In a message dated 10/18/2001 12:51:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ibracamonte@y... writes: ibracamonte@y... writes:
<< All you vocal gurus, what do you tell a student who refuses to use ANY effort to support? >>
isabelle,
unless you can explain to her clearly what exactly 'support' does and how the method you suggest will do that, there will be little reason for her to do it. in reading jerome hines' book 'great singers on great singing', one could easily get the impression that not too many of them have any idea what they are talking about (cornell macneil's warning seems most appropriate). obviously, they all have a feel for what they are talking about but can't put it into any useful explaination (unless the reader is used to even vaguer descriptions). so, unless you can explain 'support' clearly or, somehow trick her into feeling it, she won't.
<< I've tried asking her to do a variety of things, but her main problem is that she relaxes all of her abdominal muscles and refuses to use any muscular energy at all. She says that singing should be as natural as speaking >>
frankly, i'm more inclined to agree with her. the only non-horoscope sounding explaination of 'support' that i have ever heard is that it is intended to keep excess breath pressure away from the larynx. quite a few singers are convinced that, in order to sing, they must suck all the air out of the room when they inhale. by having more than enough air in their lungs, they create unnecessary breath pressure. if they didn't try to fit ten pounds in a five pound bag in the first place, they wouldn't have to work so hard to solve the problems that creates.
mike
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