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go TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE
30] Harper is even more emphatic in declaring that so little breath Is
required for singing that it seems like "no breatli at all." Furthermore undo- such conditions, the body is absolutely motionless to the observer
while breathing for singing. [228, p. 122]
Breath retention. It is Stanley's opinion that correct voice production involve restraints in breathing. Poor singing degenerates into a mere pushing of breath against a throaty constriction. [577, p. 312] Therefore, phonation requires breath retention and breath economy. The combination of gradual and minimal exhalation constitutes breath control [Herbert-Caesari 269, p. 143] "Do not hold your tone/' says Brown, "spin it. Hold your breath" instead. [78, p. 29] Holding back or retaining" the breath is described by Wodell as the ability to "send out the breath with great slowness, and, at the same time, with sufficient energy [but no more] to produce the pitch and power of tone desired." This is really achieved by means of a balanced interplay between the action of the muscles of inhalation and those of exhalation. [679] Learn to restrain the rife from pressing inward against the lungs during exhalation. [Warren §40] Learn to economize or hold back the breath, not at the throat, but at the source of the breathing action. [Robinson 474; Grundmann and Schumacher 218, p. 14] To chtck speedy exhalation, Father Finn suggests as a practice device, the gradual release of breath to a slow count of numbers. [181, p- 25; also Kwartin 325, p. 29]
Brestk control is really breath economy. Some authors refuse t*o be concerned about breath control in singing. "The least said about breath and breath control the better/" says George Compton. "It is nothing more than learning to economize the breath/' [120] Unless the singing: pupil's breathing is decidedly deficient, it should not be molested by feeatbing exercises. Economy of breath is much more important than volume of breath. [Herbert-Caesari 269, p. 17] Average, undeveloped breath capacity is suffident to meet every artistic singing requirement providing the technique of production is correct. [Stanley 577, p. 57; Shaw 518, p. 199] Bainfaridge Crist expresses the same concept in rhyme. "It requires almost no breath to sing. Don't push your breath, but speak -which is a very different thing/* [123] The only historical reference to breath economy is given by William James Henderson in his survey of the teaching methods of the old Italian masters. According to Henderson, deep inhaladon followed by a slow, sustained vocal tone is the practice method employed by the old masters for developing breath retention and control. [*4g, p. 20]
The comments of professional singers on the subject of breath economy |
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