Dear Reg,
You wrote: "Unfortunately there are other aspects, as Les' rejection
of the term implies."
*****************
Sorry if I gave the impression that I was rejecting anything; that
was not, is not and never was my intention. I think what I wrote was
that the term is considered passe'. I don't recall an outright
rejection of it in my writing. Richard Miller, arguably one of the
most if not The Most influential teachers of voice teachers today,
encourages the use of the term "breath management". I like that term
because it makes sense to me but I by no means reject the word
support.
I'm not the kind of person who likes to argue (I'm not good at it or
at dealing with confrontation) but I do like to try and look at
singing and the teaching of it by what makes sense to me. I readily
admit, I have much to learn. The opinions I offer here - and that's
only what they are - mere opinions - are heartfelt and genuine. I
have no hidden agenda. I just want to understand, know what is true
and teach it the best way I know how. It is my sincere desire to
learn from knowledgeable people like you, Lloyd, Randy, and many
others whose opinions, though sometimes different than mine, I
nevertheless respect and to which I always give serious
consideration.
Lloyd wrote that in his experience lip trills cause tension. My
experience is exactly the opposite. Ingo Titze places lip trills
first in his list of "Best Vocal Exercises". Lip trills have proven
to help my students who exhibit lip tension, excess subglottic
pressure and pharyngial tension. An additional benefit is that they
really help to teach register management and eliminate breaks but
that's just what I have experienced. Since I very much respect
others' opinions I have no choice but to re-examine my practices but
I have to go with what I believe in.
I empathize with what I think your school of vocal pedagogy might be
(though I wouldn't dream of presuming that I really know). My first
teacher (a pupil of a pupil of Mathilde Marchesi) used terms
like "support", "Placement", etc. She was always saying things
like "Poosh wees zee diaphragm" and "Place zee tone in zee masque!"
But For Me such terms were not helpful and were very confusing. I
tried to do what she asked and she seemed happy with what I was doing
but I never really felt I understood what she was trying to convey
and I certainly never felt what she said I was supposed to feel.
As far as humming is concerned, in my experience, too much emphasis
on humming results in an unfocussed tone (too much noise-to-signal
ratio). I concede that it's hard to say "how much is too much". I
once used humming but have moved on to other exercises that seem to
get better results; hung-ee, hung-eh, hung-ah, hung-oh, hung-oo; nga -
nga - nga - nga - nga or yummy - yummy - yummy - yummy - yummy work
very well.
In my opinion, the diaphragm is only part of the engine that drives
the mechanism of breathing. That engine is a system involving many
parts of the body, not just one. While there is no direct control of
the diaphragm, I absolutely agree that there is indirect control of
it; BUT there is much more going on.
We can't see the diaphragm, what it does or its position in the body.
We can imagine how it works and we can see the results of its
movement but that's about all we can really do. Many of the ideas we
have about the function of the diaphragm come from an intellectual
knowledge of what we speculate must be taking place when we
breathe . . . that makes sense . . . but we have no way of really
knowing for sure AND it's not the whole story.
Unaspirated panting (executed as silently as possible), balanced
onsets, sostenutions and releases have the best potential for
allowing the singer to experience healthy breath management
proprioception and to develop those skills (other than lip trills).
When I have been told what sensations I should feel in the past, it
has never worked for me, so I avoid such impositions of my
perceptions on my students. I can't teach what I don't believe in. I
ASK THEM what they are feeling when they execute the desired behavior
and immediately document it to try and link cause to effect.
With regards and respect,
Les
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