Are we talking too much about the diaphragm? Pt.1

Has your teacher ever said, “breathe from your diaphragm”? What does that even mean? Is it actually true, can you breathe from your diaphragm?

The answer is no, we cannot breathe through our diaphragm. In fact, the diaphragm is only one of many muscles involved in breathing! So why do we talk so much about it? The function of the diaphragm is important in singing since it directly interacts with the movement of our lungs.

Here is what the diaphragm does in everyday breathing for all humans: as we take a breath in, the diaphragm flattens its dome shape to make room for the lungs to expand. Directly underneath the dome of the diaphragm live organs such as the stomach and liver, so when the lungs expand, the diaphragm pushes these organs down so that the lungs have enough room to fill.

What most teachers are most likely telling you by saying “breathing through the diaphragm” is actually related more to what you shouldn’t be doing in other parts of the breathing mechanism. The diaphragm will always go down and flatten then come back up to its dome shape during breathing, it can’t help it! It’s the only way our lungs can expand and the only way we breathe at all is through our lungs’ expansion.

Stay tuned for part 2 where were we dive deeper into the other muscles involved in taking a good singing breath and how you can focus on your diaphragm in an anatomically correct way!

Specific research taken from voicescienceworks.org and “Anatomy of the Voice: An Illustrated Guide for Singers, Vocal Coaches, and Speech Therapists” by Theodore Dimon.