Control Your Breath To Control Your Voice

Singing focuses on breath, rhythm, tune and phrasing. With voice training, you can develop your range, clarity, strength and flexibility of voice, using vocal exercises.

Learning to control your breath helps you to control your voice. Using POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) as a component of your vocal exercises will help you make full use of your lungs, and how you inhale affects how well you exhale.

Good posture, strong abdominal muscles and strong breathing muscles are also required so that you have the force to propel your voice when you need to deliver clear articulation or volume. Strong breathing muscles are also essential in controlling your breath when you need to be quieter.

You need breathing stamina too for helping you achieve higher notes and slow phrases. The aim of breathing exercises for breath control is to inhale as much as possible, as quickly as possible, so that you can then release that air, your breath, in a controlled manner as you sing.

Train Your Breathing Muscles To Improve Singing

For excellence in singing, you must be able to regulate breathing pressure and airflow, going beyond basic respiratory demands. This is because singing requires a wide range of lung volumes and therefore increased respiratory muscle activity to control the resulting lung pressures.
 
A 2025 study shows that adding a POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Warm-Up (IWU) into a typical vocal and physical warm-up can significantly enhance singing ability. Using the POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) device for their inspiratory warm-up, the simple POWERbreathe training protocol led to noticeable improvements in vocal performance, including holding high and low notes for longer, singing at higher pitches, and sustaining sounds for extended periods, all while reducing the effort required. By strengthening the breathing muscles, the POWERbreathe IWU helps singers achieve greater range, control, and endurance, making it a valuable addition to any vocal warm-up, especially for those with weaker respiratory muscles.

Another study found that performance of the highest and lowest pitch sounds within a vocal register in a single breath and phonation times can be improved breathing muscle training.

Vocal Warm-Up For Singing

Just as you would perform a warm-up prior to exercise, so it is equally important to perform a vocal warm-up prior to singing.

The Flow-Ball Ultra is a breathing exercise device designed to help you control and release a focused, steady breath. Soprano Kari Ragan, is an author, singer, and voice pedagogue. She uses the original Flowball by POWERbreathe for Respiration Coordination Exercises. In fact, Dr Ragan uses the Flowball for Voiceless Staccato, Voiceless Messa di Voce and Voiced “Flownation”.

Flow Phonation, using the original Flow-Ball by POWERbreathe, is also discussed here by UNED VoiceLab.

photo of a red and black flow-ball ultra breath control device

Suitable Products to Help You Become a Better Singer