If you’ve ever taken a breath to sing and felt the air filling up your chest, you might also notice how that causes your throat to tighten, your shoulders to rise toward your ears, and even sometimes your jaw to clenched before the first note even comes out. You are not alone.  This is what most people do when I ask them to take a breath as if they’re getting ready to sing.

You might want to try it right now and see what you notice. It’s not very comfortable, is it?

The Breathing Mistake Almost Every Non-Singer Makes

Here’s what happens for most adults who grew up believing they “can’t sing.” When it’s time to take a breath, they pull the air up into the top of the chest — the high, shallow part of the lungs. It feels natural because it’s how a lot of us breathe when we’re anxious. But it’s exactly the wrong move for singing.

In fact, breathing up high into the chest like this activates our stress hormones, and activates our “flight, flight, or freeze” stress reaction. And this is the last thing we need when we’re about to something that might make us nervous anyway – right?! Of course, right!

When you breathe high, everything above your collarbone tightens. Your throat tightens up a little. Your shoulders go up. Your neck and jaw brace for effort that shouldn’t be there in the first place. And all of that tension works directly against what your voice actually needs: space, flexibility, and freedom to move as the pitch changes.

In other words, the very breath that’s supposed to power your singing ends up sabotaging it before you’ve made a sound.

The Fix: Breathe Low, Not High

Instead of breathing into your upper chest, the goal is to send the breath low — down into the bottom of your lungs. That means letting your belly and the muscles around your ribs stay loose and soft, rather than sucking in or holding tight. (Think “Buddah”, not “fashion model”!)

Here’s the simple version: breathe in low, let your belly release, and feel your ribs expand outward as the air comes in. There’s no trick to it and no special equipment. Try not to over-think it. It’s something your body already knows how to do — it’s just been overridden by years of tension and self-consciousness. You do it in your sleep. Babies breathe this way.

One more piece that trips people up: you don’t need to fill your lungs to the very top. A lot of singers-in-training take a huge in-breath, thinking that more is better, and that overfilling sends everything right back up into the chest and shoulders — the exact tension we’re trying to avoid. Instead, breathe in low until your belly expands a bit and you feel comfortably full. That’s enough. If you notice your chest rising or your shoulders going up, that’s too much.

And a small practical note — breathe through your mouth, not your nose. Your mouth is already open to sing, so it just makes sense to let the air in the same way it’s about to come back out.