How can I improve the sound of my singing voice?!

How can I improve the sound of my singing voice?

My voice is getting worse and worse! I used to be a decent singer in musicals and such, but now, I find that I strain to even get a decent sound. Are there home exercises I can do to strengthen my diaphram? Any tips, exercises, etc would be great!

I think you have to find where the central part of the problem lies. I will begin by saying that your voice is your voice.... that is the one thing you can't change about your singing. If you are straining to get a sound, then there may be vocal problems or manipulation present, in which case you need to consult an ENT or a good voice teacher.

You also have to deal with your idea of a "decent sound." Is this sound the one you hear when you listen to yourself while singing, or is this a sound others hear or you hear in a recording of yourself? We all hate to listen to recordings of ourselves because the outside sound is not what the inside sound (in our heads) will be.

Voice teacher vs. vocal coach: if people are having problems singing, they need someone who is a teacher; a person who will have them change things physically in order to obtain a better sound. A coach also deals with sound, but in a different way. They usually tell you the sound they want or that a particular phrase needs, and it's up to you to decide how to do that, which isn't the best way in my opinion.

Singing is based on breathing. Find for yourself a calm, low, full, relaxed breath and then a lot of the work is done for you. This in turn makes the diaphragm work. The diaphragm is an involuntary muscle. The only thing you can control is the amount of breath that comes out at any given time, which should be relatively little, generally speaking.

About "strengthening" the diaphragm: Imagine you were going to pick up a 5 pound weight having never worked out a day in your life. You could, of course still do it, but no matter how much you work out, you will still be able to lift that five pound weight. This is all to say that strengthening comes from doing something correctly. If you take a good, expansive breath, your diaphragm has to activate fully... it doesn't have a choice. The major problem with this muscle is that we are not able to feel it directly as it has no major nerve endings.

When people say to breath "from the diaphragm" that is an image. You can't really breathe from your diaphragm. If you look at a cross-section of a human body (left to right, not front to back) you will see that the lungs are mainly housed in the back part of the body, which is why I don't advocate "belly breathing" as it doesn't get enough breath into the body to activate the diaphragm. Of course, the organs in the abdominal region displace, but the primary expansion happens first in the back.