Sean Patrick
MUSED 258
September 4th, 2007
The Singer’s Voice
1991
Vol. 1&2: Breath
Caldwell, Robert & Joan Wall.
The Singer’s Voice: Breath (vol. 1)
Summary:
There are some pretty sweet graphics
Breath changes with emotions. Fear and determination, joy and anger, freedom
and oppression. In singing we want to convey these emotions in our singing.
This involves a very micromanaged control of breath.
Breath is a two way system: Inhalation and exhalation. The biology is also a two
way system although only one direction at the time.
The organs and muscles of the chest support and control the breath.
Lung biology: Soft elastic tissues, not muscles. Diaphragm extends downward.
Ribs expand the lungs outward. This is controlled by the intercostals muscles.
This creates a partial vacuum causing air to flow in. This is how we should
breathe rather than sucking, or gasping.
o External Intercostals: Contract to pull ribs upward and outward. More
important in singing.
o Internal Intercostals: Contract to pull ribs downward and inward.
Diaphragm biology: Upside down, and tilted backwards bowl. Two pillars
extend downwards. Completely separates the thorax from the abdomen. Assists
to extend the lower rib cage. Fits snugly against the viscera.
o Central Tendon: top of the dome that stabilizes up and down movement.
In singing we extend the normal process of breath. We take in more air, and
control the outflow of air by controlling our diaphragm and how quickly we allow
the rib cage/lungs to contract. When exhaling the diaphragm continues to be
contracted, and the abdominal muscles control the exhalation. In normal breath,
the diaphragm relaxes in exhalation.
o Muscle Antagonism: Muscles pulling against each other. This conflict of
muscles provides for maximum control.
Abdominal Muscles: Four sets of muscles that allow the body to control from 8
directions. Extend from the pelvic bone to the sternum across the ribs.
o Transverse Abdominals: innermost. Horizontal
o Rectus Abdominal: next most inside. Vertically. 6-pack muscles.
o Internal Oblique: next most inside. Diagonal from low outside to high
inside.
o External Oblique: outermost. Diagonal from high outside to low inside.
This control allows us to maximize our expression through breath management.
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Discussion:
Okay, so the movies are a bit dated in the way of production, however the subject
matter is really quite informative. There are indeed many more muscles that are
functioning in the chest than I had previously realized. I knew that the lungs were organs
and not muscles, but I had not thought about how the lungs physically take in air and
expel it. To me, it was just breathing. Throughout the movie I found myself testing the
muscles that were being displayed and described to allow myself to concentrate not on
the effects of the muscle movement but on the movement itself. I was particularly
intrigues by the muscles in the abdomen. I knew there were muscles there, but I did not
know there were four different sets of muscles there, and that each set pulled a different
way, thus allowing the pull in any of eight directions.
The second helpful element to the film was the presentation of specific biological
differences between the functioning of breathing under normal breathing and singing.
For example the diaphragm relaxes to expel breath, but in singing the abdominal muscles
control the exhalation.
As a fairly new singer, I’ve been fortunate enough to be given some great
experiences with students that have had much more training than I have. The result of
this is that I find that I do not have the training or knowledge of the developmental
processes. Much of what I do in singing has been subconscious manipulation of various
biological mechanisms and devices in order to imitate a sound modeled to me. Now I am
finding out what I am doing physically to produce the changes in sound. This puts
imagery with the vague sensory feeling when you use muscles or breath in different ways
that I have before.
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