MUSIC 241Vocal Pedagogy

Great Singers on Great Singing: Breathing

From Great Singers on Great Singing, by Jerome Hines

Lift the chest a little from the back, mostly by lifting the head expressively . . . as when
youre shocked. If you inhale using the tummy alone and pull it in to sing . . . you will not
have a long career. You start to lose the support. If you push down with the chest and
abdomen, where do you get the breath? Expand down and push up to sing. You should
leave your belly in, expand your chest and back, and you should use your hands and arms
in an upward sweep to get a full breath. It is a taller feeling and pulls the shoulders back
to a good posture.Licia Albanese

Im in accord only with natural breathing: to not sing with the chest, but use the
diaphragm. Its not necessary to make a great study, because if the diaphragm responds,
you go.Franco Corelli

If a note is properly supported, when you are singing, somebody might even be able to
hit youhe indicated the stomach areaand that note is still there.Placido Domingo

The only muscles which should work are these . . . (he indicated the area just under the
ribs in the front). Thats my diaphragm. When you inhale you fill the lower parts of the
lungs first, so automatically your ribs have a movement out. The support is the
movement, with the help of your abdomen, under the sides of the rib cage. If you sing a
high note, what do you feel with regard to the diaphragm? I think its a double kind of
movement . . . of working of muscles . . . even up a little. Its both. Its like a bowel
movement. If one could see through the body, I would say that the rib cage, through that
muscle work, is expanding outward . . . and something in between is holding it up. The
outer muscles below the ribs have a tendency to go out. You use your chest also as a
resonator . . . as a support.Nicolai Gedda

When I breathe, my diaphragm goes out, the whole rib cage fills, and the back muscles
are absolutely engaged to their fullest. Its almost as though theres air around there too.
Its as if the whole thing just opens up, an automatic mechanism that happens by pushing
out the diaphragm. Depending on the difficulty of the phrase, I will engage other muscles
in my body. [In order to negotiate coloratura clearly] I find that I must use my buttocks.
Its almost as if the buttocks muscles tighten also, like a support below the support. When
you got for an extremely high note, your back stiffens, goes very straight.Marilyn
Horne

[Answering the question What did your teacher tell you about breathing?] I didnt
have trouble with breathing.Zinka Milanov

[Pressed to further explain her breathing technique] You have to have the feeling, when
you start to sing, like a snake would go from here over to here . . . She moved her hand
from the solar plexus region, just below the ribs, to the larynx and then to the mouth.
Zinka Milanov

When we breathe in, the diaphragm, which is a curved muscle here [he indicated the
bottom of the rib cage], as it starts to flatten, pulls the lungs down. That creates a partial
vacuum and in goes air. As the diaphragm goes down it tends to displace organs and
other things in a manner which makes expansion all the way around . . . not just in the
front or the sides, but also in the back.Sherrill Milnes

The sensation is very simple. You take a breath and stay in the position as when you are
in the bathroom . . . and you keep this position until the phrase is finished. You must
push, like a woman in labor, giving birth . . . it is the same thing. When you push like
that, the diaphragm comes up.Luciano Pavarotti

I was taught to breathe deeply through the thorax with . . . lets say, the diaphragm, as
everyone doesbut it feels like the pit of the stomach, or the abdomen, really. Its deeper
than the stomach, its the pit of the abdomen.Joan Sutherland

[On the subject of support] Its is like a floor. It is like a balloon. Its like a floor holding
an air-filled balloon . . . without tying the top of the balloon, though.Joan Sutherland