Dear Reg, You wrote: "Unfortunately there are other aspects, as Les' rejection of the term implies." ***************** Sorry if I gave the impression that I was rejecting anything; that was not, is not and never was my intention. I think what I wrote was that the term is considered passe'. I don't recall an outright rejection of it in my writing. Richard Miller, arguably one of the most if not The Most influential teachers of voice teachers today, encourages the use of the term "breath management". I like that term because it makes sense to me but I by no means reject the word support.
I'm not the kind of person who likes to argue (I'm not good at it or at dealing with confrontation) but I do like to try and look at singing and the teaching of it by what makes sense to me. I readily admit, I have much to learn. The opinions I offer here - and that's only what they are - mere opinions - are heartfelt and genuine. I have no hidden agenda. I just want to understand, know what is true and teach it the best way I know how. It is my sincere desire to learn from knowledgeable people like you, Lloyd, Randy, and many others whose opinions, though sometimes different than mine, I nevertheless respect and to which I always give serious consideration.
Lloyd wrote that in his experience lip trills cause tension. My experience is exactly the opposite. Ingo Titze places lip trills first in his list of "Best Vocal Exercises". Lip trills have proven to help my students who exhibit lip tension, excess subglottic pressure and pharyngial tension. An additional benefit is that they really help to teach register management and eliminate breaks but that's just what I have experienced. Since I very much respect others' opinions I have no choice but to re-examine my practices but I have to go with what I believe in.
I empathize with what I think your school of vocal pedagogy might be (though I wouldn't dream of presuming that I really know). My first teacher (a pupil of a pupil of Mathilde Marchesi) used terms like "support", "Placement", etc. She was always saying things like "Poosh wees zee diaphragm" and "Place zee tone in zee masque!" But For Me such terms were not helpful and were very confusing. I tried to do what she asked and she seemed happy with what I was doing but I never really felt I understood what she was trying to convey and I certainly never felt what she said I was supposed to feel.
As far as humming is concerned, in my experience, too much emphasis on humming results in an unfocussed tone (too much noise-to-signal ratio). I concede that it's hard to say "how much is too much". I once used humming but have moved on to other exercises that seem to get better results; hung-ee, hung-eh, hung-ah, hung-oh, hung-oo; nga - nga - nga - nga - nga or yummy - yummy - yummy - yummy - yummy work very well.
In my opinion, the diaphragm is only part of the engine that drives the mechanism of breathing. That engine is a system involving many parts of the body, not just one. While there is no direct control of the diaphragm, I absolutely agree that there is indirect control of it; BUT there is much more going on.
We can't see the diaphragm, what it does or its position in the body. We can imagine how it works and we can see the results of its movement but that's about all we can really do. Many of the ideas we have about the function of the diaphragm come from an intellectual knowledge of what we speculate must be taking place when we breathe . . . that makes sense . . . but we have no way of really knowing for sure AND it's not the whole story.
Unaspirated panting (executed as silently as possible), balanced onsets, sostenutions and releases have the best potential for allowing the singer to experience healthy breath management proprioception and to develop those skills (other than lip trills).
When I have been told what sensations I should feel in the past, it has never worked for me, so I avoid such impositions of my perceptions on my students. I can't teach what I don't believe in. I ASK THEM what they are feeling when they execute the desired behavior and immediately document it to try and link cause to effect. With regards and respect, Les
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