Jul 17

Jul 17 Buteyko Breathing for Singers: Why It Changed My Voice- and My Coaching

I first came across the Buteyko Breathing Method after reading Breathe by James Nestor. At the time, I didn’t think I had a “breathing problem.” I was a professional singer, a vocal coach, someone who did breathing exercises daily. If anything, I assumed I already had good breath control.

It wasn’t until I began myofunctional therapy as part of my tongue-tie treatment that I actually tried Buteyko for myself — and the changes were far more profound than I expected.

Personal Benefits I Noticed Straight Away

These are things I’ll dive into more fully in another blog, but in short, Buteyko helped me:

improve vocal fold closure
reduce performance anxiety
activate my abdominal support more effectively
take in quieter, more efficient inhales
hold notes for longer with far less effort
feel grounded and connected to my voice in a new way

As a singer who has spent years studying technique, this was a turning point. And it’s one of the reasons I now integrate Buteyko Breathing into the vocal coaching I offer.

Why Buteyko Matters for Singers

The Missing Health Link

Many adult singers I work with have health backgrounds that directly shape their singing — asthma, allergies, anxiety, sleep issues, chronic tension, and (very commonly) tongue tie.

Before Buteyko, I understood these things affected the voice, but I didn’t have a clear framework for how or why.

Buteyko changed that. It gave me language, structure, and actual measurements that explain what I was hearing in the voice but couldn’t quantify.

Breathing You Can Actually Measure

Singing is nuanced. Breath work is even more nuanced.

One of my long-standing frustrations as a coach was not having concrete ways to evaluate a singer’s breathing habits. Buteyko offers just that:

clear assessments
repeatable measures
visible progress markers

It means singers who love structure finally have something measurable to work with, and singers who feel overwhelmed by breath work suddenly understand what’s actually happening in their bodies.

Finally Making Sense of “Breathing for Singing”

Like most coaches, I’ve read countless books and taken endless trainings on breathing. And yet something always felt missing.

Buteyko filled the gap for me.

It helped me understand why certain singers don’t respond to certain breathing exercises, why some feel constantly out of breath, and why others get stuck in over-efforting patterns that no amount of “support training” seems to fix.

The method helped me see:

the link between everyday breathing habits and singing
why chronic mouth breathing makes singers feel breathless
how tongue posture shapes airflow
how the body’s chemistry influences biomechanics (not the other way around)

Which brings me to one of the biggest shifts…

It’s Not Just Biomechanics

Traditional training often focuses heavily on how the body should move — rib expansion, engagement of the abdominal muscles, posture, breath flow.

But what if the body can’t move like that yet?

That’s what I was seeing. Many singers’ bodies don’t match the “ideal models” in textbooks. Not because they’re doing anything wrong, but because their baseline breathing patterns are stressed, shallow, or dysfunctional.

No one-hour lesson per week can override that.

Buteyko gave me the missing layer: biochemistry.

Once a singer learns to breathe differently in daily life, the biomechanics we want in singing finally become possible — naturally, gently, without force.

Supporting the Human Behind the Voice

My aim as a vocal coach has always been to help singers who don’t fit the conventional mould- those with complex health journeys, years of tension, confusing vocal patterns, or long-standing performance anxiety.

Adding Buteyko to my practice deepened that work in ways I didn’t expect.

It’s not just about singing more efficiently. It’s about:

calming the nervous system
reducing anxiety around breathing
creating safety in the body
restoring trust in the voice

And when those things shift, the singing follows.

A Growing Part of My Practice

It’s still early days, but incorporating the Buteyko Breathing Method into my coaching has already been transformative- for me, and for the singers I work with.

This work helps singers feel:

calmer
clearer
more grounded
more in control of their breathing and their voice

And it’s bringing together everything I care about: vocal technique, vocal health, the person centred approach, and evidence-based breath work.

If you’d like to explore this work in more detail, you can also read my dedicated page on Buteyko Breathing for Singers, where I break down how the method supports vocal technique, vocal health, and performance confidence. here.