Oh, Sharon - that's good. I really like the "your body already knows how to do this" idea. I know that for years I worked waaaaay too hard at breathing, and, as a consequence, built up too much tension. Once I relaxed and trusted my body to breathe for me, my singing became much freer and easier. It made a tremendous difference.
Lee Morgan Mezzo-soprano
-----Original Message----- From: Sharon Szymanski [mailto:szy@n...] Sent: Monday, January 28, 2002 11:30 AM To: vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [vocalist] Re: critical commentary/ breathing exercises
>>>>i would describe normal breathing as the following: when we talk, we begin talking on whatever air is in our lungs. as we talk, we use air, creating a vacuum. when we stop talking and relax, we stop the process that is creating that vacuum and, nature, by virtue of eliminating that vacuum, inhales for us
They practically BEG you to give them "a method" whereby they can simply do Step a b and c and proceed to d when they have perfected the previous and feel they are in control. It is always a relief if you can halt the rot at this point and they can just settle with that and never look back.
Even further to this, there are yet another sub group of these students who will NEVER "get it" and finally go off to another teacher citing "breathing problems" as their nemisis.
After years of inefficient (and nervous) singing I finally figured out how to harness my natural breathing process and use it for singing, though I didn't think of it that way at the time. I now actively teach this to all my students by addressing it quite clearly at the initial lessons. I take the fear and confusion away by telling them -"Your body ALREADY knows how to do this, you just have to train your brain to let you do it when singing rather than something else more complex and inefficient. Then I teach them three easy exercises (including a speech component), along with the hand motions I mentioned in an earlier post, and we actively learn to let the autonomic breathing system of the body adapt to the rhythmic demands of singing. I tell them that as the brain more clearly learns what is needed for the act of singing, it will begin to let the breathing apparatus know how to prepare for the singing task at hand. Most can clearly feel it working at lessons, some almost immediately (a few take longer). I keep working on this until it is learned as good singing can't happen until it does. The result is an incredibly resilient, efficient and trustworthy breathing experience that is with them always. (Note: the less experienced the singer, the easier and faster this is learned, in general).
Sharon Szymanski
The Szymanski Studio - "encouraging excellence in the vocal arts"
|
| |