1. Lie down with pillows under your knees and rolled towel under your head or neck.

2. Place one hand on you lower abdomen and one on your upper chest making sure that both are completely relaxed.

3. Leave your mouth open letting air flow freely in and out through mouth and nose.

4. Let your breath settle into the most organic rhythm.

5. Take note of how your body moves when your breath is settled.

Steven Flam is the developer of the groundbreaking teaching technique called BreathingRx For Singers which includes diaphragm target training. For more information or to debate the content of this article please contact him at [email protected] or check out our website at: www.breathingrx.com

When I was younger, my mother made me take piano lessons and every day I had to practice. I had a great teacher who loved to teach me the songs but I needed technique, I had to start my practicing extremely boring scales which gave me the familiarity with the instrument that I needed to play the rag time riff I loved to play.

So how does one make the daily ritual fun enough so that our students will actually do it? When you teach students to have joy, they will both do the work, and it will provide freedom for them to grow as singers more quickly.

Our recommended morning routine which warms up the body before singing, which our students find pleasurable and easy to integrate into their day is detailed below:

The pace of our lives has increased geometrically.  And in turn we want faster results.  Students and their parents want to see real results in weeks, not months or years.  To accommodate them, we have to teach our students to relax.  No pressure!

Really, we mean NO PRESSURE. 

To experience the phenomenon of NO PRESSURE in your body yourself, try these steps in a morning routine.  When you do it every day for a month your diaphragm will grow stronger:  

1.  Lie down with pillows under your head and knees – placing one hand on your lower abdomen and one hand on your upper chest.   Make sure that your chest and abdomen are completely relaxed.
2. Breathe through your open mouth – 10-20 breaths and notice that there is no tension in chest and abdomen restricting your organic breathing pattern.
3. For 5 breaths, use your exhale to passively produce a “la la la” sound.
4. Do the exercise again, breathe for 10-20, and la la la for 5-10.  Then, get out of bed and go to work!

 
Notice that when you do this practice you do not have to consciously push air out – it is a reflexive, organic behavior.  Transferring this behavior to your students’ singing will result in a quicker development with less tension.  Viola!  Hurry up and calm down!

Steven Flam has perfected the training of your diaphragm for vocal power.
GET YOUR FREE ‘FROM THE PRESCRIPTION PAD OF BREATHINGRX’ EBOOK NOW 
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