Breathing for Singing as First Cause

Many teachers of classical singing assure me that breathing is the sine qua non for singing and it must be addressed very soon in vocal training. I'm told that I must actively and directly control, manage, and/or spin the breath, and it requires a lot of conscious breathing work to sing classical music. Unfortunately for my [...]

“Friendly Compression”

That's the term I use for Manuel Garcia's coup de glotte. The terminology and wording of Garcia's theory of glottal closure caused a firestorm of controversy in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The misunderstanding of it as a glottal plosive frightened many teachers, theorists, and voice doctors from that time to the present day. Henry Holbrook [...]

Breath Management as a Compensatory Tension

In singing, the body gets the message to ‘help out’ when the cords lose their adducting strength. This appears to be a physiological law and the body kicks in to secure a firmer relation between itself and the throat. In any case, if, when we try to sing, the response from the voice is weak, [...]

Evan Williams Discussing Posture’s Relationship to Efficient Breathing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI4E3qnFTtY Singers study breathing as though they were trying to learn how to push out the voice or pull it out by suction. By standing in a sensible position with the chest high (but not forced up) the lung capacity of the average individual is quite surprising. A good position can be secured through the [...]