STOP "supporting" your voice like this (please) It's TRAPPING your voice! 

Learn how proper support airflow management and true power are supposed to FEEL! Join my free course: chrisliepe.com/free-your-voice/

My weekly moment of going "what am I doing wrong this time, Chris?!"

My voice teacher always says to "engage like you're taking a shit", and as simple as that is, it really unlocked support for me after doing it wrong for so long due to misunderstanding the ol' "use your diaphragm" nugget of wisdom. Moreover, it immediately showed me that I need to do core and breathing exercises badly, lmao. But that sudden increase of power and stability is such a revelatory moment when learning the craft.

I kinda want a ghost who was a singer to possess me and just show me what everything is supposed to feel like. They don't have to do the work for me. They could just, "Hey friend, you will feel like this when you're doing it right. Okay peace out," and then I'll try to replicate it

This is exactly like learning the muscle memory of a sports swing like golf, tennis, baseball. you have to practice each individual component of the swing and get your muscle memory down BUT then you have to trust that muscle memory and let it work for itself. You don't think to use muscle memory, that is why it is called memory. It is reactionary. A trained reaction that comes naturally with no thought, leading to a looseness where you dont feel it necessary to analyze your actions in real time. if you get out onto the basketball court and you are thinking to yourself keep your elbow in on your shot, you have already failed. If you are thinking technique while using it, you're getting in your own way in real time.

wait this makes so much more sense....i'm autistic and have difficulty with directions that sound vague so I never fully got the diaphragm thing until now. thank you, this is really helpful!!!

Being confused about how to interpret support in the past, for me it boiled down to 3 things. 1. dont think about stomach movement as you mentioned 2. relax your shoulders while you're learning support; any shoulder movement should be considered non essential to the sound. for the less experienced this often indicates breath that's placed too high. 3. instead of imaging your stomach doing the support, shift this imagination towards your flanks; the lumbar area at around 7 and 5 o clock. just my 3 pillars that helped me understand the process, hope it gives other people some valuable insights as well! when learning it's great to be analytical and self-critical, but its also what makes this hobby so damn difficult. if you're cautious you can learn it all yourself by mastering support, projection and combining those techniques to "just do what sounds good". and suddenly, you realise it isn't all that easy all along; a good teacher will help you progress way faster than you could ever do on your own because they will demistify the self-doubt process.

I notice whenever I play guitar at the same time. Because I’m kinda concentrating on the guitar more. The high notes come so effortlessly.

Two singers I’d love to see you analyze are Frank Sinatra and Ozzy. They both have such a spontaneous “unrehearsed” quality. Thank you so much for sharing your talents 🎉❤

You just changed my whole life, sir. I’ve always had a voice that was sweet, emotive, and “pretty” but NO ONE would EVER describe it as powerful. I certainly wouldn’t and it was probably one of the things I was most self conscious about. Always worried about sounding “thin”. 5 minutes after watching this video I figured it out to the point I could sing a part in a song I’d been struggling with for weeks INSTANTLY. Thank you 🙏 I had a number of teachers show the pushing up through the diaphragm and the in and out breathing. It’s so unnatural and uncomfortable to me but I’d use it anyways. You fixed years of bad training in 6 minutes 🙌

Chris, I swear you got mind reading powers. Here I was pondering this exact same conundrum all week and then suddenly you come to the rescue as always!

This is great Chris. Total pitfall that is easily overlooked.

That's actually a perfect explanation. I figured out how to sing fairly well and powerfully by bearing down, but instead of it being like I'm constipated pushing downwards, it's pushing it upwards and you'll need a lot less air than you think.

Chris gives me hope. I've been learning to sing for almost two years and I still can't actually sing. But one day I will.

This is actually so helpful right now. A lot of other channels focus a lot on moving the stomach in and out in a certain way.

Hey Chris, one thing that made a huge difference for me, core strength. Since I’ve been consistently adding strength to my core, through cardio, conditioning and all around weight training, I have noticed a HUGE improvement to how well I sing. Primarily in consistency and stamina. But I have also noticed more power, control, and range. Thanks for the content

I was really struggling with this today. It was getting me really frustrated. What a timely video.

This is a pitfall ive been guilty of when performing live. Worrying about the should and shouldnts.. paralysis by analysis if you will.. the best performances ive had were when i was more concerned about the message and emotion of the song and felt it by relating the lyrics to own personal experiences. If you dont feel it, your audience wont either

Another awesome lesson Chris! The only way up is down 😸

holy moly after 20 years of amateur singing i finally figured out how what my voice was lacking all the time. tried it and recorded myself. im stunned lol. life changing advice there mate! thanks alot❤

I love that u included Christina. Shes so underated

Yes 🙌 Thank you 🙏 This is sooo helpful. Great examples!

Thanks Chris! Very helpful

Thank you so much Chris

Literally been having this same struggle lately, appreciate the advice!

you are an amazing teacher. so glad i found your channel.

You said it! I hope to have fun with your free course

So perfectly explained! Yes!!

Good stuff Chris, great advice and examples!!

This was a very informative video. My issue is usually that I have too much power lol if there is such a thing. It's my upper and mid register that I struggle with, but this was a good example of breathing and support! Thank you!!

As someone who started singing lessons somewhat recently at the age of 43, this was an important video to watch. THANK YOU.

Killer video and super helpful as always!

Youre the best, Chris! I really appreciate you bringing up remedies for "paralysis by analysis". Thanks as always, boss ♥

Thank you for all you do

Super informative Chris. I’ve been into screaming growling belting for a while and I tend to overthink it sometimes. This helps a lot from a new perspective. 😎👍🏻

Great input as always👍

There's also a school of thought regarding expansion of the rib cage. I see none of that either. I can't estimate how many times I've watched live Queen videos and watched what Freddie's body was doing while he was singing. You can see him exerting effort but more in a "dancer" sense than in, say, a "wrestler" sense. (For lack of a better way to try and explain how I try to understand what he was doing.)

I thought it was super interesting to see clips of singers you watch!

Learning fry screams/distortion has helped me significantly in learning to support through the diaphragm and is making the movement you specified like muscle memory. It’s what I look for when I’m watching practice videos back. How am I breathing and supporting? Did that give me a better tone? Great succinct video!

Christina was miming like most of the dancing singers do.

Thank you. This feels like a game changer...

I love this.

Chris please make a vocal analysis video of Chris Cornell's "As hope and promise fade" live performances, love your content btw

I have been struggling and overthinking this concept for a long time. This makes a lot of sense! Although in your foundations videos, you describe support coming from basically flexing your lower abdomin.. closer down to basically the 'poop muscles' (pc muscles perhaps?) I still don't fully understand. Especially when people say "more support for higher notes" or for distortions and such..

Mostly people don't notice that the issue they have is around the valve and anything to do with the vocal setting and not often the breathing mechanism. Best thing is to just warm up the breathing a it with a bit of walk and maybe little sovts and get over it... warm up your voice. A jog or walk for sometimes help open up. Just one thing Chris. This bearing down sensation isn't a very good idea for pop and some of the generic easy singing (compared to hard rock)... the bearing down can affect the agility.... there is loads more. ❤ ❤❤

This is definitely on point. All I get is how breathing right is the key to singing/screaming, when I can sing, scream, and growl extremely loud and can go for around 15 to 20 seconds. I just have issues going to high pitches and doing high fry screams, my voice just doesn't seem to want to go to the higher pitches no matter what I try and how often I practice even though I find the low fry voice an easy thing to do.

I think the main reason why breathing techniques get highlighted is because a LOT of people make the mistake of over-breathing. Aka taking in more frequent breaths creating cut offs that are easily heard which creates a short-winded sound. Usually you get the "smoker" reference where it sounds like the singer might be a smoker because of how out of breath they sound. Breathing techniques are there to practice so eventually you won't have to think about it while you perform which includes the main problem you're talking about: tension. If you drop those techniques n do what you're comfortable with it isn't always as clean or clear as it should sound for your best potential. A good example are musicians that use air. They utilize those breathing techniques because it helps the breath last for particularly long measures that call for minimal breaths. The game really changes when you throw in marching, which then takes a lot more air thus your breathing becomes significantly more evident if you don't use breathing techniques to keep moving and playing while sustaining a good sound that everyone can hear. They can move around with a good sound without being overly tense, but their overall self is supported thanks to those techniques. Those techniques with the stomach have proven to help so disregarding them can be dismissive. Just like with any technique there to help it still takes practice, but you can't get that if you dismiss the reasonings of why they are there to be taught. Like breathing in through the mouth/nose. That can be dependent on if you're without a mic, singing with a fixed mic, or if you can use a hand mic to help create dynamics with minimal to no breath sounds because you're using the movements to dampen or amplify your sound. Knowing those difference is a game changer, but if someone becomes accustom to one and ignorant of the others then if they change it up (say going from no mic to a hand mic they keep by their mouth the whole time) it can be noticeable due to their lack of knowledge/technique. You can also note that all these singers, except Christina she's probably lip syncing, are tensing their abs and using their diaphram to push out air, and some of the shots aren't clear/don't really show the whole body so it becomes assumptive. At times you aren't really going to see it because their stomach area itself is tense, but that doesn't mean the diaphragm isn't doing the work to push out as much air as they can to get the longest notes out. Something to note about seasonal performers, too, is they can make anything look easy because their performance is second nature so they're not thinking at that point they are doing, but that still came with the practice before becoming big enough for the big concerts they're all performing at with each example provided. You can still move around freely with a supported core. Yes don't overthink, but also don't dismiss techniques that actually do help in the longrun for better improvements. Especially when moving around comes into play because it does require more air no matter what you may try to do. You also aren't going to get as noticable a difference with higher notes compared to lower notes which will usually need more air, and I think most of these performers are using higher tones. It'd be good to compare singers of different ranges to see how they utilize the breath for different types of tones. I notice if I'm doing longer, lower notes, I need more air compared to the higher ones that are sustained longer for less. Also, the more I practice and become used to a technique the less I think about it, the more natural it becomes, and the easier it looks yet that doesn't mean what is happening is necessarily easy. Air is the building foundation of doing anything we do no matter what it is. You don't want to overstress the techniques, but the act itself cannot be stressed enough on why and how important that is. Edit: sorry to keep editing/adding, but it also occured to me that if I'm doing particularly difficult songs that requires more breath and less pauses if I become too lax I also become more fatigued and lose more air over time which reverts back to over breathing/out of breath sounds. If I sustain the technique throughout the whole song I'm able to pull it off without a hitch, but once that technique is lost it's like a runner who stopped focusing on their air at the last quarter of the race. Your body automatically takes over and tries to compensate for what it needs vs your control that was originally there to help sustain it and power through without incidentally taking in breaths/pauses when those become disrupting to the process. Therefore, interfering with performance. Left field example, but Wim Hoff breathing technique for holding breath is a great one as he explains the process helps oxygen spread throughout the body while the outward exhalation expells carbon (the molocule that causes you to breathe in). The less carbon you have the less likely you are to breathe, but you aren't going to be able to sustain holding your breath without the technique and discipline to train your body to not naturally do what it normally does. Expert divers have been known to use this or similar methods, but it shows how important breathwork is as they too make what they do look easy without it ever being easy lol

Hey Chris, you're looking good. Do you mind sharing your workout routine?

Great content, as always! I think you might also want to look into/analyze P!nk's performances, she's not only dancing, but performing advanced gymnastics when singing.

Dude, I struggled so much with this and fucked up my voice just cuz the teacher I had was one of those with the "push out your belly", "compress your belly" I used to sing so freely before that, now even speak tired my voice 😒

I'm of the school of thought that the most important thing is learning how to take a free, well-coordinated breath and learning how to achieve optimal fold closure/adduction/resistance to the air flow. Once you've figured that out, the issue of "support" mostly takes care of itself and becomes mainly a question of breath management, figuring out the optimal places to take your breaths.

I don't think about my vocal support at all. But it looks like I need to think about these things when I try to scream.

Gotta start dancing while singing 🤔🤘

Sometimes pushing too much air, breaks my vocal chords and it takes a lot of concentration to be able to push the necessary amount of air to hit certain high notes without overdoing it. Obviously if you’re moving around a lot, using a lot of air, jumping up and down, etc.. (like i do) it makes it a lot harder. I like this concept of focusing down and trying to forget about breathing. In general I feel when you’re overthinking you’re doing something wrong, and when you’re not thinking at all and just being present in the moment then you’re doing something right.

About the last example (Christina), I feel like a lot of dancing pop performances are often lip-synced in live... I'm just wandering, do you think it could be the case here?

I feel like that chapter of MHA where we the audience were like "this guy is so dumb, he's overcomplicating it, the answer is so obvious". Well, guess what, it wasn't

I’m a bass so I’m warmed up when I wake up lol

If You're looking for a sign that this man knows vocals and You still can't tell after watching his videos, this is it. I've been singing for 17 years (Seriously warming up/practicing/recording vocals for 3 years) and I continue to learn new things from this mans videos. I recently experienced the "baring down" sensation that He is talking about in this video and I'm still learning to relax into it. Keep practicing y'all, the world needs more voices 🎵🎧☮

New electric call boy 🤯

Could you have conversations recorded with some talented and well known vocal coaches?

Chris, two questions: In your opinion, is it good for a singer to get a lot of sleep? And I read that screaming and whistling are related in technique, and whoever knows one, it’s easy for him to master the second, is that true?

Chris. I don’t know how you do recommendations but I would love for you to recruit the song Beyond the Pale by the band Pain of Salvation.

Even if someone is expert in breathing tech. But he lacks staminA, its useles!

Love your content Chris! When I stand my stomach barely expands and it feels like I fill up in my stomach and then the air goes upwards to my chest is that normal? I otherwise feel like I don't get full breath and even get pins and needles and feel uncomfortable.

After so much time dabbling, I honestly question if support is a one size fits all kind of thing. Some great sounding singers focus on the pelvic floor. Other great singers have a 'belly in' on the inhale 'belly out' on the exhale approach. The latter has worked comfortably for me. I feel like the goal is off setting tension with some form of contrary motion, if that makes sense.

Good ❤❤

The higher and more power I go for I end up feeling my obliques and muscles directly under my rib cage engage but if I need to reach more I'll clamp down on this sensation. Sometimes afterwards I'm usually proud and excited that I accomplished stuff I couldn't before but the consequences are those muscles can ache for days preventing me from singing for awhile. I guess that means I'm going to hard with support? Also this is usually in a sitting position

I tried a vocal program once. The first lesson was proper breathing. Nothing in it felt natural, it was confusing and as a result I didn't make it to lesson two. I appreciate how you break things down in such practical and encouraging ways. Thanks again, Chris and keep up the excellent work!

I always think about you and Will talking about pushing a poop out. Helps when I'm thinking too hard about EVERY breathing muscle. Could there be any good reason for thinking about the expansion of floating ribs, and the way your accessory abdominals activate? Like your obliques and serratus

You gotta analyze elvis presley man. Would be so interesting what you can say about his technique and the change of it over the years.

I like the way Melissa Cross put it as in "engaging your poop muscles" or as in "you're giving birth" for the ladies. Yup. Pretty much.

Boxer’s breathing technique…..abs relatively stationary but ridged creating constraints for the diaphragm pump

I realy apprechiate this lesson, but i still waned to ask you exactly what do you mean when you say "bearnig down"? More specificly, how do i think about it & how do i do it? Thank you for helping with my confusion

Can you look into gackt?

Would be supercool if you could analyze Jack Underkofler, the singer of Dead Poet Society. For example the songs ".intoodeep." or ".loveyoulikethat." . That would be super awesome. Mainly his high belts I find super crazy.

Yes we really admire Christina's ' looseness' 🙈

I’m the singer for a band called Shallow Signals! (Check us out on whatever streaming platform you prefer if you get a chance 🤓) I’ve been singing for what feels like forever..(I’m about to turn 30 next week) I love your content, brother! Never had a singing lesson a day in my life. You have helped me put the building blocks in place to sing more comfortably over the years! I always look forward to your videos popping up on my phone. Thank you for putting out enthusiastic and sincere content! 🙏 Your passion for singing is obvious and refreshing! 🔥

Jo Chris, first of all thanks vor ur videos I enjoy them a lot. Butt 😅 what's about Jacob collier, I don't think u miss this amazing talent, but if so.. Check him out he's a legend. Listen to the song little blue but not the original video, the mahagony one 😋 hope everything was understandable cause I'm a German having a hard time getting the right words together 😅❤️

OK, I must be completely stupid, but I have heard many times that I should be thinking down, or pushing down or bearing down to support my breath properly. But what the hell does that mean? What exactly should I be pushing down? Should I contract my lower abs? should I try to push the ground with my feet? Or is it something else? Sorry, but thinking down or bearing down just makes no sense for me (btw, I am not a native english speaker so please bear with me if the problem comes from this).

🤘🏿💯

4:06 Get down lol

I assume im a potato. i have no idea what you mean by 'down'. the physicality of what you mean. :(

'Think down, bear down' I was worried this was going to be vague. I have zero relatable information on how to bear down and think down, is it just me? or did I miss a basic video about what down is. I really want to know.

these singers have high voices. Us lower voc singers need all the support we can muster to get up there. lol

Dead on. Singing is just talking with more finesse. Humans have a hundred thousand years of evolution to teach them how to talk, singing is just adding that final finesse, and while it takes a lot of practice to do it right, it is by no means reinventing the wheel. Just push that air out those meat flaps and you'll get it eventually.

flared chest is bad

Hey Chris did you get my email?????🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔☹️

Comment for da algorithm Streak count: 379

Chris Cornell, in my amateurish opinion, hardly strained himself, at least less than other examples