Proper Breathing 3. Be gentle with your voice and Warm-up before intensive use. When you are going to sing, watch that the students are in a position of minimum tension and maximum flexibility with ears directly over shoulders, shoulders over your hips. Ask them to check that they can still see their shoulders out of their peripheral vision. Be conscious of how you and your students breathe.
Deep breathing is essential for safe, healthy, effective voice production.
When you breathe in, aim to feel as if you take in air as low down in your body as possible without your shoulders having to rise. Allow tummy muscles to relax outwards as you breathe in. Panting like a dog or holding hands on the diaphram to feel it expanding outward while breathing in deeply are two such exercises. After that it's time for a gentle vocal warm-up. Check breathing - relax your tummy muscles outwards as you take a breath in.