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From:  "jjh" <jjh@n...>
Date:  Sat Apr 15, 2000  12:33 am
Subject:  belly breathing


On Mon, 10 Apr 2000, Lloyd Hanson wrote:

> However, it is still common to observe students who have been taught
> to release the muscles in their lower abdomen on the inhale and pull
> these muscles back into their normally firm position on the exhale.
> This extraneous activity is not necessary for singing and it has not
> been taught in the traditional, Italianate school of voice. The
> diaphragm descends only to a flat position at the bottom of the rib
> cage during the inhale. It is not able to actively descend below
> this level. For this reason, there is no advantage to releasing the
> lower abdominal muscle wall (commonly called "belly" breathing) to
> make more room for the diaphragm or to attempt to take a larger
> breath. Breath capacity studies have shown that this release of
> lower abdominal muscles actually reduces the breath capacity because
> it tends to encourage the rib cage to sag slightly.
>
> Generally there should be nothing about breathing for singing that is
> much different than normal active breathing except that it is done at
> will and with a great deal of awareness because it is used to
> activate the vocal process. The most important achievement that
> singers must accomplish is an awareness of how they use the breath
> and how to maintain that use.

Dear Lloyd and Vocalist:

A beautifully written post, Lloyd, and I'm adding it to my "Best of Hanson"
collection!

I have a question about "belly breathing." I took some lessons with Gilda
Cruz-Romo one summer at UT-Austin, and she was trying to teach me the
Italianate technique you mention, Lloyd. She kept saying to me "you breathe
too low," which was a new one for me at the time! I felt I had successfully
learned low breathing and beaten the problem of clavicular breathing with my
regular teacher, and Miss Cruz-Romo's teaching was an interesting contrast.
She was suggesting that I was going too far with the concept of
"low/abdominal breathing." We had many lessons in which she kept a hand on
my abs, to restrict movement in the lower abdominal area.

When I sang using Miss Cruz-Romo's technique, my top notes became instantly
smaller, more refined perhaps, but not tense. I found it extremely useful
when attempting high pianissimos, as in "Ach, ich fuhl's," which I was
preparing at the time. When I returned to the low/abdominal breathing
technique, the resulting tone was instantly fuller. I find this technique
extremely useful in singing "bigger" repertoire, provided I don't push or
force with the lower abdominal muscles. I also feel that I'm pretty
successful at keeping the ribs from collapsing, but I'll monitor that and
think about it some more.

What do you think? I'd love to read the breath capacity studies you
mentioned, by the way. I'm always trying to learn more about the process of
breathing.

Thanks again for an excellent post--

Cheers!

Jana
--
Jana Holzmeier
Dept. of Music
Nebraska Wesleyan University
5000 Saint Paul Ave.
Lincoln, NE 68504
jjh@n...
402-465-2284
Visit the Music Department website at http://music.nebrwesleyan.edu/




  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
766 Re: belly breathing Barry Bounous   Sat  4/15/2000   4 KB
802 Re: belly breathing Lloyd W. Hanson   Sun  4/16/2000   6 KB
804 Re: belly breathing Jeffrey Joel   Sun  4/16/2000   3 KB
856 Re: belly breathing Barry Bounous   Mon  4/17/2000   4 KB
904 Re: belly breathing Lloyd W. Hanson   Tue  4/18/2000   4 KB
922 Re: belly breathing Jocelyn Gooch   Tue  4/18/2000   5 KB

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