Sing from the Diaphragm?

Sing from the diaphragm

So you sing from your diaphragm. How can you sing from your diaphragm? I don’t know about you but I can’t even feel my diaphragm. It doesn’t have any nerve endings. I don’t remember the last time I said “ Ouch my diaphragm!”

I get that it has a place but I don’t know why we place so much value on it.

 sing from your diaphragm? 

I don’t ever think about my diaphragm when I sing and I don’t ever use the word diaphragm when I teach. I know this is an issue that gets some people hot under the collar because it is so traditional. I hear little kids say sing from the diaphragm all the time….

I don’t think about the diaphragm no but I do think about the lower abdominal muscles that support the ascent of the diaphragm. Those muscles, the lower abdominals can feel.

By the lower abs, I mean the bottom part of your belly. Under your belly button. 

When you breathe in, the belly goes out. When you breathe in the belly comes in.

To make it even simpler think - Breathe in - Bellybutton comes out away from the spine.

Breath out - Belly button comes in ( towards the spine)

Think about the bellows that get a fire going. you open the bellows and the air comes in. You close the bellows and the air goes out and fuels the fire.

I’m talking about Mark Meylan again but when I had lessons from him in London I would arrive and he would make me lie down on my back and just feel the rise and fall of the belly as I breathed in and out. The first 10 minutes of the lesson. Every student has to do it. At first, you are impatient and then after a couple of minutes, it is utter bliss. Just watching the rise and fall of the lower abdominal muscles on the gentle breath. Its meditation

Anyway I digress. 

Here’s where the diaphragm comes in 

My wife Beccy explained this to me a few years ago and to be perfectly honest with you of this information I was completely ignorant. 

So without getting too technical ( because I don’t know any more than this and wouldn’t be able to get any more technical if I tried ) the diaphragm is just under your rib cage and acts a bit like a coffee plunger or a hand pump. It goes down toward your pelvis sucking in the air as you inhale and goes back up when you expel the air. All of this is aided by (drum roll, please……) The lower abdominal muscles! Now they have to make sure when you breathe in and out that its nice and steady. That’s what we refer to as airflow. If those lower abdominal muscles aren’t engaged then the diaphragm flies up you get too much air and your throat has to deal with the tension and you are up shit creek. 

So in a nutshell the diaphragm is important but even if you were perfectly ignorant of the diaphragm and just focussed on the lower abs being engaged and controlling the airflow you would be ok. Some times it is just worth keeping it simple.