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From:  Sally Collyer <scol8413@m...>
Date:  Mon Jan 20, 2003  12:31 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Breathing

At 01:01 PM 18/01/2003 -0800, Michael E Chesebro wrote:
>You cannot expand the capacity of the lungs.

Gould & Okamura (Folia Phoniatrica, 1974, v26: 275-286) did an interesting
comparison of lung capacities of trained singers and untrained
subjects. To quote from their findings:

"Of interest, highly trained singers do not have substantially increased
TLC but have improved their pulmonary efficiency by increasing FRC and
reducing reserve volume."

Reserve volume is the air left in your lungs when you breathe out as far as
possible. The structure of the lungs is such that there is always air left
inside (around 2 litres, if I recall correctly). TLC is Total Lung
Capacity, the amount of air in your lungs when you have breathed in as much
as possible; this amount includes reserve volume. Their findings were,
then, that the lungs of singers were not capable of holding more air than
those of non-singers but that the way they expelled air meant they could
expel more air than could non-singers (reduce the reserve volume).

Sally




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