SINGING AND BREATHING---THE REAL STORY

So! You are starting voice lessons, eh. How many times have you been to a voice teacher and he/she tells you that the voice comes from your "tummy area" or the diaphragm? Having taken biology and knowing where the voice box is I have been, like you, mystified. But, in an effort to learn how to sing well, we follow these foolish teachers, knowing full well that he/she is "cracked in the head". That's how all or most of us begin singing lessons..

I could never understand how the diaphragm, a dome-shaped muscle right under the rib cage separating the thoracic cavity from the abdominal cavity would help me sing better! I thought it was connected to the larynx somehow, perhaps by a string, since my teachers used the "pull the string out of your back just like those dolls who cried "mama" when you pulled its string. when I asked how that was possible, my teachers got mad, so I dropped it in hopes that they were right. They were not.

The diaphragm is an organ for breathing, not singing. During inhalation, the diaphragm contracts, thus enlarging the thoracic cavity. This reduces intra-thoracic pressure: in other words, enlarging the cavity creates a vacuum that draws air into the lungs. When the diaphragm relaxes, air is exhaled by elastic recoil of the lung and the tissues lining the thoracic cavity in conjunction with the abdominal muscles, which act as an antagonist paired with the diaphragm's contraction. Furthermore, it goes UP AND DOWN, not IN AND OUT!! That should be our clues, but again, since we did not know anything and we were gullible students, we followed like lambs, right along the wrong path. They told us that first you have to understand breathing and if you did not breathe well, you would never sing well. Son-of-a-gun, I did all those stupid belly exercises like everyone else, like having my teacher sit on my stomach and I should push him up.....ooooo, that was tough. And the books on my belly, the more the merrier.....ooooo, that was fun! And pushing yourself from the wall, belly to wall......Oh, I could go on and on. But.....

Here it is in a nutshell. What you are training is the musculature in the larynx. You are building muscle to help you achieve a coordinated tone from top to bottom. There are 2 basic muscles--the arytenoid or Chest muscles and the crico-thyroid muscle, the "head register" muscle. What I do to strengthen those muscles is do chest register muscle exercises and head register exercises and then co-ordinate them, knowing that one goes through the "passaggio" or break. Thats it! I do believe in support, and I do use the abdominal muscles to "connect " with the voice, but I work with the advanced singers on support and who have their registration fairly well together. Its simple but difficult to do since it takes time to strengthen these muscles.

Just remember when first phonating:

1. stand up straight
2. lift chest high
3. breathe through the nose
4. lower the larynx and keep it in a low position
5. set the glottis
6. sing "on the air"
7. relax the jaw and tongue, keeping the tip of the tongue barely touching the lower teeth
8. remember to lift the soft palate naturally as you go higher
9. support the tone, using the abdominals

NOW YOU ARE READY TO SING!