Weekly Wisdom

"The hook-up between technique and the singing personality is developed by inducing a spirit of buoyancy and an elevated, inspired mental attitude, even in voice-building exercises and scales. Attitudes such as prayer, praise, joy, and pleading are induced at the same time that physical action is stressed. Breath comes because one has something to say while singing, even if it is only a vowel or a scale, and there is no effort to control the breath by locking the diaphragm or holding the ribs...Then the breath for the new phrase came automatically with the idea that something new was to be said. He (Dr. Bratt) believed also that this breath action reflexively opened and freed the throat without local throat consciousness, for he regarded the larynx and pharynx not only as a part of the phonating apparatus, but also as a freely opening part of the breathing mechanism." - Security in Singing, Bulletin of NATS, April-May 1949, by Allan Rogers Lindquest