What does it mean to breathe deeply?

What does it mean to breathe deeply? I love teaching singers how to breathe. It’s the first thing I teach, which makes sense because it’s the first thing we do when we are born. We need air to talk, sing, whisper, laugh, cry and live. It brings me joy to watch a student breathe naturally while singing. Most of the time, breathing is something we don't think about. Our bodies do it instinctively and easily without thought. When studying how to breath, we are forced to think about what is happening inside our bodies and why. This can then bring confusion especially because we cannot see inside our wondrous bodies as it works for us 24/7 without fail.

I used to think breathing deeply meant filling my lungs completely full so I could sing through long phrases. Well, I was wrong. Just because you fill your upper lungs does not mean you are getting more air. Breathing deeply means breathing low into the bottom of your lungs and then filling upward, but not filling your lungs all the way to the top. In fact I’ve learned that the higher I brought the air into my lungs, the less air I would have. It’s so counter-intuitive!

How can we learn to breathe naturally when singing? Observe yourself when you are breathing while sitting, talking, when waking up from sleep. We usually do not fill our lungs to the top, so we shouldn’t do that when we sing. Relax your lower abdominals and let the air in as we do every day in our normal relaxed state. Feel like your lower belly is filling with air. A low breath is a deep breath.