing techniques to perform at their best. So, if you want to improve your singing and have a laugh while you're at it, here are some silly breathing exercises that you can do to improve your vocals. Can you guess my favourite?
The Siren: This exercise involves making a siren sound, like the sound of a police car or an ambulance. Start low and gradually move your voice up the scale until you reach the highest note you can sing. Then, bring your voice back down to the lowest note. This exercise helps to improve your breath control and can be a lot of fun when you try to sound like different sirens around the world. Search sirens around the world and you’ll be surprised at the variety.
The Darth Vader: Yes, Luke, you heard it right! This exercise involves making a low, raspy sound using your vocal fry like Darth Vader from Star Wars. Breathe in deeply and make the sound as you exhale. Focus on keeping the sound even and consistent. This exercise helps to strengthen your diaphragm muscles and can also be a skill to show-off at the next comic-con.
The Balloon: Blow up a balloon and then let the air out slowly. As you let the air out, make a humming sound. This exercise helps to improve your breath control and can be a great way to warm up your vocal cords. If you find this really unnecessary then just pull out your timer and breath out as long as you can. Though, I’ll go for the balloon.
The Ha Ha Ha: You might have seen enthusiastic uncles and aunties in the park do this one. This exercise involves making the sound "ha" repeatedly. Take a deep breath and then say "ha" repeatedly as you exhale. Focus on keeping the sound even and consistent. This exercise helps to improve your breath control and can also be a great stress reliever. So, next time you see the laughing oldsters, join them and laugh out loud for real!
The Fish Lips: Pucker your lips and then blow air out slowly. Focus on keeping your lips in a tight circle as you blow the air out. This exercise helps to improve your breath control and can also be a lot of fun while making you look like a complete goof ball.
The Boxer: Breathe in deeply and then punch as you exhale in a powerful short burst with your diaphragm. This is a powerful exercise to really get your breathing muscles ready. I often do this before my performances to both get ready and look like a cool boxer going up on stage.
Though I have plenty more of these fun exercises, we’ll save them for a later article. So, in conclusion, breathing exercises are essential for singers. Duh! While the exercises mentioned above might seem silly, they are effective in helping to improve your breath control and vocal technique. If you don’t believe it. Let’s have a competition.
So, have some fun, let loose, and start incorporating these silly exercises into your vocal warm-up routine. Your voice (and your sense of humor) will thank you.
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