Scott mccoy: "one who knows how to breathe, knows how to sing" statement predates what ofen is considered the "golden age" of singing. He says many singers and teachers from that era believed the chest cavity was the most important resonator. "If singers would learn to breathe correctly, all of the many possible vocal problems will be avoided," he says.
Scott mccoy: "one who knows how to breathe, knows how to sing" statement predates what ofen is considered the "golden age" of singing. He says many singers and teachers from that era believed the chest cavity was the most important resonator. "If singers would learn to breathe correctly, all of the many possible vocal problems will be avoided," he says.
Scott mccoy: "one who knows how to breathe, knows how to sing" statement predates what ofen is considered the "golden age" of singing. He says many singers and teachers from that era believed the chest cavity was the most important resonator. "If singers would learn to breathe correctly, all of the many possible vocal problems will be avoided," he says.
Volume 70, No. 3, pp. 321324 Copyright 2014 National Association of Teachers of Singing VOICE PEDAGOGY Scott McCoy, Associate Editor On Breathing and Support Scott McCoy One who knows how to breathe, knows how to sing. (Pellegrini- Celoni, 1810) 1 H ow many of you agree with this statement, which dates from over 200 years ago? Based on countless articles, books, jury and audition comments, master classes and clinics, and personal conversations, I must conclude that this is a pervasive, if not ubiquitous belief. Of course, this statement predates what ofen is considered to be the Golden Age of singingan era in which misconceptions about voice production were abundant. Many singers and teachers from that period also believed the chest cavity was the most important resonator (the bigger the drum, the bigger the sound), that vowels were created low in the throat, obviating the need to move the tongue or jaw, and that the palate should be lifed up and forward, blocking the entrance to the nose, but allowing a pas- sageway to remain open into the head to access resonance in the true mask. If singers would learn to breathe correctly, all of the many possible vocal problems will be avoided. (Caruso, 1909) 2 Really? Tis statement reminds me of a conversation I had with a teaching colleague. Tis person had sung with many of the most important profes- sional companies in the world, was well educated in contemporary voice science, and had become a consistently successful teacher. At issue was a young tenor who was singing his higher pitches with a chronically elevated larynx and a lowered palate, problems he believed could be fxed by better breath support. Sundberg demonstrated that a large, low breath can indeed induce a lower laryngeal position through the phenomenon of tracheal pull. 3 But something else was going on with this student; his lower pitches were sung with a low larynx and high palateonly the high notes were altered. (Perhaps a frmer stream of air would blow his palate upward, causing it to seal against his pharynx?) My diagnosis was that laryngeal elevation and nasality both were being used to track formants in a manner that allowed the singer to avoid his passaggio. By keeping the frst formant (F1) above the pitch of the second harmonic (2F 0 ), he was able to sing his open vowels on an ascending scale without needing to cover or to access his upper extension. Te sound he produced was a nasally yellnot attractive, but somewhat reliable. But he was a light lyric tenor who could not sing above A 5 . My solution would be to ensure optimal vowel Scott McCoy 322 Journal of Singing tuning that permits the voice to turn over through the passaggio by allowing F1 to drop below 2F 0 . Which of us had the better teaching strategy? Alas, well never know, as the student was working with someone else. I suspect, however, that there was some truth in both of our approaches. I think it is reasonable to say that singers and sing- ing teachers ofen fxate on breathing. Tis occurs in response to the fact that breath is the power source of our instrument, just as it is for a trumpet, fute, or clarinet. And as with other instruments, additional parts are involved in the creation of musical sounds. Along with our power source, we have a vibrator (vocal folds), a resonator (vocal tract), and a means of articulation. Most other instruments accomplish this fnal task almost exclusively through modifcations to the power source; singers are unique in the layering of language on top of music, which requires us to make the most of our articu- latory gestures through modifcations to our resonator. Tese four elementspower source, vibrator, reso- nator, and articulatormust work in synchronicity, mutually reinforcing each other to produce our best sound. How is it, then, that problems with the vibrator or resonator can be corrected by altering the power source? Lets pause for an analogy, this time combining two of my favorite subjects: automobiles and singing. Your car requires the same four elements as your voice. It requires a power source, which in this case is the fuel, whether gasoline, diesel, or electricity. Tat fuel pow- ers engine, which is the functional equivalent of your vocal folds. Te up and down motion of the pistons in the engine are transformed into rotational force by the connecting rods, crankshaf, clutch, and transmission, which together function as your cars resonators. Finally, we articulate the movement of the vehicle through the accelerator, brakes, and steering. According to this anal- ogy, and if the original statement, One who knows how to breathe, knows how to sing is correct, we can make a new proclamation: One who knows how to fll up a gas tank knows how to drive. (McCoy, 2013) Probably not. In fact, even the most mechanically nave among us would bristle at a suggestion by our auto mechanic that we could stop squealing brakes by switching to premium gas. Clearly, the cause of car problems not always is with the power source. Nor is it with singing. Before you rise up in mutiny, Ill acknowledge that this was an imperfect analogybut I hope it made you think a little diferently about breathing for singing. Years of experience clearly have shown us that good breathing technique is the foundation of good voice production. Nonetheless, we have little agreement about breath beyond that central concept. Richard Millers seminal work on international influences on tonal preferences and singing technique helped demonstrate just how diverse our options are. 4 Tere is more than one way to skin this cat. We have been advised to inhale into our toes, pelvis, lower abdomen, solar plexus, lower back, back ribs, epigastrium, stomach, chest, and of course, the bottom of our lungs. (I particularly like this last itemnext time you blow up a balloon, try flling it from the bottom up.) We then manage our inhala- tion by releasing the abdomen and moving it outward, tightening the abdomen and pulling it inward, taking the biggest possible breath at all times, taking the small- est possible breath at all times, lifing the chest, relaxing the chest, opening the back, opening the shoulders, snifng a rose, or by doing nothing special at allyou already are alive, therefore, you already know how to breathe correctly. Of course, we sing while we exhale. We manage this phase of breathing by bearing down into the pelvis (like defecation or childbirth), releasing all tension from the pelvis and lower abdominal muscles, doing a Kegel squeeze (clearly more efective for women than men), tightening the abdominal wall and drawing it inward, releasing the abdominal wall and pushing it outward, holding the chest high and stationary at all time, keep- ing the chest relaxed and low at all times, keeping the back expanded, antagonism between the abdominal muscles with the diaphragm and thoracic muscles, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. No wonder our students get confusedtheir new teachers tell them to do exactly the opposite of everything theyve previously learned! Some of our diferent opinions about breathing are real, but some also are rooted in semantics. And accord- ing to researchers, many of us dont actually understand what is happening in our own bodies when we breathe for singing. Watson and Hixon noted in their famous study of respiration in professional singers that their Scott McCoy January/February 2014 323 Voice Pedagogy descriptions of how they thought they breathed during singing bore little correspondence to how they actually breathed. 5 How can we teach someone else to do some- thing when our self-perception of the activity is faulty? As singers, we breathe for three fundamental rea- sons. First, we must exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide to stay alive. Second, we must supply breath pressure to the larynx to initiate phonation (P s , typi- cally measured in centimeters of water or kilopascals). Finally, we must supply a steady flow of air to the larynx (typically measured in milliliters per second). Balancing these three factors requires us to walk a pedagogic tightrope that has one huge complication: as the volume of air contained in the lungs changes during the singing of a phrase, our physical mechanism for power and pressure regulation also must change. At the beginning of a long phrase, we strive to hold back an excess of air from whooshing out all at once. But by the end of that phrase, we might need to contract all of our expiratory muscles as strongly as possible to squeeze out our last molecules of air. Somehow, we must negotiate changes along this continuum seam- lessly and with consistently beautiful sound. Tis is where our concepts of breath management or breath support come into the picture. Tere has never been even a suspicion of proof that mastery of singing is in any way dependent upon a correct system of breathing. (Reid, 1972) 6 Isnt this statement heretical? Not if we read it with the emphasis on the word a, as in dependent upon one correct system of breathing. A single performance at the Metropolitan Opera is sufcient to demonstrate that multiple ways of playing our vocal instruments can succeed. Te trick comes in discovering what is optimal for each individual singer. As we know, successful breathing, by whatever tech- nique, requires some kind of juxtaposition of an inha- latory gesture during exhalation. We typically call this action muscular antagonism, which is used to help us regulate the amount of air we direct toward the larynx. Many pedagoguesmyself includedhave made dis- tinctions between breath support and breath control; the former is said to be a pulmonary event, while the latter is a function of the valving action of the larynx. Others eschew both terms, favoring more generalized concepts of breath management or appoggio. As with registration, we tend to get bogged down with semantics (are modal and chest voice the same thing?). Nonetheless, I will jump into the fray with my current thoughts on support. Until recently, I described support as the interaction of inspiratory and expiratory muscles that regulates the air supplied to the larynx. But this view is adequate only if voice production occurs strictly on a linear basis, that is: the power source drives the vibrator, which excites the resonator, which is modified by the articulators. Reality is much more complicated. For example, we can increase pressure below the glottis by contracting our expiratory muscles more firmly; but we also can increase this pressure by adducting (closing) the vocal folds more tightly. We can reduce P s from either end as well, by increasing muscular antagonism, decreasing the contraction strength of the expiratory muscles, or by decreasing glottal adduction and/or adding a degree of abduction (glottal opening). Furthermore, resonance and aerodynamics above the glottis can return to infu- ence the manner in which the vocal folds oscillate. And weve all worked with singers who have excess tension in their articulators, especially the tongue and jaw, which prevents free phonation. As I said, it gets complicated. Taking all this into account, Im updating my personal defnition: Support: the dynamic interactions between the respira- tory system, larynx, and vocal tract that enable singers to produce their desired sounds. (McCoy, 2013) I like this definition because it acknowledges the interdependency and nonlinearity of the parts. Breath pressure cannot be regulated solely by the breathing mechanism; it also requires resistance provided by the larynx. Te vocal tract, both through resonance and resistance to airfow, is also vital, assisting in glottal closure and potentially lowering total airfow to increase glottal efciency. By this definition, support is variableit must be appropriate to the task at hand. Brnnhilde requires a different kind of support than Despina, and even though I am no expert on voice production for the huge range of music found in popular culture, the varying vocal demands they pose certainly warrant diferent approaches to support. One size fts all works no better in pedagogy than in fashion. 324 Journal of Singing How, then, can we help our students fnd their opti- mal method of support? Perhaps we need to complete a large-scale study that explores the relationships between physical and acoustic characteristics versus vocal tech- niques of successful singers in diferent genres. With a broad enough sample, we might better predict which breathing method and/or resonance strategy is most likely to succeed for an individual singer. We could enter a variety of parameters into a program, such as height, weight, body type, physical proportions, lung capacity, vocal fold size, vocal tract size, jaw opening, and neck length. An acoustic profle could be compiled that explores the intrinsic timbre, amplitude, and pitch range of the singer. We might even want to include a psychological profle. Put all of this into the mix, and we can have a better idea of which approach is more likely to succeed. Nothing would be guaranteed, but we might wind up pursuing fewer technical dead ends. Of course, there always will be exceptions; some sopranos who weigh a hundred pounds and stand barely fve feet tall actually do have voices suited to dramatic repertoire! My research team at Te Ohio State University would gladly serve as the center for a multisite study on this topic. If you or your institution would like to participate in the research design, collection and analysis of the data, let me know. A larger participant pool and sample size will greatly enhance the reliability of the data. If you are interested, contact me at mccoy.479@osu.edu. NOTES 1. Anna Maria Pellegrini Celoni, Grammatica o siano regole de ben cantare (Presso Pietro Piale, e Giulio Cesare Martorelli, 1810). 2. Enrico Caruso and Luisa Tetrazzini, Caruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing (New York: Metropolitan Opera Company, 1909). 3. Johan Sundberg, Breathing Behavior During Singing, Quar- terly Progress and Status Report (Stockholm: Department for Speech, Music and Hearing, KTH, 1992). 4. Richard Miller, English, French, German and Italian Tech- niques of Singing: A Study in National Tonal Preferences and How They Relate to Functional Efficiency (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1977). 5. Peter J. Watson and Tomas J. Hixon, Respiratory Kinemat- ics in Classical (Opera) Singers, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 28, no. 1 (March 1985): 104122. 6. Cornelius Reid, Bel Canto: Principles and Practices (New York: Joseph Patelson Music House, 1972), 145. Scott McCoy PUBLICATION DEADLINES Vol. 70 No. 4 Vol. 70 No. 5 Vol. 71 No. 1 Vol. 71 No. 2 Vol. 71 No. 3 Mar/Apr 2014 May/June 2014 Sept/Oct 2014 Nov/Dec 2014 Jan/Feb 2015 Article manuscripts should be submitted directly to the Editor-in-Chief. All manuscripts are evaluated by the Editorial Board. Decision to publish rests with the Editor-in-Chief. The deadlines published here refer to articles that have already been accepted for publication. Features and Reviews by Continuing Contributors 01 Nov 2013 01 Jan 2014 01 May 2014 01 July 2014 01 Sept 2014 Submission of Advertisements 01 Jan 2014 01 Mar 2014 01 July 2014 01 Sept 2014 01 Nov 2014 Issue to be placed in mail approximately 24 Feb 2014 24 April 2014 23 Aug 2014 21 Oct 2014 24 Dec 2014 Issue to be received by subscribers approximately 8 Mar 2014 8 May 2014 6 Sept 2014 4 Nov 2014 13 Jan 2015 (Dates of delivery may vary depending upon local ofce policies.)