Breath support doesn’t solve everything.

Author

Ivan Lu
March 23, 2025

Breath support doesn’t solve everything.

Breath support doesn’t solve everything.

A common theme I see with beginner singers or just singers in general is

We over-index on breath support.

And I get it, this is often one of the first concepts we hear to improving our singing.

“It all starts from the belly.”

“Support more for those high notes”

“Dig in!”

Now I’m not saying it’s not important. But what I am saying is it might only be part of the picture?

Today I want to break down breath support, what it actually does and why it doesn’t solve everything when it comes to singing. It might not even be what you need to work on.

At the end, I’ll also share with you an exercise to feel it, show you that it’s not that complex. So that you can move on!

Real quick! For those of you who don’t know me. My name is Ivan, I love making music and also teaching singing to students all around the world. On this newsletter my goal is to make learning to sing simple. If that’s up your lane, consider subscribing. If you want to improve your voice faster, check out the links down below for ways to work with me

If you want to inspire our next episode! Drop in the comments below what you want me to talk about next.

What does breath support actually do?

  1. Air is needed to create sound but it’s only part of the picture

Without air, there’s no sound. This is a given.

This is why we focus on it so much.

But realise this

Without closure/resistance from the cords, there would also be no sound too.

So really, any time we’re making a sound. It’s these 2 things working together.

This is what I consider breath support.

Aka “the breath” supports the vocal folds.

Now this brings me to my second point

  1. Breath support is about creating a steady sound

No one likes a shaky voice. We like the voice to sound smooth, to sound continous

And so how do we get a steady voice?

This is where breath support comes in.

If we can find and deliver a steady flow of air which then meets a steady resistance of the cords.

This creates a steady voice.

Now why it doesn’t solve everything?

Notice how I didn’t mention high notes at all.

A lot of singers will be told to focus on fixing their high note issues by

“supporting more” or “singing from the diaphragm”

This can work indirectly at times and give them 1-2 more notes.

“I can belt out this note a bit more”

But it doesn’t actually solve the problem fundamentally.

Which is this.

Pitch change especially singing higher is a result of the stretching and thinning of the vocal folds.

And so if you want to improve your range.

It’s not just from “using your air” better.

Sure it might help, but a better strategy is learning how it feels to stretch/change pitch. Especially without anything else moving. No change in airflow, volume, mouth shape.

Just pitch.

If you’re interested in this, episode 129 is key.

In the mean time, let’s show you what breath support feels like. And it might be simpler than you think.

Exercise #1: Let’s get you to feel a steady release of air with a HISS

The HISS is to mimic the resistance of the vocal fold closure.

Which we might not have good control over yet. Exercise #2 will help with this.

Here’s how it sounds

[SEE VIDEO FOR DEMONSTRATION]

What we’re looking for is to feel the steady flow of the air underneath.

You can also listen to the volume of the hiss to tell if you’re doing it well.

As you do it better, notice how natural breath support feels.

It’s a functional response to you trying to keep the HISS steady.

Now this only mimics. Remember the cords aren’t closing so let’s incorporate this in exercise #2

Exercise #2: Combine this with vocal folds closure (HUM)

Now let’s see if we can find that similar sense of steady airflow with the vocal folds being the resistance. We’ll use a HUM like this

[See video for demonstration]

What we’re looking for is a similar feeling compared to the HISS.

The only difference is that your cords are now the resistance/

See if you can keep that similar steady feeling. You can even try to open your mouth or speak on this feeling

[See video for demonstration]

What you’ll find is most of you will get this pretty quickly. It’s not as tricky as what you think.

But if singing is tricky,

(1) Getting this feeling in a song because there’s a lot more going on

(2) As we change pitch, we change this. We push more air or less. When in fact it should stay similar.

But this is for another episode.

Anyway! That’s all. Let me know if there’s anything I missed. If you found this episode useful, please share or give it 5 star wherever you’re listening from. This really helps spread the word and means the world to me. If you’d like to study with me, links are down in description. Take care!

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