Conference Morsel: Understanding Breath

(An excerpt from the interest session “The Bel-Canto Choral Transformation: Creating the Beautiful Balanced, Blended Ensemble Singing You’re Always Dreamed Of,” presented by Laurier Fagnan during the 2015 ACDA National Conference.)

 

       We must understand that when we sing, there is an ongoing struggle in our body between two opposing forces: the breath – which has replenished our bodies with oxygen and is attempting to leave the body, between the vocal folds, to rid itself of the carbon dioxide it has collected, and the voice, which is simultaneously attempting to lean into the body (appoggiare la voce) and exploit all of its resonance potential. This creates two opposing forces in two opposite directions, a struggle which the voice must win if true artistic singing is to occur.

       We do not need to supply much breath to the voice if it is to be powered in the proper manner. At the end of a proper inhalation, there is already enough air at the larynx to begin a beautiful sound and we need not send an assaulting force of breath into the folds to power them. Vocal power in artistic voice production comes from the acoustic-physiological pillars of concentrated core vibration and complete, bright-dark (chiaroscuro) balanced resonance. One of the singer’s main objectives in vocal training is to teach the body to intuitively apportion the right amount of breath, and not a molecule more, to feed and sustain this combination of focused vibration and complete resonance. There is somewhat of a love-hate relationship between the voice and the breath. As mentioned above, we absolutely need breath to set the vocal folds into vibration – they will not vibrate without it, but neither will they work efficiently with superfluous, unfocused breath flowing through them or an abundance of air pressure exerted against them while they are trying to vibrate.

 

(Make plans now to attend your 2016 ACDA Divisional Conference!)