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TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE |
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and therefore demands more breath* That is why breathing is entirely governed by the emotional interpretation or expression of a song. [54] To illustrate this principle, Witherspoon suggests that we practice "exclaiming" with varying degrees of emotional feeling. He even proposes that this method might be used to divert a student's attention from his own breathing actions, thus inducing "correct breathing naturally and quickly/' [677, p. 65] Here again, Mursell and Glenn emphasize the importance of using breathing exercises "very sparingly or not at all." If such exercises are used at all they must always be used with a "perceived relationship to musical expressiveness.*' [413, p. 286]
Other devices for improving breathing. Five other devices are recommended as methods of cultivating breath control for singing, without local effort. They are: laughing, sighing, yawning, panting and being startled.
1. In laughing heartily it is possible to develop the abdominal muscles of breathing as they perform in singing. [Wycoff 693]
2. The freedom of deep breathing for singing is best exemplified by a contented sigh. [Waters 647, p. 5]
3. "The singer's breath must be as deep as the breath we take in yawning." [Marches! 369, p. 4]
4. "Panting is excellent practice to increase the flexibility of breath action." [Wilson 674, p. 29]
5. "Inhale instantly as though startled. This will develop quick inhalation for singing." [Snyder 568, p. 6]
TECHNICAL APPROACH
Techniques are the methods or details of practical procedure, or the manner of performance, essential to expert execution in an art or science. (W) The technical approach to breathing would therefore include a consideration of the various practical procedures of instruction and practice advocated by specialists in training the singing voice. To this end, an examination of the 702 texts in the bibliography yielded a total of 275 statements on the various technical aspects of cultivating breathing for singing. These are considered under five separate headings as outlined in Table Two. The first of these deals with posture.
POSTURAL CONTROLS
The relative arrangement or disposition of the different structural parts of the body (W) during the act of breathing is a primary considera- |
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