My students have been interested in everything from classical to rock, from Broadway to nightclub, and from jazz to ensemble work. Here's the thing: It all starts from the same place - your breathing technique. The Supported Breath Breathing has more uses than keeping our voices healthy and strong. Even the intimate late-night breathy ballad singer needs to sing on a supported breath. Why? Because with a muscle system that automatically supports the breath, the singer can let go of thinking about breathing (it's at the point where you're doing it naturally because you've practiced so much), and concentrate instead on delivery; on dynamics, emotion, and connecting with an audience. If you sing rock or have to screech on stage for some reason, you can do it from the strength of the diaphragm rather than trying to push such sounds out from your throat. This will keep those nodes at bay. A Mental Image for the Supported Breath No matter what genre we sing, here's the mental image for the breath. Our strength is all in the diaphragm and intercostal muscles controlling the rib cage. Air is pushed up and out by the muscles down there. We think of the esophagus and even the larynx as an empty conduit through which the breath travels unhindered on its way up and out. The air floats over and through the larynx and vocal cords, but the power comes from below them. |
