Okay, we’ve done a very thorough job covering breath intake, now on to the management of that breath!
Giovanni Lamperti (Richard Miller’s teacher’s teacher) says, “The vocal folds are helpless without the power of compressed breath to feed their pulsation. Therefore the lungs should never collapse.”
In Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults, James McKinney says it like this,
“The breath of a singer is the actuator of the vocal instrument. The pressure of the breath against the vocal folds sets them in vibration and phonation ensues.”
As we begin our conversation about breath management, let’s chat about the phrase ‘diaphragmatic support’. Yes, the diaphragm muscle is highly involved in the process of pressurizing and compressing the air. Yes, the diaphragmatic involvement is necessary to achieve proper ‘breath support’. Let’s be clear about this however, the diaphragm is an involuntary muscle, you do not have control of it. It triggers into action as the lungs begin to fill and then, through controlling the muscles involved in the breathing process, we can control the ‘ascent’ and involvement of the diaphragmatic muscle. This is of course safely assuming that the proper ‘descent’ of the diaphragm muscle was achieved during the breath intake.
Step one in ensuring the continued involved of the diaphragm muscle is to keep the rib cage expanded, with a certain amount of buoyancy throughout the phrase. Step two; do not let the ribs collapse! Yes, they are essentially the same concept from opposite ends of the spectrum.
A few thoughts on the above directives…I’m very careful to monitor my singers as we work on this step. Singers tend to take things to the extremes and ‘hold’ the ribs out with muscle locking and tension, versus keeping the ribs out with buoyancy. The quickest way to get your singers to feel the difference is to have them ‘hold’ the ribs out and ‘lock’ their muscles in place so they can feel what NOT to do. Then have them find that rib expansion associated with movement or buoyancy.
My favorite tool for working this is an exercise band you can pick up at WalMart. I’m careful to use the lightest weight band so that the expanded buoyancy is the primary focus. The thicker/heavier the band the more the students will want to engage their ‘lock and hold’ muscles. Using the band helps the singers realize that there doesn’t need to be a total collapse of the ribs and that it IS possible to keep the ribs lifted and buoyant during the sung phrase.
Take this week and work on this step. It’s the most essential aspect of correct breath management. Join me next week as we delve further into the muscles involved in correct breath management.
(original posting: October 14, 2013)
Deborah King says