Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Caio Rossi" <caioross@z...>
"Caio Rossi" <caioross@z...>
Date:  Sun Oct 1, 2000  10:37 pm
Subject:  BREATH SUPPORT + RESONANCE IN SLS


Mary Beth wrote:

> Here it goes, page 27
> "Breathing for singing is a very relaxed process. When we say you can
> regulate it, we only mean you allow it to happen so that inhalation and
> exhalation are done in a way that best suits your musical needs. You do
not
> have to work at breathing correctly, unless you have poor posture or a
> tendency to raise your chest and shoulders and take shallow breaths. Nor
do
> you need to do any special exercises to strengthen your breathing muscles.
> Your diaphragm, rib muscles, and abdominal muscles are already strong
enough
> for your needs as a singer.

But, if as he says on page 26, as quoted on my previous post, that for
singing "your abdominal muscles push your diaphragm up steadily and slowly
against your lungs", and at the same time, on page 25, he states that for
speaking "your diaphragm and rib muscles relax" only, then, contradicting
what he states as quoted by you above, you DO have to work at breathing
correctly REGARDLESS OF having or not poor posture or other problems at
normal ( speaking ) exhalation.

BTW, as Ian's Vocal Problem thread makes clear, if your abdominal muscles
are used to push up air you'll need, again as opposed to what was stated by
Seth above, to do special exercises not to ruin the balance between the
diaphragm natural action and the abs learned one.

> If you maintain good posture when you sing, and are careful not to let
> your chest "collapse" as you exhale, your diaphragm is able to move freely
> and be regulated by your abdominal muscles automatically. There is no need
to
> consciously exert tension in those muscles.

That's something I'm not so sure about: you mean that that control is
involuntary. I've always thought ( and read ) that it would happen
automatically only when yelling, just like when we scream 'Hey' to call
someone's attention. If you're right, then my consideration above are wrong,
and so are Riggs's on page 25 of his book. But that raises a question: what
do SLSers do to work on posture and bad breathing habits? Do you use
Alexander Technique or any other method created by Seth.

>If you try to directly control
> your breathing muscles when you sing, the extra tension in your body will
> only cause your vocal cords to overtense- to jam up. "

I think extra tension doesn't happen necessarily ( though it does with me ).
Many singers do that and have no problem. It may be just a matter of
learning how to do it, just like Allan Greene tries to do in his book, "The
New Voice". I think the point here is different: as non-SLS-like breath
support techniques advocate pushing with the abs for higher pitches, when
your vocal cords would probably not vibrate due too much outstretching
without that push, the problem is not the extra-tension itself, untrained or
well-trained, but the overblowing of the cords.Therefore, I think the
convincing power of SLS arguments lie on overblowing of vocal cords, not on
extra-tension elsewhere.

>the
> sad thing, and this is Rocio's point, is that many voice instructors focus
on
> the result of proper singing........ie support, resonant tone, etc.,

According to Riggs, on pages 78, " [a] singers tone should be determined by
his or her won individual vocal anatomy..." and "[i]t should be a blend of
the top, middle and bottom resonance qualities that results when the
singer's larynx remains in a relaxed, stable position." He says too that
"when you overdo your articulation becuase your tone is "muddy", all you get
is well-articulated, but still "muddy", tone. Youdon't need to overdo your
articulation if you maintain a speech-level production of tone". He also
states that " projection is the acoustical phenomenon that occurs when you
produce your tone with an efficient balance of air and muscle".
Fortunately, I can type! )

From that, I must conclude that, for Riggs, a projecting, resonating voice,
is solely the result of the interaction of air ( exhalation ) and muscle
vocal cords ), and that the shape of the resonators don't play any role in
that.
Nevertheless ( I thought I'd never use this word when I learned it ), Lloyd
posted an explanation about formants in June, 1996 ( I kept it from the
archives of Vocalist.org ) that goes in a different direction:

"You, as a singer, have direct control over your formation of formants by
the changes you make in your vocal tract. This is a major part of taking
voice lessons is all about. You are being taught to adjust your vocal
tract to obtain the maximum resonance for every note and vowel you
sing.Eventually, this becomes rather automatic and is not a conscious
concern while singing."

"However, there are examples of a need to consciously alter vowels in order
to match your vocal tract to the pitch being sung. When women sing above
the treble staff it is very necessary for them to open their mouth more on
all vowels because they are singing at a pitch level that is above the pitch
level of the first formant resonance in the vocal tract. Opening the mouth
raises the pitch level of the first formant and allows the singer to once
more obtain a match between the sung pitch and the resonated pitch in the
vocal tract."

And John Nix, then a member of the list from the Colorado University at
Denver, posted:

"While it is true that dealing with resonance issues alone cannot solve
every problem that seems phonatory in nature, it can do a lot of good.
Certainly one's vocal folds stand their best chance of vibrating in an
optimal fashion when the resonance tube is tuned properly. And I might add
it is hard to draw the line in the sand between what is a resonance problem
and what is a vocal fold/phonation problem. Titze's book Principles of
Voice Production only confirms the close relationship between the resonator
and the vibrator. As was recently stated on this list, it is the inertia of
the air in the vocal tract that enables us to sustain phonation.
Differences in resonator shape (i.e. different vowels and consonants) can
drastically effect the inertia of the air in the vocal tract, and thus the
vibratory action of the folds themselves. Singers have unknowingly taken
advantage of this fact for years by using particular vowel and consonant
combinations in register bridging exercises.

Two short examples: if a female singer sings too closed (vowel-wise) in
their upper voice, one hears typically hears a harsh, strident sound (a
resonance phenomenon) that is under excess subglottic pressure (a
respiratory/phonatory phenomenon). When the student sings the appropriate
vowel for the pitch, the sound becomes less pressured sounding. By opening
the vowel, they have changed the acoustical feedback loop between the vocal
fold vibrator and the vocal tract resonator in such a way that the air flows
more freely. Further emphasis by the teacher at this point to seek a
flowing, spinning sound (encouraging a higher air flow rate) with the
correct vowel modification tends to set the student on the road to complete
success. With males, the opposite is often the case - in the upper voice,
less experienced singers frequently sing too "open" - and the result is
their voice "cracks" on higher pitches. Some teachers would say that the
student is "not supporting enough," but it has been my observation that in
fact often the opposite happens. The male student singing too open feels
a lack of focus and adds extra breath pressure, which only causes the
"cracking" to get worse. They add more pressure and a firmer adduction and
get worse results (the old "grunt it out" method). They may also use a
glottal attack to "get" the note. A careful use of more closed vowels
(typically [u] and [o]) AND directing the student (often through indirect
means) to allow the air to be released in a more gentle fashion gets steady,
reliable results. After the more closed back vowels begin to work, one
progresses on to exploring the closed front vowels and the mixed vowels. So
resonance and phonation problems are not so easily separated. The more
I teach, the more I know why my mentor, Barbara Doscher, called her book The
Functional Unity of the Singing Voice." ( Fortunately, I can paste! )

My personal experience is that resonance deserves specific attention in
singing.

Bye,

Caio Rossi





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  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
4948 Re: BREATH SUPPORT + RESONANCE IN SLS buzzcen@a...   Mon  10/2/2000   2 KB
4952 Re: BREATH SUPPORT + RESONANCE IN SLS Isabelle Bracamonte   Mon  10/2/2000   2 KB
4955 Re: BREATH SUPPORT + RESONANCE IN SLS Domisosing@a...   Mon  10/2/2000   2 KB
4967 Re: BREATH SUPPORT + RESONANCE IN SLS Mezzoid@a...   Mon  10/2/2000   2 KB
4970 Re: BREATH SUPPORT + RESONANCE IN SLS buzzcen@a...   Mon  10/2/2000   3 KB
5035 Re: BREATH SUPPORT + RESONANCE IN SLS Caio Rossi   Tue  10/3/2000   2 KB

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