We’ve all heard it: “You just need more breath support.” But what if that common advice is actually doing more harm than good?
In this episode of Vocal Tips in 10 with Amber Mogg Cathey, we’re diving into the real role of breath in singing—and how many singers are unintentionally creating tension and limiting their sound by trying too hard. Breath support doesn’t mean pushing more air. In fact, overbreathing is one of the most common vocal issues I see in singers of all levels.
If you’ve been told to “take a deeper breath” but still feel like your sound is strained or unstable, this episode is for you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
⏱️ Episode Breakdown
00:00 – Introduction to Breath for Singing
01:06 – Understanding Breath Support and Overbreathing
05:13 – Techniques for Effective Breathing
09:52 – Conclusion and Resources for Singers
Tune in wherever you get your podcasts or watch the episode on YouTube:
▶️ Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
🎁 Free Vocal Training – Using Movement to Sing Easier + Sound Better
🎤 Try 2 Weeks of Vocal Pro Membership – Free
Episode Transcript
Hello everybody, welcome to vocal tips in 10. Today I want to talk about breath, breathing for singing. And I feel like I need to pause and look around because it's such a hot topic, right? A fiery topic for so many people. I feel like there's a lot of strong opinions out there and there's a lot of misinformation.
And the reason that I wanted to speak about this today is I did a video on Instagram about a week ago. If you aren't following me there, I hope you will. I'll put the link down below in the show notes. But I did a video about the fact that you cannot sing from your diaphragm because our vocal folds are not housed down there. And how confusing that is for so many singers and how I realize that that cue is given to singers very well intended, of course.
but it really can be detrimental for a lot of singers. It causes a lot of tension, it causes a lot of worry.
and I had somebody respond that said, okay, then how do you recommend that we get good breath support for singing? So I thought, let me jump in and do an episode about this because it needs to be longer than a 30 second video.
So the first thing I want to say
is that I see in my work with singers over multiple decades, far more singers that overtank, over breathe, put too much pressure underneath the vocal folds than I do singers that don't utilize enough breath. Of course, those singers exist too, but they are a such smaller percentage than the singers that are way over breathing. I think one of the reasons for that is
I work with singers that are singing pop music and rock and folk and musical theater and soul and R &B. And they go for these powerful belty sounds. And when they haven't had a lot of training or understanding of how to make those, they think shove a bunch of breath underneath those vocal folds and force the sound. That's actually the opposite of what we need. Those big powerful sounds and those big beltier sounds that so many singers are going for in different aspects of their songs.
need way less breath than you would think. When we put too much breath underneath the vocal folds, what happens? They have to squeeze together, constrict to not get blown apart. So either we get this overly pressed sound, which guess what? You're really impacting your range, you're impacting your tone, you're impacting ease. It's not a great situation. Or they blow apart and you get the break.
and the other reason I feel like so many singers overblow, over breathe, use more than they need is that so many things get thrown under the breath bus for singers, right? When somebody is well-intended,
They can hear that something is off so many times. Singers just get the feedback, yeah, it's your breath. You really need to work on that breath support. I can't tell you how many singers have come to me and said, I'm a really bad breather, Amber. You know, they kind of hang their head in shame. And the first thing I say is, well, you're here today. I don't see, you know, supplemental oxygen with you. So I'm gonna guess you're okay. And again, of course, when I'm talking about this for people that have a genuine respiratory issue,
This is a different scenario. So I'm talking about singers who do not have a baseline respiratory problem, who are healthy, who don't struggle day to day breathing to speak and do their basic functions. My belief is that they have what they need support wise, quote unquote, to sing, to be successful. Probably more where the struggle is, is the management of the breath. And what I see happen so frequently is tension comes into the mix either because they have been told sing from your diaphragm.
which we can't do, or even you really need to breathe from your diaphragm. Don't get me wrong, the diaphragm is the biggest muscle used in respiration. But the diaphragm is only active upon inhalation. When we are exhaling, It's just kind of following what happens to the abdominal muscles and the intercostals. It's coming back to its resting position. And we sing on an exhalation.
And also, many times we can't feel the diaphragm. So what singers do is really overly engage their abdominals and then they think, yeah, and I need a lot of pressure for that belt. So they're also squeezing under the vocal folds. It's just a lot of squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
And then the other place that I see a lot of tension is in the vocal tract and it's the tongue. The tongue curls back and cuts off access to the vocal tract. So vocal tract is a tube, starts above the vocal folds and ends at your mouth. And when we go to sing certain things and we don't have that technique that is ideal to get us where we want to go, many times the tongue can over engage and the back of the tongue, the root has a tendency to pull back.
When it pulls back, it literally cuts off part of that vocal tract. So what happens is singers feel like they are out of breath all the time. I find the combination when a singer comes to me and says, I'm a really bad breather, and then they almost always say, I fatigue really quickly. It feels tight in my throat. I can't sing as high as I would like with power. It kind of feels like I'm being choked. All of those things say to me, there is a likely tension and very likely that tongue is curled right back.
cutting off access to the vocal tract. And many times, they have more breath than they need in that vocal tract. That's part of the problem. Loads of breath pressure underneath the vocal folds, the tongue pulled back, cutting off access, and then their abdominals just squeeze like crazy. So then the question is, okay, Amber, well then what do you recommend?
So a few different things. One cue that I love for singers to kind of feel where that natural breath happens is to put your hands where your ribs are the widest. Blow the air out.
and then just smell a flower.
Do you feel that amazing 360 expansion? It fills my nerdy brain with such delight. It's so easy and it feels so good, right? Let's do it one more time. Blow the air out.
and just smell a flower.
Right? So much of the time, I'm not a big recommender of nasal breathing when you're singing, though if nasal breathing works for you, do it to it. if something works for you, that's what you should do. I personally prefer when I work with singers breathing through the mouth because I feel like we're already setting up the vocal tract for the shaping and the success that we want, but whatever works for you. So then I think about how toddlers smell things.
If you guys have ever been around a little kiddo and they are first learning how to purposely smell and you say, go smell that flower. They almost always go, They use their little mouths. It's so sweet. But I think of a toddler. I blow the air out and I'm going to smell a flower but with my mouth like a little kid who doesn't know any better. The other cue I love, which gives you that same similar feel, is surprise.
So think about, you turn the corner and there I am. Hi, I'm recording this from your house. That actually sounds creepy, so make it a less creepy surprise. But whenever you're surprised, blow the air out and surprise. It is like a millisecond and you get that great 360 expansion. The ribs come up and out, the diaphragm drops and our lungs fill up with air. We don't have to suck in the air and create all this pressure.
Our body knows what to do. So then the question becomes, okay, well I know where that breathing needs to happen. It feels more natural. I'm not engaging a lot of tension. How do I learn to really manage it effectively? So we wanna think about things like what's happening with your tongue when you're going for that big belting note? If you're feeling like you're getting some choking happening in the throat, then I'd like to look at the tongue, the neck muscles, right? Where we could be gripping.
And then a breath exercise that I love, you either can use a metronome, which I do a lot of times, you don't have to. I'm not gonna use a metronome here so you can practice without one, but a metronome just gives you that clear beat, I like to set it if you're gonna use a metronome, let's say 65 beats per minute, maybe 70 beats per minute, put it where it feels good for you. The ultimate goal is to have it at 60 beats per minute. You're gonna blow the air out of your lungs, then you're going to sip in for 10 beats, or without a metronome,
I'm just trying to count level to 10. So think about that. can't do a big, That's not the kind of breathing we want to do for singing. All that does is load up monster amounts of pressure right underneath the vocal folds, right? We create the space and the lungs will fill up. And then we have not so much pressure right underneath the vocal folds. And we can choose how to utilize all of that lovely fuel that is in our lungs.
So how you're going to inhale for 10 is you're just gonna do a thin sip in. I like to think of like a thin stream of air, a thin little stream of water that's gonna last me for 10, or a spaghetti noodle, a really skinny one.
So you can feel that happen. Your lungs fill up, kind of like a pair of balloons, right? We're gonna do that for 10 beats. And then I always tell my singers, think about poking a hole in that balloon so the air is not just gonna escape out. It's gonna slowly come out on an exhale for 20 beats. I start the exhale just on an S, a hiss, so it's not phonated. So inhale for 10, like you're sipping in through a spaghetti noodle.
then exhale on an S for 20.
Then to get even more of that management piece, we're gonna switch it to blowing the air out, sipping in for 10, and exhaling for 20, but going back and forth between an S and a Z. The only difference between S and Z
S is unpitched, Z is pitched. We phonate on a Z.
so here's my beat. I'm going to sip in S and Z.
That's the exercise. I love it. It's a great way to just feel the natural inhalation and exhalation process, but also in a controlled way because that's what we're doing as singers. It's natural breathing. We just have to know how to manage it to get the results that we're going for.
I feel like with so many things, we have a tendency to over complicate what we need to do. And breath is one of those things.
but tapping into your normal inhalation and exhalation without overworking, without lots of squeezing and pushing. Man, it's gonna make you feel better and it's gonna make you sound better and those are the two things we are always going for.
If you want to work together, I have a completely free movement training right now. I believe movement is one of the absolute best tools for us as singers. This training gives you 25 specific movements to help you with better warmups, better technique, better performances, better cool downs, everything to make your singing feel and sound its best. You also can try two weeks of my Vocal Pro membership for.
absolutely free. And if you want to try a one-on-one lesson, you can book a free consultation with me or my fab associate coach, Eva. I will put all those links in the notes below and I look forward to seeing you guys in the next episode. Happy singing.
