Mary Beth wrote:
> Here it goes, page 27 > "Breathing for singing is a very relaxed process. When we say you can > regulate it, we only mean you allow it to happen so that inhalation and > exhalation are done in a way that best suits your musical needs. You do not > have to work at breathing correctly, unless you have poor posture or a > tendency to raise your chest and shoulders and take shallow breaths. Nor do > you need to do any special exercises to strengthen your breathing muscles. > Your diaphragm, rib muscles, and abdominal muscles are already strong enough > for your needs as a singer.
But, if as he says on page 26, as quoted on my previous post, that for singing "your abdominal muscles push your diaphragm up steadily and slowly against your lungs", and at the same time, on page 25, he states that for speaking "your diaphragm and rib muscles relax" only, then, contradicting what he states as quoted by you above, you DO have to work at breathing correctly REGARDLESS OF having or not poor posture or other problems at normal ( speaking ) exhalation.
BTW, as Ian's Vocal Problem thread makes clear, if your abdominal muscles are used to push up air you'll need, again as opposed to what was stated by Seth above, to do special exercises not to ruin the balance between the diaphragm natural action and the abs learned one.
> If you maintain good posture when you sing, and are careful not to let > your chest "collapse" as you exhale, your diaphragm is able to move freely > and be regulated by your abdominal muscles automatically. There is no need to > consciously exert tension in those muscles.
That's something I'm not so sure about: you mean that that control is involuntary. I've always thought ( and read ) that it would happen automatically only when yelling, just like when we scream 'Hey' to call someone's attention. If you're right, then my consideration above are wrong, and so are Riggs's on page 25 of his book. But that raises a question: what do SLSers do to work on posture and bad breathing habits? Do you use Alexander Technique or any other method created by Seth.
>If you try to directly control > your breathing muscles when you sing, the extra tension in your body will > only cause your vocal cords to overtense- to jam up. "
I think extra tension doesn't happen necessarily ( though it does with me ). Many singers do that and have no problem. It may be just a matter of learning how to do it, just like Allan Greene tries to do in his book, "The New Voice". I think the point here is different: as non-SLS-like breath support techniques advocate pushing with the abs for higher pitches, when your vocal cords would probably not vibrate due too much outstretching without that push, the problem is not the extra-tension itself, untrained or well-trained, but the overblowing of the cords.Therefore, I think the convincing power of SLS arguments lie on overblowing of vocal cords, not on extra-tension elsewhere.
>the > sad thing, and this is Rocio's point, is that many voice instructors focus on > the result of proper singing........ie support, resonant tone, etc.,
According to Riggs, on pages 78, " [a] singers tone should be determined by his or her won individual vocal anatomy..." and "[i]t should be a blend of the top, middle and bottom resonance qualities that results when the singer's larynx remains in a relaxed, stable position." He says too that "when you overdo your articulation becuase your tone is "muddy", all you get is well-articulated, but still "muddy", tone. Youdon't need to overdo your articulation if you maintain a speech-level production of tone". He also states that " projection is the acoustical phenomenon that occurs when you produce your tone with an efficient balance of air and muscle". Fortunately, I can type! )
From that, I must conclude that, for Riggs, a projecting, resonating voice, is solely the result of the interaction of air ( exhalation ) and muscle vocal cords ), and that the shape of the resonators don't play any role in that. Nevertheless ( I thought I'd never use this word when I learned it ), Lloyd posted an explanation about formants in June, 1996 ( I kept it from the archives of Vocalist.org ) that goes in a different direction:
"You, as a singer, have direct control over your formation of formants by the changes you make in your vocal tract. This is a major part of taking voice lessons is all about. You are being taught to adjust your vocal tract to obtain the maximum resonance for every note and vowel you sing.Eventually, this becomes rather automatic and is not a conscious concern while singing."
"However, there are examples of a need to consciously alter vowels in order to match your vocal tract to the pitch being sung. When women sing above the treble staff it is very necessary for them to open their mouth more on all vowels because they are singing at a pitch level that is above the pitch level of the first formant resonance in the vocal tract. Opening the mouth raises the pitch level of the first formant and allows the singer to once more obtain a match between the sung pitch and the resonated pitch in the vocal tract."
And John Nix, then a member of the list from the Colorado University at Denver, posted:
"While it is true that dealing with resonance issues alone cannot solve every problem that seems phonatory in nature, it can do a lot of good. Certainly one's vocal folds stand their best chance of vibrating in an optimal fashion when the resonance tube is tuned properly. And I might add it is hard to draw the line in the sand between what is a resonance problem and what is a vocal fold/phonation problem. Titze's book Principles of Voice Production only confirms the close relationship between the resonator and the vibrator. As was recently stated on this list, it is the inertia of the air in the vocal tract that enables us to sustain phonation. Differences in resonator shape (i.e. different vowels and consonants) can drastically effect the inertia of the air in the vocal tract, and thus the vibratory action of the folds themselves. Singers have unknowingly taken advantage of this fact for years by using particular vowel and consonant combinations in register bridging exercises.
Two short examples: if a female singer sings too closed (vowel-wise) in their upper voice, one hears typically hears a harsh, strident sound (a resonance phenomenon) that is under excess subglottic pressure (a respiratory/phonatory phenomenon). When the student sings the appropriate vowel for the pitch, the sound becomes less pressured sounding. By opening the vowel, they have changed the acoustical feedback loop between the vocal fold vibrator and the vocal tract resonator in such a way that the air flows more freely. Further emphasis by the teacher at this point to seek a flowing, spinning sound (encouraging a higher air flow rate) with the correct vowel modification tends to set the student on the road to complete success. With males, the opposite is often the case - in the upper voice, less experienced singers frequently sing too "open" - and the result is their voice "cracks" on higher pitches. Some teachers would say that the student is "not supporting enough," but it has been my observation that in fact often the opposite happens. The male student singing too open feels a lack of focus and adds extra breath pressure, which only causes the "cracking" to get worse. They add more pressure and a firmer adduction and get worse results (the old "grunt it out" method). They may also use a glottal attack to "get" the note. A careful use of more closed vowels (typically [u] and [o]) AND directing the student (often through indirect means) to allow the air to be released in a more gentle fashion gets steady, reliable results. After the more closed back vowels begin to work, one progresses on to exploring the closed front vowels and the mixed vowels. So resonance and phonation problems are not so easily separated. The more I teach, the more I know why my mentor, Barbara Doscher, called her book The Functional Unity of the Singing Voice." ( Fortunately, I can paste! )
My personal experience is that resonance deserves specific attention in singing.
Bye,
Caio Rossi
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