Ha Ha Ha

Ha Ha is a great breathing exercise. It is probably the only breathing exercise I do more or less regularly.

As you sing abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles tend to slowly tense up. Eventually you cannot take full deep breaths, and the whole vocal mechanism collapses. In other words, the breath gets locked.

This is where this exercise comes in. What it does is it helps release the diaphragm, and get the breath going again.

I like to do it either before or during my vocal warm up.

There are several different ways to do the Ha Ha Ha exercise.

Panting like a dog

Probably the easiest way to get the breath going is to pant like a dog. Take quick (but relatively full) breaths in and out through the nose or through the mouth.

The sound should be initiated with the diaphragm. For that to happen raise your chest comfortably high. Your chest should not move during the exercise but tummy will probably be going in and out quickly.

Here is a great demonstration of this exercise:

If you breath is locked up you won’t be able to do the exercise. Stop. Relax. Try again. See if you can let go of all the tension and get the pant going. It might help to start slowly and gradually increase the speed.

Make sure not to force it otherwise it will be completely counterproductive.

Laughing

Another way to achieve a similar result it to have a hearty laugh: Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha…

Again, don’t force it and make sure that the sound is initiated by your diaphragm.

Ha on the scale

Another way to get Ha is to sing open Ah vowel on say an octave scale, but starting it with H and a generous amount of air:

1-3-5-8-5-3-1
Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha

Again, the sound should be initiated by the diaphragm, so expect your tommy to come out a bit, but don’t force it out.

Make sure to let diaphragm relax between the notes.

You can start slow and work up the speed on this one.