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§6 TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE
grow stronger by practicing walking or the arm and shoulder muscles might be developed by pitching hay.
d) Expression®! intent method. In this group are those who claim that all breathing controls are psychological. The breathing organs respond. instanteously to thought and feeling, automatically providing the right degree of chest expansion and air intake for any spontaneous vocal expression. Under this method, the breathing reflexes of living are not disturbed, but merely intensified, as they respond to the intensified thoughts and moods that accompany singing. Breathing in singing, then, is a natural response of the physical organism to expressional impulses that originate in the mind of the singer. This principle may be explained as follows: When witnessing impending danger one might feel impelled to shout suddenly to a passerby, "Look out!" As this impulse to shout is conceived, proper physiological reactions occur which cause a swift preparatory intake of air sufficient to meet the demands of intense vocal utterance at that moment. Similarly, when the thought and mood of an aria or song are properly conceived, the genuine desire to communicate impels a vocal utterance which is exactly proportional to the intensity of thought and mood thus conceived. In training the singer's voice by this method, natural breathing is advised- Functional growth of the breathing organs is provided in abundant practice of the interpretative singing of songs.
in conclusion, there appears to be widespread agreement among singing teachers that the singing voice is the product of a "highly developed. wind instrument** and is therefore entirely "dependent upon the breath for the quality and volume of sound produced." [Armstrong 20] This means that every tonal development of the singing voice depends in one way or another upon the acquisition of correct breathing habits. [Margit Bokor 54] Furthermore, to accomplish this purpose, the muscular processes of natural breathing must be developed beyond the requirements for normal living by extension, rather than by distortion. Thus the singer's increased vocal demands are supplied. [Wilcox 669, p. 3] A word of caution is added by Mackenzie when he warns that, although the art of breathing must be thoroughly and properly acquired, habits thus trained ought to be entirely automatic before they can be useful to the singer during Ms performance. [364, p. 121]
Finally, it is desirable to dispel a misconception that is commonly held by singing teachers who advocate singing on the breath. There is a. definite distinction between a sound wave and an air current. Vocal sound waves travel through the air at a speed of about 1100 feet per second. But the air current generated by the outflowing breath stream of a vocalist is dissipated by the surrounding atmosphere within a few inches of its point |
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