apparently its very important for ur whole body because if u get punched there in a fight it can easiy knock u out

Thank you!

No I am trying not tense this area!!!

Hi,why does this happen?shy learning tehnique makes your voice more vulnerable?

+Marnell Sample After trying for ages to become a better singer I found Bens Singer Blog and this appears to be the simplest home study system (check it out on google)

Marnell Sample he i want to learn how to release tention and hit the high note with out eney tention at all

bens singer : es fuck-you ..mierda ..basura que venden y lucran de los que menos tienen !!

Samantha Tirivacho Thanks for watching. I'm glad it's helping out a fantastic singer such as yourself. :) If there's any specific topic you would like to see, just let me know.

Thank you. I really appreciate it!

Daniel Plainview You're welcome! Happy it's helping you to sing more freely. :)

Thank you. I really appreciate your kind words.

Good to hear! Glad you found something that's helping you.

Excellent. If your voice was already strong but just tense, then this solar plexus idea was probably right on time for you. Do note, however, if you get carried away with this idea, the voice can end up getting a bit weak over time. At that point, you may need some ab tension to bring strength back into the voice. And thus, the never-ending cycle of vocal technique. :-)

Steve Moon Thanks so much!

My Passion These tips most definitely work for the speaking voice! I have another video I'm working on that will deal specifically with issues of the speaking voice, so be on the lookout for it.I wish you lots of luck in finding a proper remedy for your cough.

+Rich L That's another way of addressing the same thing. Good work!

Fear and anxiety will completely shut down the voice. They make everything stop working properly. The antidote is to learn to be angry and commanding, almost like a drill sergeant. That grounds the voice and body.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

you're awesome, thanks for your thoroughness.

Keyante Rashad Hi, Keyante! I'm happy the videos are turning on some light bulbs for you. When it comes to the bowel movement sensation, it's actually more like "holding it" as if you had use the restroom but there was none nearby. What this does is activates your pelvic floor muscles which are a part of your core. Normally, during a bowel movement, you relax the pelvic floor muscles, which is the opposite of what we need for singing! The feeling in the abdomen can be similar, though, because there is a sense of pressure that you get in your abdominal cavity; you get something to "push against". Hope this clarifies things.

Marnell Sample Ive heard Eric Arceneaux teach breathing into the pelvic floor, but that totally contradicts contracting the lower abs for more chest/abs expansion. Which is it ? So confused. I find I get no chest expansion when aiming breath that low, especially if im not taking stupidly large breaths.

Marc w Yes, I'm aware he teaches breathing into the pelvic floor, and believe it or not, what I'm teaching in my other breathing videos ( kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m7aJerGWzdinYYU.html ) is actually engaging the pelvic floor, even though I didn't mention it specifically. You see, the transversus muscle and the internal obliques tend to fire together with your pelvic floor muscles to stabilize your core. So in my other video when I tell you to brace the LOWER ABS like you're preparing for a punch, it activates all of that simultaneously. When the pelvic floor contracts, it raises the floor of the abdominal cavity, thus causing the expansion to have to take place elsewhere in the body (typically in the upper abs, sides, and lower back). If you RELAX the pelvic floor and lower abs when you breathe in, then that's where most of the expansion will take place (in that lower region). I find this way of breathing is good for relaxing when you're just lying on your back, but not very useful for anything in which your core needs to be engaged, such as singing. Please note that the pelvic floor muscles respond differently depending on what you're doing with your breathing. During normal RELAXED breathing (meaning you're not doing anything physical, you're just sitting there doing nothing), the pelvic floor RELAXES/EXPANDS during both inhalation and passive exhalation. During forced exhalation (such as blowing out candles on a cake), the pelvic floor contracts along with the rest of the ab muscles, including the deeper abdominal muscles that you can't see. On the other hand, if you're doing something PHYSICAL (such as moving a heavy object, running, or singing intensely), when you inhale, the pelvic floor contracts along with the abdominal muscles and other core stabilizers (including the diaphragm) to stabilize the spine and help give you air pressure in your abdominal cavity to work against. If you allow the pelvic floor to relax as in normal breathing, the spine becomes unstable, and thus the muscles in the upper torso like your shoulders, neck, chest, jaw, and tongue take over to try to stabilize the body. But that's the very tension pattern most of us singers are trying to avoid! There are lots of studies that have been done that show the importance of utilizing the pelvic floor musculature to stabilize your spine and help build up air pressure in the abdominal cavity. If you want to know more, just look for some in google scholar. Use the key words "pelvic floor intra-abdominal pressure". One more thing. Breathing into the pelvic floor...I would call it breathing into your groin muscles. You see, there is another set of muscles called the iliopsoas. There is one of each side of your spine. It connects from the back part of the diaphragm to the lumbar spine and then continues to go all the way through your groin into your femur. I know some people will think differently, but as far as I'm concerned, this muscle is a core stabilizer just like the abs and pelvic floor. During very intense singing, you can feel these muscles working strongly (along with your adductors), and it's what creates the "full bodied" sensation of singing -- the feeling of singing with your entire body, since it's literally connecting your upper and lower body. If you stabilize/engage these muscles before you inhale as I demonstrate in the video linked above, when you go to inhale, you will feel naturally that all those core muscles want to let go and relax. If you hold onto the contraction, though, you can feel the breath/air pressure pulling and pressing against those muscles, causing them to lengthen but also contract a bit more, and that's what creates the sense of breathing into the groin. A good way to get used to this contraction and stabilization of the core is to do something like a plank, or for more of a challenge, ab wheel rollouts. In the plank especially, you learn how to keep some of a contraction in the muscles while also still having to breathe at the same time!!! Meaning, you can't hold the abs (and other musculature) so tight that it inhibits breathing, but also not so loose that you end up losing the position of your spine. You can even try singing from a plank position. (A gymnastics style hollow body plank would be even better for this purpose.) Hanging leg raises will also give you a feel for how the iliopsoas kicks in, in addition to the boat pose in yoga which you can see here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pdWpZ8SAqtOul4k.html

Vic Tiva Thanks so much! I appreciate the sentiments. :-)

Thank you even more!))) For these amazing, high level, full and uncut vocal lessons!)))) You are doing a lot of good and helping people all over the world with your knowledge.)) I wish the best to you:)

Vic Tiva You're very welcome. I'm just happy you're finding this information helpful.

Very)) I`m sure I`ll thank you more generously one day:)

***** Thanks, Luke. :)

Thank you for sharing your success!

You're welcome

+Kayhla rocks The feeling of support comes from the lower abs below the belly button, not really from the solar plexus area. It does take a little time to learn to get those two areas to work together. You can take one hand and place it on the solar plexus (above the belly button). Take the other hand and place it on the lower abs (below the belly button). Now, try to make these two areas move in opposite directions. You can make the solar plexus go outwards and the lower abs pull inwards (like trying to put on a pair of jeans that's too tight.) Then, try making the solar plexus cave in while the lower abs get pushed out. For most people, if the solar plexus moves out, the lower abs also move out too. But this is not helpful for singing. You have to learn how to make the two sections move in opposite directions. See these two videos here for a demonstration of what I'm talking about: kzfaq.info/sun/PLE6sSBqFLoybqt1s8mmEnVnz_WMIDszEe Just to be clear, though, breathing is not the only reason you might get strain. Breathing only accounts for 20% of vocal technique. If you find you're still straining after this, you will probably need to be a one-on-one lesson so we can figure out what you're doing wrong.

Marnell Sample which one of those two videos is the right way to breathe?

You're welcome.

You're welcome. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching!

You're welcome!

You're welcome. Thanks for watching.

Thank you

Nixon Omollo No problem. You're welcome!

You're welcome. But, please don't call me master! I'm just a fellow singer sharing what I have learned. 🙂

You're welcome.

You are such an awesome teacher ❤

+blaze262332 You're welcome.

You're welcome.

+Naomi Martinez You're welcome.

You're welcome.

technotronic99 Thanks! Looking forward to bringing you more helpful content. :)

David Gindis Thanks!

GiveOrLooseIt Thanks!

You're welcome!

Amy Vuong Hi! This is a bit of a tricky thing to explain. Relaxed is not the right thing you're looking for, because to be relaxed implies that you are passive, just sitting there doing nothing. That is not what happens during singing, at least not in the breathing musculature. What you are looking for instead is an expansion of the solar plexus WHILE the muscles are still engaged at the same time. You will be engaging them, but in a different way than you are used to. If you engage the muscles of the upper abs the way you would during crunches, then that's the wrong way of using the muscles. That's the way that will cause rigidity. You have to get used to your solar plexus, sides, and back EXPANDING when you breathe in (all the way around, 360 degrees), and then you can hold that expansion. You can actually learn to hold that expansion very, very strongly, but it never borders on the point of becoming rigid. I actually recommend this way of breathing even when doing physical exercises, because it helps to engage your core properly (meaning it is engaged with your BREATH). If you want to feel more of the sensation of expansion in your back and sides (but especially the back), you can try The Balloon Squat here: Singing Breathing Exercises to Strengthen Your Diaphragm: The Balloon Squat | Singing Lessons

Amy Vuong Also, if you want to see more of the release of the solar plexus in application, check out Part 1 of my lesson with Sergio. This should help to give you a better sense of how rigidity in the solar plexus affects the sound, and also what it sounds like once you are utilizing the body harmoniously: Skype Singing Lessons: A Sample Online Singing Lesson - Releasing Throat Tension | Part 1 of 3

Marnell Sample ok thank u so much!!! i will watch the videos u recommended maybe later today or tomorrow, and i will let you know if i have any more concerns! thanks again, u are such a great vocal coach!

Amy Vuong You are welcome. :-)

David Gindis You're welcome.

For voice cracks when speaking, you might need to do the exercises in my video on cord closure for a few weeks, then come back to this video.

Thanks for watching!

You're welcome!

+Spiracle Music Online Thanks!

Thank you! If your solar plexus is tight ALL the time, even when you're not singing, then it might be best to visit some type of manual therapist who knows how to deal with soft tissue and fascia. They could help you unwind all of that. If the solar plexus only gets rigid when you sing, then it's a technique issue. Scales on a very deep OO sound will help. You might also have to reduce your volume a little sometimes when you sing. Singing lessons would be the best way to address this tension as there could be many causes for it.

Yes, if your voice is tiring quicker AND you're getting aches in your larynx, it's a sign that you're doing something wrong. What kind of breathing exercises are you talking about, though? Are they pranayama exercises or something else?

Hi Marnell, The exercise I'm thinking of is where you deep breathe in for the count of 4, hold for 4, then breathe out for 4. Each cycle you increase the count. Quite possibly I am using my larynx to hold the pressure back, instead of using the diaphragm. Also, on breathing out, I might be keeping tension in my abs instead of pushing down/out transferring work to my diaphragm, which I believe can lead to unwanted tension in the throat. I also suffer from acid reflux which has caused mild swelling and irritation to throat. That has got better with medication since my original post. Many thanks. Have a good Christmas.

You're welcome. You might want to check out this other video I made. If that doesn't help you along, then it might be best to sign up for a one-on-one lesson with me so we can address the issue head on. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/baebp5emybjTk3U.html

That's not a typical reaction for this exercise. Perhaps if you're singing very low in your voice you might feel this, though.

Where are you getting your information from?

From a wide range of sources including from a technique called the Accent Breathing Method that i have been taught by a speech pathologist. And i have done enough yoga as well. Pushing the tummy out is never meant to be the way its done for yoga or singing. I never have had any tightness in teh solar plexus so this teaching comes as a bit of a surprise to me.

I'll go a bit further with the tummy stuff. As far as i know, when you inhale, if you dno't resist it, your chest will expand as your diaphragm drops sucking in air and your tummy will protrude . YOu can doing it lying on the ground. My current teacher, an opera singer, isn't focusing on breathing at all. He's trying to teach me to take in less air and be more efficient with it. I read somewhere recently if the breath you take is too big, it creates tension and you cannot get the sort of relaxation in your throat that's needed to create the best sound. Something like that anyway. For a long time, I was learning how to take in more and more air. And to get projection, i would blast out the air for volume. I got muscle tension dysphonia as a result and that's when i came upon this thing of the accent breathing method, though letting the tummy out for healthy breathing was what i learnt in yoga many years ago. Its not just the right way to breath for singing but also for yoga and vice versa. Nowadays, my current teacher is teaching me how to get projection from good chord/fold closure.

This is interesting. I agree that you don't need to take in a lot of air. A lot of singers take in too much air. And yes, it DOES cause problems, not only with tension in the upper body, but also with cord closure, which eventually leads to blasting and lots of other issues. What I'm describing in this video is not about inhalation though. It is about what you are doing on EXHALATION. If you want to see what I suggest singers do for inhalation, please watch my video entitled "Singers, stop overbreathing!!!" On the exhalation, however, things start to get a little different than what you find in yoga or meditation circles. This is an important distinction I've had to make for lots of singers coming from those circles. Singing is an ACTIVE thing, not a passive, "do nothing" process, particularly if you're doing high level singing where you're exploring more of the limits of what your voice can do. In my experiences, the singers who have been taught to let the belly just sit there relaxed DURING A PHRASE (not during inhalation) tend to have issues with pushing, not getting access to their upper range, and not having the voice feel very stable or solid when holding a note. This "let the belly relax" method works fine if you're just mostly singing only in low range and never singing anything above a mezzo piano dynamic. Think like a lot of bossa nova music or people who sing like Norah Jones. That kind of thing. Those people are never singing high or loudly. That's the only place where you can get away with this approach to what you're doing on the exhale. For anything outside of that, it doesn't work. The idea of grounding yourself in your lower torso is VERY important. These muscles become VERY active in high level singing. But you can't just activate them any old kind of way. And this is where singers become very confused. They think, "Oh, I just need to tense my abs like doing a crunch." But that's the wrong way of doing it. That causes tension in the throat. Yes, you're connected to your body, but in the wrong way. That's what inspired this video. It feels like the SOLAR PLEXUS -- the area between the belly button and the bottom of the sternum gets resisted outwards. Not pushed outwards as hard as you can to the point where it becomes rigid. But RESISTED outwards, where it still has some give and pliability to it. Hence the analogy with the balloon. To see this in action, check out my "Sample Skype Singing Lesson - Part 2". Some people make the mistake of letting the lower abs (below the belly button) completely relax and then proceed to FURTHER push them out. That is wrong too. That is different than what I am describing in this video. Also, men and women feel this in slightly different ways due to the anatomy in our bodies. I find women tend to feel this resisting outwards slightly lower than men do. Either way, there are a lot of subtleties and nuances to this, far beyond what can be described in a 10 minute video. (For example, the type of sound you're attempting to make. If you're making a sound that is by its very nature imbalanced, no amount of resisting the solar plexus outwards will fix that.) If you have further questions, feel free to book a lesson, and then we can clarify all the confusion for you. :-)

+Naomi Martinez If you have extra fat around the abdominal region, this can be somewhat harder to feel. You might have to exaggerate the movements a bit more to feel them. So REALLY try to make your abs super tense, as tense as you can, until you feel your throat begin to tighten. Then back off of that and see how the throat loosens. Then do it again, going back and forth between the two extremes until you begin to see that what happens in your abs has an effect on your throat.

Yes, it is OK to expand the epigastrium more. When I sing, I feel the expansion in the front (epigastrium), sides (obliques), and back (near the lowest ribs in the back). It's in all 3 places simultaneously. Just most people can FEEL this most easily when they focus on the front or maybe the sides in the beginning stages. But it's really a 360 degree expansion. The most important thing is to pay attention to how the different ways of breathing affect your throat as you make sound. That's the final determiner of what's right and what's not. The one that feels the most comfortable in the throat is the "right" one.

Please take a look at the two videos in this playlist, and tell me which one you look more similar to when trying to "breathe with your abdominals". kzfaq.info/sun/PLE6sSBqFLoybqt1s8mmEnVnz_WMIDszEe

PURA PARA Hmmm, that sounds odd. Send me a video clip of you singing via a private message. You can leave the video as unlisted and I would be the only one who would see it.

chris leppens Depends on what you mean by "sound worse". You want to go for something that is functional first. In this case, something that doesn't cause the muscles at the top of the neck/top of the larynx to strain. When you initially get used to keep these muscles relaxed, you might lose a little bit of power and lose some vowel intelligibility. It's a process that you work through as you learn how to find power and vowel clarity without the usage of those muscles. (So it's forcing your body to learn a different way of operating.) But's it's really hard to say without hearing you, because in releasing the muscles at the top of the neck, you might also be unintentionally changing a lot of other things too.

Alrighty, thanks!

+Bruno Pires Mucheroni The area below the belly button is where you should feel most of the tension when you're singing. So you're doing well. :-)

+Marnell Sample Thank you Marnell! Yes, but my care is... about the relaxation of this area. I can just maintain this tension aways? during my day for example. Or i need to relax this? It can cause stomach effects or pain? Im having problem when im not singing too, you know? And when im singing, i just stay with this pelvis always tension or i relax in some notes, or some parts of the music. Thank you again, and sorry my english, im from Brazil.

+Bruno Pires Mucheroni The only time that area really relaxes all the way is when you are lying down on your back. The muscles in the lower abs are used to hold your body upright and to help stabilize your spine, so they will be active most of the day. Maybe not active to 100%, but for most of the day, they will be on around 20-30%. In singing, they tend to activate a bit more, but still not to 100%. They only activate to 100% if you're straining to move something very heavy or sprinting intensely. If you feel it causing stomach pain, then you're probably tensing the muscles too much. Otherwise, you are fine.

+Marnell Sample awesome Marnell..thank you bro, it was perfect answer. just to finish the topic when you breath in you relax this Pelvis or you maintain it fixed even breathing?

You still feel this muscle a bit even when breathing in.

It's almost impossible to say what could be causing this without working with you. A one-on-one lesson is the only way to really sort this out. www.vocalliberation.com/singing-lessons

***** Hard to tell without seeing you, but as long as what you're doing is not causing you to strain in your throat, then you're fine. No need to fix something that ain't broke!

Marnell Sample It's interesting how subjective vocal training can be. Some singers open their mouths a lot on high or loud notes in head voice or falsetto; others, like Chris Cornell, hardly open their mouths at all. Some Bel Canto devotees have said that opening the mouth interferes with the flow of the voice- it is vibrations and resonance, after all, not the air that makes the sound- and that as long as you have the inner smile (sensation), your tone will be what you need. Some coaches will tell you to keep your tongue flat- others will say that it needs to be up somewhere in the middle and arched, because a flat tongue will block the throat. This even extends to microphone technique: one voice instructor will tell you to pull the mic back on high notes, and another will say to keep the same distance, because pulling back the mic does make you quieter, but also makes your voice sound thinner. ...All the variables dependent on the musculature and bone structure of my own voice, or simply who I have been talking to, has made me really hard to train. Might be time for an actual teacher, outside of books and the internet. The good news in all of that, though, is that even after shouting at karaoke for the past 13 years, I have no vocal damage after seeing an ENT. Must instinctively be doing something right... But it would be wonderful to be able to belt the high notes needed for 90's grunge. Baritone just doesn't sound right. It makes every intense song sound like a laid-back Johnny Cash or Morrissey.

***** I can understand your frustration. Part of what makes the singing voice tricky to figure out is due to the fact that there IS a variability from person to person, both in terms of bone structure and how you are used to using your body (as a whole) on a neuromuscular level. Combine that with the fact that your mind is a part of the instrument too, and it just creates for an instrument where it's often times hard to create set rules. I just try to provide some of the concepts that tend to apply to most people, although there will always be outliers. Voice is a weird instrument in the sense that it's hard to teach yourself (outside of a very rare person) because there is just so much that you may not realize that you're doing, even if you are exposed to good instructional materials. This can be very frustrating for people, especially those who are used being able to teach themselves anything, and have taught themselves things like piano or guitar. As for baritone not sounding right, have you listened to people like Jeff Scott Soto, Eddie Vedder, and Eric Burdon? They show that baritones can sound great! One thing about the classical singers. I know a lot of classical teachers say not to open the mouth, BUT if you actually pay attention to what the classical singers that sing really well do, you will see they do indeed open the mouth. It's even more prominent on people who have big mouths. So look at people like Nikola Gedda, Piotr Beczala (easy to see on him because he has a big mouth), Salvatore Fisichella, Georges Thill, Giovanni Martinelli, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Giuseppe Filianoti, Ghena Dimitrova, Martina Arroyo, Dolora Zajick, Montserrat Caballe, etc. Most professional opera singers open the mouth long (vertically); it just so happened that the few opera singers who didn't open much are the ones that get popularized as the example of "don't open the mouth too much to keep resonance". There is a time and a place for that instruction when you're learning, but when you get to advanced stages, you have to learn how to open the mouth fully while still maintaining resonance. Also, sometimes people who espouse the idea of not opening too much actually have TMJ issues (but don't know it) and it prevents them from being able to open fully without constricting and losing resonance. Look at Dolora Zajick teaching in this clip. This is precisely what most of the professionals do. It's the same thing I was taught by opera singers (although once again, I emphasize it is a particular way to do this). You can see the student isn't used to opening, and struggles with it. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hJmjoth5ub3VlYU.htmlm7s Anyway, look. It seems that you are at a point where you need some help and clarification of misunderstandings, so why don't you send me over a clip of you singing, and then I can offer a little feedback: www.vocalliberation.com/vocal-assessment

One last thing, before I send the clip over. To reach higher notes, I have to unhinge my jaw to correct my overbite. I've been told this is a bad habit, but a lot of singers don't have overbites. Okay, enough exposition. Sending the link.

Marnell Sample This is a brilliant answer :)

when I laugh, my lower abs engage inwards and stomach automatically goes outwards. so they go opposite ways. Is this the proper way of using breath support?

The lower abs are kind of tricky for people to feel. The way you feel it depends on how you habitually hold tension in your body. Some people feel it more as a pulling in while others feel it more as a pushing out. If you engage the lower abs, they do tuck inwards or pull in. HOWEVER, as you start singing a phrase and the air pressure builds up in your abdominal cavity, the air pressure tries to make them expand outwards. But if you hold this inwards tension in the muscles, it creates a little bit of a tug of war -- a GOOD tug of war. This gives you something to push off of. If you're habitually used to holding the lower abs very tight, then you will relate to the pushing out side of this a bit more. If you're used to being very loose in the lower abs (think beer belly), then you normally relate more to the action of pulling them inwards. Either way, both actions are occurring simultaneously. So that's the lower abs. IF the lower abs behave in this way, then you also feel a similar "tug of war" in the upper abs, where they try to cave inwards, but you resist outwards against that. If I were in a lesson with you, though, I wouldn't talk about this. I would have you find the correct support through SOUND first, and then make you become aware of what the muscles are doing in your abs.

When most people laugh (if it's a FREE laugh and not one they are holding back), then yes, these muscles of support tend to engage correctly.

Marnell Sample cool, I really want to have a lesson with you to see if i am doing it right. but I checked your lesson schedule, its from 11-7 mon through thu. and i work from 10-7 mon through sat. i dont know if this would work though...

I dont know if you can do a lesson start at 7PM, that will be super awesome :)