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From:  "lestaylor2003 <LesTaylor@a...
Date:  Wed Feb 26, 2003  1:58 pm
Subject: 

Dear Deborah et al,
The term "support" is generally passe' and has been supplanted
by "breath management" (which I think is a better term). I tend to
not talk about it much anymore. I show them what to do and they do
it. I find that if a student can find a way to do a sustained,
unvoiced lip trill, say 15 seconds or so, they are already well on
the road to good breath management without my having to explain. If
they can demonstrate a voiced lip trill, without strain or discomfort
throughout their range, bottom to top, and they can demonstrate a
mastery of a balanced onset they are aware of what needs to be done.

You can't control what you can't perceive. Peception comes first,
then the labels and the "whys" follow later. Posture is critical.
The singer's entire body must be in balance, energized, flexible and
ready for action.
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Deborah: There seems to be two schools of thought here, one being
that support includes a full lung of air supposed downward pressure
and expansion of the lungs. The other is a full lung of air and
expansion of lungs with a contraction of muscels in the region of
lower abs. I think they are called transverse obliques and one other
group of muscles that I just forget the name of at present.
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Sometimes I think there are as many schools of though about breathing
for singing as there are voice teachers. It's hard to write about
things that we do and teach others to do because doing something and
writing about it are often two completely different things! There is
so much that doesn't get on the page.

Opinion: I don't put much stock in obsessing over what muscles are
doing. We can't control them directly anyway, so why bother? So, to
my thinking, the best way to approach singing is to learn what to do
to sing better in an organized way that makes sense to us. Control
what we CAN perceive rather than speculate about things we couldn't
possibly ever perceive. We need to know how things work, but in a
practical, real-world way. AND more importantly, we need to know what
works -* For Us *- and therein lies great peril. We can't merely go
on feelings because feelings aren't consistent between one human
being and another. We can't go on descriptions of organs and muscles
that we can't see working and that we can't control directly. We can
only "try something" and see what the results are. If we're really
smart, we'll document and organize the results to see how
consistently they work. We can verify the results using the senses
available to us to percieve how things work -* For Us*- and make the
necessary adjustments to do better. The teacher, if he or she is a
good one, won't try to impose their pre-consceived biases on the
student. Their job is to help them achieve their goals and to whow
them what their options are. All the choices belong to the student.

I find that asking students to take "sips of breath" works well for
most singers. If they take too much air in, they have to strain to
keep it there and too much tension results.

As far as larynges are concerned, forget they're there. The larynx
position is the result of what you do when you sing, not the thing
you position to sing. Stand up straight and balanced with a balanced
head and you're pretty much ready to go.
Regards,
Les





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22874 Re: (unknown)Deborah Spencersingsoprano2003 Wed  2/26/2003  
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