Response to "Comparison of the Older Generation with Modern"

Sayão didn't have a great voice, no matter how she sang and if she passed over the orchestra. Her sound was always one of a lirico-leggiero and excelled in soubrette parts. As a full lyric she was not so sucessful, except in the French repertoire.
Also, her diction suffered from certain laziness. I'm brazilian and have some recordings of brazilian songs she did. They are awful. You cannot understand a word. She distorts the vowels voluntarily and it sounds like Polish. Granted, the recording technique was not so advanced then. I recognize she phrases well and makes good technical use of her little voice. But she is not one of my beloved singers. Maybe in the theater she was fantastic, I don't know, but I can't see a superstar quality in her voice.
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I appreciate your comments and opinions. From what you are saying it sounds like you don't think a light-lyric can be a great voice. I pointed out that she was a light-lyric soprano, and that was what she was best known for. I admit I am not very knowlegable about her. I am most familiar with her because she paired with Jussi Bjorling several times. Most notably in the 1947 "Romeo" from the Met, which is considered by many publications to be the greatest live opera recording available. All of the opinions I have heard have been very positive. As I said in the post, when I have heard her I tend to feel that the tone is a little too white for my taste. But in this particular recording it is much more balanced. It is interesting that you mention Polish since she studied with the Polish tenor Jean De Reszke.
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I think that singing with some breath moisture to the tone is not such a great sin. Garcia admitted the use of aspired "h" in Rossini coloratura. Not to mention the idea of Vennard of an imaginary "h", that inevitably leads to some air escaping (although imperceptibly) before the sound being uttered.
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The use of the breath in the tone is what I have been referring to recently as a belief. It is not based on the laws of nature. Imagine any other instrument functioning with an equal defect as breath in the tone and it becomes obvious that it is a big problem. A violin with a slipping bow ruins the vibration. A trumpet leaking breath results in no tone. A clarinet with a cracked reed doesn't work. The voice is the only instrument that can give a result, and a surprisingly good one in some cases, even when it is functioning at an incomplete degree.


I am not familiar with that opinion of Garcia. Everything I have ever read from him and other master teachers of that generation expressly stated that an aspirate should not be used for the coloratura. The reason being it actually slows down the response of the vibration. And Vennard's concept that you refer to was absolutely not meant to include breath. I admit that he did have a tendency to allow too much air in the tone of some of his students. But this particular concept was meant to help people feel the release of the throat while still allowing the vocal folds to vibrate in a closed position. Note that it is an imaginary "h", not an actual "h". By imagining an "h" it was intended to keep the air-way open so the vocal folds would close without closing the throat. Also by thinking an "h" without actually saying one helps to give action to the breath without causing it to go past the vibration. It is important to remember that just because we don't want breath in the tone or to leak out of the voice it doesn't mean we don't still use the breath in the act of singing. The breath is an integral part of the coordination. It must be compressed towards the larynx to feed the continuous vibration of the vocal folds. But if it goes past the folds it is wasted because the only purpose the breath has is to feed the vibration. It serves no purpose above the larynx. The challenge lies in coordinating the application of breath pressure and the resistance of the vocal folds.
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Imagine a student or established singer who has a tendency to squeeze the folds, who has a pressed voice. Isn't it what he is supposed to do? Use the airflow to his advantadge, to relieve tension? We know that ideally the edges of the folds must offer a slight resistence to the air and I don't mean singing opera as a crooner. A balanced attack is not a breathy onset but also cannot be a grunt and make the singer uncomfortable, as if pressing his folds. So, I think this is an individual issue.
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This is exactly what I'm talking about. The need to coordinate these opposing forces. And what you describe does seem to make sense on the surface. But if we go deeper into the situation we can find other alternatives that are more correct.


If a singer is squeezing the folds to create what is called "pressed phonation" it is caused by muscles extrinsic to the larynx and excessive to balanced function. These are muscles that cannot be active during breathing, so it can be helpful to momentarily allow some breath to pass while phonating to experience those muscles letting go. But it must not be a long term crutch. The closure of the glottis, without extraneous help, only resists the breath pressure to the degree that the edges are caused to vibrate. If the glottis is able to stop the breath and resist it to the degree that the vibration is distorted, like you describe, than that is the result of extra muscles. Not just the intrinsic laryngeal muscles. So the logical remedy is not to use airflow, but to remove the extra muscular involvement. Then we can start to experience the proper balance in the relationship between the larynx and the breath. If we start to use airflow as a crutch we have just created a new problem.


You mention a grunt. Yes, a grunt is too extreme for the purpose of singing. But it is in the same family of natural functions as the act of singing. Allan Lindquest and others have talked about thinking of a mini-grunt. I find exploring the feeling of a whimper to have the most potential for people. A whimper is like a grunt in that it includes the action of the body in compressing the breath. It also resembles crying. But the difference from grunting and crying is the whimper is much smaller in size and intensity than either of these other functions. It also has more of a relationship to the lighter register adjustment, where the grunt and crying (forceful crying) are more related to the thicker lower register. 


The upper register, for both women and men, is a very productive condition of the vocal folds. They can be close together but very flexible at the same time. The flexibility allows us to apply just about as much breath pressure as we want and the folds will work with that pressure productively, rather than work against the pressure and get stiff and dampen the vibration, or the opposite and release the breath.


The key point to recognize is that the function of the voice is based on the relationship between the pressure from the breath and the resistance to that pressure from the larynx. If either of these opposing forces overpowers the other we are no longer in balance. So in the condition you describe the force of resistance is overpowering the force of pressure. If you resort to air-flow you have just changed the condition to one of insufficient resistance, which by default results in the opposite condition of the breath over-powering the resistance. As I said earlier, a new problem.


This condition of the breath pressure over-balanced in relation to the resistance is my definition of falsetto. Many people use that term to describe any kind of upper register adjustment. I feel it is more accurate to define it as a "false vibration". A condition where the resistance of the vocal folds is lacking and the breath is not completely turned into vibration. This is what happens with unbalanced breath flow. (Again, I point out that the opposite of just stopping the breath is not what we are after either) So in reality we can have a falsetto condition in either register and in both males and females. Much of the so-called "legit" or "classical" singing being performed by high-school aged singers is actually falsetto. It contains an excess of breath in the phonation and a lack of balanced resistance. This would also be an accurate definition of "crooning". An unbalanced condition where the breath is freely flowing through the glottis lacking an appropriate level of resistance. Generally crooning is recognized to primarily exist in the lower register and falsetto generally in the upper register.


Getting back to the condition you describe. The logical remedy is not to encourage an increase in air-flow, but to reduce the excess resistance. The weight of resistance needs to balance the weight of breath pressure to allow a coordinated function. In the same way a violinist can press the bow into the string excessively, we can fall into the trap of having an excessive weight of resistance to the breath. (This is usually caused by the root of the tongue, not the folds themselves) The results are similar as well. The violinist that has too much pressure on the string from the bow interferes with the vibration of the string, causing it to be dampened. A similar thing happens in the voice where the muscles "crush" the vibration stimulating the body to push the breath pressure harder to get through the excess resistance. This results in a harsh, excessively intense vibration.


The characteristics of a balanced condition that we are looking to achieve include a steady weight of breath pressure that is almost automatic from the proper posture. And a relatively light weight of resistance from the larynx. An image to help with the weight of resistance is to think of the larynx as a feather, bubble, or some other kind of near-weightless object. The idea being if the breath is too forceful the balance of the larynx will be blown out. So we are looking for a delicate condition, not just a hard stoppage of the breath.
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There are some singers, like Cecilia Bartoli, who uses this all the time and even exaggerates, that sing with much more fire (even very difficult repertoire) than those with perfect techniques. And I prefer them, once they can be heard. Bartoli only sings in medium-size rooms. Fleming sings in large houses and, as a very critical acquaintance from Germany told me, she fills the room. She started her career very well, but now she abuses with scoopings and crooning a bit. No one knows really what happens. They are very demanded and the toll is heavy. Maybe she uses that as some kind of compensation. Also, I think she is weighing her voice a little bit to sound more dramatic. I have a Don Giovanni from the Met in DVD which is not that good. She is making her voice very dark and heavy artificially and by the end of the performance you feel she is tired.
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These observations contribute to my point. The lack of audibility in the hall is a common complaint with Bartoli. And over time allowing extra breath to escape causes the voice to deteriorate. Hence the scooping and crooning. It is gradual so the singer doesn't really notice until it is significant. And the artificial dark quality is the most common side-effect. If fact many singers want the tone so dark that they allow the breath in order to achieve that. 


The point I'm trying make with this comparison is not to say Bidu Sayao was the greatest soprano to ever live. Just the opposite. She was a very good artist with an average instrument and with good function she became world-famous. Renee Fleming and Anna Netrebko are world-famous because of great instruments and their artistry in spite of their functional limitations. The expectations of singers now are different than they were in past generations. Singers needed to compete with the greatest instrumentalists, and they did. Now the vocal function has no resemblance to that of great instrumental technique.

Detailed Explanation of the "Farinelli Breathing Exercise"

A reader of this blog wrote in response to the posts about breathing exercises. She gave a wonderful explanation of the exercise referenced as the "Farinelli Exercise". I asked her if I could post it and she agreed. So hear it is.

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Dear Michael:

 

I was rereading your blog and noticed a mention by one writer in his question (dealing with silent breathing exercises) about the Farinelli breathing exercise.

 

I am very familiar with this exercise, and even though it is mentioned and given by Mr. Miller in his book on singing, he really doesn't go into it enough. It is not an exercise that is unique to Farinelli either, but was a common breathing exercise of the day.

 

As we discuss the Castrati, we have to remove all this junk now associated with them. Firstly: castration did NOT increase the ability of the singer to sing long phrases, or the lung power of the singer, or what have you. Secondly: it did not give the castrati their huge voices (which must be seen today in light of the times; orchestras were smaller, and even if some theatres then did seat large audiences, the reverence we show during performances didn't occur; it was a bedlam of noise, and often the critics we read were well placed in boxes and not amongst the regular attendees; voices of today are required to sing over orchestras many times larger with instruments with far larger and more piercing sounds; we also sing at a much higher diapason for the most part, and the average theatre today is the size of their large theatres of that day). Nor were all castrati, even sopranos, high pitched in sound. Whenever a castrato was replaced by a female singer, the one used most often was a contralto or mezzo, not a high female soprano. Also, according to Tosti, who was a castrato, the voice did change, but not as drastically as normally, but it did change through time. That is why it was not rare to hear a soprano castrato when he was 16 later in his 30s becoming a contralto. Also, as they reached about 30 the lower extension entered the voice, often of an octave or more below middle C. And they were want to use that range a great deal. Of course, since all singers are unique, one cannot apply everything to every singer.

 

When one goes through their music, as recorded by them, not just hearers of performances (and yes, most castrati wrote out their embellishments, they did not do them as we are often lead to believe ad libium, though some did; Farinelli wrote out his ornamentation in detail, and in most all his famous arias we have record of all his variations, and seldom did he even venture above the staff, though it was not rare for him to descend to the F below middle C; Velluti was known to have at least 3 sets of variation for whatever he sang, and if you can still find it, the printed piano score of Meyerbeer's opera Il Crociato in Egitto - by a no longer existent German printer -- contains all his variations that he used in the score; interestingly he often lowered Meyerbeer's keys as much as a 5th, and his embellishments often took him to the D below middle C, and only to the A above the staff; and his embellishments are extraordinarily difficult, but with one major flaw -- the melody is often so overly embellished the actual tune vanishes), one will see just where their voice centers lie.

 

People write of their ability to sing a full minute without breathing, and we get such accounts from observers who couldn't see the signs of breathing normal for that day: raised shoulders, etc. When you study their methods of breathing and their training, it is all very modern, much as we teach breathing today. In that day and age, few singers other than the castrati were taught much in the way of breathing, though some singers really did excel with it by observation of good singers. Women wore corset and had very shallow breathing (and the corset actually became their support, which I will deal with when speaking of the use of an elastic rib brace to learn to breathe). I do not doubt they could hold their breath for two minutes, but so could Montserrat Caballe. When one reads the writings of famous castrati who taught singing, one is aware of the teaching that one can breathe anywhere one wants as long as one don't spoil the musical line. That is a key to remember.

 

Since the castrati has such low breathing methods, low in the body, one never noticed any signs of breath being taken. In fact, with many good singers today, one doesn't notice any breath being taken. The biggest difference is they perfected the art of partials or half-breaths, to which we do not attach much importance.

 

Though Miller does mention the idea of partials when explaining this exercise, he really doesn't go into detail about how the exercise works, at least not to the point it really becomes clear. I had a teacher who worked me with this exercise all the time, and she explained it in detail (she had learned it from Calve who learned it from some famous Castrato of the Sistine Chapel).

 

The most important point to remember is it is NOT an exercise to build large expansion or lung capacity. It is an exercise to learn breath control. It is easy to confuse its purpose just by reading the explanation of how it is done.

 

As we know, one inhales for so many counts, holds the breath for an equal amount of counts, and releases the breath with the exact same amount of counts. That is the exercise in a nutshell. As you repeat the exercise, you increase the number all across the board. let us say, you began with 6 counts, when you repeat it you do 7, the next repeat you do 8, etc. On the surface one would think you increase the amount of breath you take in with each increase in the count. That is the mistake. One takes in exactly the same amount of breath from the beginning of the exercise to the end. All one is changing is HOW LONG it takes to take in, hold, and release that same amount of breath. The other important point is that at no time do you stop between sets. When you finish your 6 count set, you immediately begin the 7 count set. This is where the difficulty often arises: one is want to take a breath in, a full breath in, as soon as you finish the exhalation, but you must not do that; instead you must immediately begin a very slow inhalation. The expansion of the chest and lower breathing muscles never increases in capacity, but goes from the exhaled position to the full breath position (which is attained by the end of the inhalation). Also, even though the holding portion of the exercise is seen today as not needed in singing, its purpose is to learn to hold back air with the body, not the throat. One attains full expansion and keeps it, and one maintains full expansion throughout the exhalation process as well. The only thing "coming in" is the lower abs, and only at the last moments of exhalation.  

 

One also is to do the exercise at a slower tempo. Now days, we often read that to set the metronome at about 50 beats to the minute is the best way of doing things. We must remember that back then, in Farinelli's day, the metronome was not invented. The only time on which they based musical pulses were the natural rhythms of the heart; basically the human pulse rate. The speed of music was governed basically as faster than the natural pulse or slower. It is because of this fact that we often have troubles with Baroque Music. In the Victorian times, it was conducted so slowly and stately that it literally didn't hold together. We still hear performances of Handel's Messiah that way. The piece becomes deadly dull, and many of the fine choruses and solos drag, and almost become "too religious" in nature.

 

Many more "authentic versions" have realized that the pulse of the music was much faster than we hear it today. And often the rate of the heart beat is used as a reference. As a results, many of Handel's "grave" markings in 4/4 time are given 8 beats to the measure because with each eighth note receiving about 65 beats to the measure, the entire piece does become slower, more a grave marking, but doesn't lose its forward momentum.

 

That is the other key to doing this exercise: one must constantly think of forward momentum. Yes, you may not be singing notes, but you are keeping time, and the exercise must MOVE, or it becomes too boring to do, and too hard to keep the breath.

 

Now a curious thing happens as you increase the length of time doing the exercise: as you take longer and longer to inhale, the body needs to stop taking in a very smooth breath, like you were able to do in the beginning. The number count varies with the individual, but for me, about the count 12, I need to take in very small breaths. I will begin at that count taking in a very smooth measured breath, but as I near 9 my body needs to stop taking breath in and inhale through small partials until the lungs are full, or when I reach 12. The sustaining part is then quite easy, and even though the body muscles not the throat are holding back the breath, an extreme sense of calm fills the body, then one begins the release of breath, and because of this calm, it releases very slowly without forming any gagging motions or sensations. Once this partial inhalation begins you can increase the overall count as high as is comfortable, but I seldom went higher than 20. It really isn't needed. 

 

The other key in doing this exercise is that at no time do you ever feel the breath rising any higher in the body than the sternum. It is as if all breath stops there. Everything above that point on the body feels calm and relaxed. And in fact, at no time during any part of the exercise does anything above the sternum feel like it is in any way involved with what you are doing.

 

In addition to this exercise, my teacher then had me (immediately after finishing it; it seems these exercises become more beneficial if done this way) she had me do measured inhalations and singing combined. We would take a very quick inhalation (which should fill the lungs with all the air you need, even for a very long passage), then sing a line of music (it didn't matter what, as we used repertoire most of the time, in fact, the music I was learning as it helped phrase it more effectively). Whatever length of time was written in the rests in the music was how long I had to take to inhale. If it were a single 16th rest, that is all the time I could take; and if it were a whole rest, I had to take that amount of time exactly. If the rests occurred over more than one measure, I slowly took in the breath at whatever pace I wanted, but allowed myself quite a bit of time for the pause before I began to sing. If multiple measures of rests occurred (you know, about 6 or more) I simply took in the breath at the end of the original phrase as the body wanted to take it in (which was quicker than one would think, like is natural when you need more breath), and I would breath normally and in the most relaxed fashion as I awaited my entrance. Now there after we used two different approaches to the next phrase of music: if I knew I would need a touch more breath than just what was in my lungs from normal breathing, I would anticipate the phrase, taking a measured breath in a few notes prior to entry but still allowing me time to pause before singing; but I was to make certain that at no time did I feel "filled up" with this measured breath, I was to feel simply like I was ready to sing; the other approach, if the amount of time was not too long a wait, was to simply activate the breathing mechanism as if I were going to sing right then, letting out a touch of air, pausing, then beginning the musical phrase I was to sing. It was completely up to me to decide which method best suited the situation. The key was to make sure there was no built up stress or pressure around the throat and no choking sensations. One was NEVER to feel "too full" of breath. If ever I felt too full, I was told to release as much breath as needed to remove that sensation, but do it before the time I had to sing, and still allow me time to pause and prepare all the support for the phrase.

 

After singing a while like this, we then went to extremely long coloratura passages, ones that were many measures long, as long as 30 measures (we used much music written for the castrati). It was here I learned the art of partials and just how quickly they can flit by. Before beginning any long passage like that, we went through it to discover the musical phrases. Yes, long passages like that are actually made up of many much shorter phrases, and to make it seem as if you have never taken a breath at all it is absolutely essential that breathing never happen in the wrong place. Even if it is the shortest breath imaginable, it shines like the sun, as the hearer instantly hears an inappropriate break.

 

I marked all these musical phrases with ticks. Actually, most of the castrati of old did the same thing with small dots over the ends of musical phrases to mark when partials were to be used. I had to remember that these partials were to be as small as possible, and that I was NOT filling the lungs to full capacity with them, but rather, only restoring what air I had already used. We began a bit slower so as to make sure I was accustomed to singing partials in the correct place and not lose the momentum of the music. Once I was used to the idea of where and when to breathe, we increased the tempo to the correct speed, and I had to keep all the partials where I had them marked. Once the skill is learned, one realizes that one NEVER has to tank up with air (which defeats the entire purpose of breathing forcing you to exhale all your air immediately). And one always has quite enough for any given phrase, for even the longest phrase is made up of many very small phrases.

 

One other thing with partials is there is no motion in the body. One doesn't feel the release of the inhalation muscles one feels when taking a regular breath. One feels only a pulse at the solar plexus area and nothing more. It is a very small pulsation to be sure. Also, so that the partials work, one doesn't feel the slightest bit of collapse in the chest. One does push out but one doesn't allow things to fall in. This is where the holding part of the exercise, so often discounted today as not needed, helps, for you accustom the body to keep itself in the full inhaled position, which is needed to allow the partials to enter the body without obstruction. If things are allowed to fall or come in too far, as one does with normal singing, there is too much body to move or reinflate for the partials to work quickly and as they should.

 

Also, when partials are used properly, there is no sensation of "stored up air" like one often feels when they don't have time to release all the air in their body during dramatic fast moving music. The art of using partials would remove that problem from most dramatic singers, as they would not be filling up their lungs during rests, and ultimately storing it, but rather they would be restoring only a small portion of what was used and never over-filling the lungs.

 

I also learned it takes time, a long time, to perfect the use of partials so one can sing extremely long lines of coloratura, or many super short dramatic phrases without feeling tanked up with air. For the short phrases, the "cough off" is often used, and most effectively, but one cannot use that with long coloratura phrases. One has to keep an equilibrium of breath with the feeling that everything is relaxed and open.

 

I hope this helps in understanding more fully that Farinelli exercise that Miller talks about, that was mentioned by a person who wrote in a question about breathing for you to deal with. As I say, it is a very involved process, but well worth the time to learn.

 

Thank you for your time

Bea Stewart

More Questions about Breathing

I would like to know how much emphasis is put on silent breathing exercises by this school. I'm eagerly waiting for Mr. Jones' book, but it was not published yet.
I came up with another doubt. I perceive that somehow many singers take the admonition of suspending the breath too far and sing in apnea, I mean, not allowing the airflow to come out in a controlled way, naturally, attempting to sing with a minimal breath. It causes a sort of muscular struggle, too much effort around the neck, veins visible, the larynx unstable... My question is: should the singer focus on the air flowing through the open larynx(under the control of the muscles of the torso)or should he focus on the opening of the ribs? I suppose the latter is conducive to hyperextension...am I wrong? I think that there lies the importance of silent breath exercises. You have the mechanics, so it happens automatically, only in difficult passages your attention to the intake of air is called for, and you can sing freely. Sadly, I notice teachers claiming it is unecessary to practice silent breath exercises because the coordination is only obtained through vocalizing...I think they take the teaching of Richard Miller too far, because even Miller mentioned and prescribed the famous Farinelli exercise. And if he wanted, he couldn't deny it and still claim any fidelity with the teaching of the old italian school.


These are good questions and I don't know if I can give definitive answers. But I can give you my view. This school of training does agree that the breath should be silent. That was something that was stated clearly by Lamperti and it was recognized by the Swedish practitioners. It is easy to see why this is recommended, when we can hear the inhalation it tells us that the airway is constricted. This is a closed throat and will have a negative influence on the resonance and freedom of the phonation. I agree that it is possible to take the concept of suspending the breath too far. We can take any concept too far. That is why I try to frequently remind people that we are after balance. The purpose is not to suspend the breath as much as we can. It is to suspend the breath to the necessary degree that allows our voice to vibrate without the release of excess, unvocalized breath. You are correct that there should not be muscular effort around the neck. We suspend the breath to avoid the struggle around the neck. That is a response by the body attempting to compensate by closing the throat, restricting the breath from escaping too fast because it isn't being coordinated by the body. Another important part of this coordination is the adjustment of the vocal folds and the glottal opening. The more naturally the glottis closes the less difficulty there is in suspending the breath appropriately and the more open the throat will stay. Joseph Hislop once told Allan Lindquest to let the glottis control the breath. In other words let the vibration control the emission of the breath. This makes a lot of sense since this is what our purpose is, to phonate and sing. So everything we do needs to be in relation to our ultimate purpose, to sing. So I would say we should never have air flowing through an open larynx. The larynx needs to be closed to provide a pure vibration. The airway/pharynx above the larynx should be open to provide an effective resonator to amplify the vibration sound created by the larynx. Silent breathing exercises are helpful for sensitizing our body and for keeping the airway open when we inhale. They also help to reinforce the coordination of the torso for the preparation to sing. But only through singing do you really develop the coordination to sing because singing is not about suspending the breath. That is only the preparation. The breath must be suspended so we can allow the glottis to close and then use the abdomen to provide a compression of breath to cause and continue a vibration of the vocal folds. What I observe happening usually is people trying to sing while exhaling, which is contradictory. You either breath or you sing, but you can't do both at the same time. At least not very well. This may be new for some readers, but it is a fact of nature. We have to stop breathing and then sing. This is because the glottis opens when we breath, which weakens the vibration. The body then reacts by using the root of the tongue to try and control the breath. Making sure the glottis closes is the most important part of having an open throat as well as providing a clean vibration.

Another Comment on Breathing

I think that at least 50% of singing is knowing how to breath and how to spare the breath. When one reads the old masters of bel canto (Mancini, Tosi, Garcia, Francesco e Giovanni Lamperti), they all agree with that, and always emphasize the importance of breathing exercises.
Montserrat Caballè, for example, declared that at the beginning of her training, for 8 to 9 months, her teacher had her practicing ONLY breathing exercises, so that the muscles were used to the task they had to do. And she always states in her masterclasses she is unable to proceed her daily obligations before facing 20 minutes of breathing exercises.
By observing singing teachers today, I myself believe this breathing issue is much overlooked and, when it is taught, it is done the wrong way, I mean, pushing down and out (when it is only a natural and discrete reflexive response of a well-developed apparatus, a slight resistance), hyperextension of the rib cage, and other "inventions" that I feel end up giving a feeling of choking. It seems that the student is preparing to become a professional diver. It creates only tension on the voice, I feel.
I know of many singers that dare to sing difficult repertoire (beyond their reach) who don't have a clue of how to breath. They usually repeat what their teachers say, defending it is useless to train at all, a position that contradicts the teachings of old school.
I would like to pose a question here. What the Swedish/Italian school has to say about the practice of breathing in terms of muscular training? I have read for years the articles of Mr.Jones about the concepts of the school, but I feel it is particularly difficult to put in practice the "breathing to the small of the back". My question is: practicing the intake of air based on this principle and expirating slowly is enough, or one must also keep the chest (la fontanella, solar plexus)CONSCIOUSLY up all the time? I always thought it should be acquired with time and practice, when one gains strength and not by imposing this position to the torso.
I beg your pardon for my english. I'm a 27-years-old brazilian guy and still learning...

Thank you for your comments. I agree with your first statement to a degree. The problem is most people don't know what it means to spare the breath. But you can describe what I'm talking about that way. Unfortunately, at the same time I see too much emphasis on breathing and breathing exercises. What I mean is there are too many people who place too much importance on the breath itself. Now, learning how to coordinate our breathing is very important, and Lamperti is quoted as saying the breath should be a year in advance of the voice. But that does not require exercise of a building or strengthening nature, the breath doesn't need to lift anything with its flow. It is more about developing flexibility and coordination in the posture and breathing muscles in order to sustain the necessary suspending and compression of the breath. I encourage people to look at what happens naturally to our body when we have positive emotional responses. When we are excited and celebrating, joyful, enthusiastic; emotional conditions that we can imagine would stimulate singing in nature; the body responds with an uplifted condition. There is a gentle stretch in the torso and an opening in the ribcage. This uplifted condition corresponds to an inspired feeling. Along with the lift in the sternum and ribs the abdomen takes a slightly drawn in position. It is important to note that when doing these things we need to watch out for the unconscious tendency of thinking, "If a little is good then more is better". This invariably leads to over-doing things and destroys balance. Remember that balance is the objective in everything we do. If we keep the abdomen drawn in as we inhale, the sensation of the breath is felt in the lower back. This must never be an extreme thing. I have heard some people claim that if the abdomen is kept in while breathing that you will be forced to take a high chest breath. This is just not so. Even while keeping the abdomen drawn in there is still enough flexibility for there to be a slight expansion in the abdomen, along with the lower back and the lower ribs laterally. This becomes much easier to accept when we realize that we don't need a maximum amount of breath in order to sing. We should always breath positively but comfortably. Because of the emphasis on the breath there tends to be quite a bit of over-breathing. This is just about equal to the amount of under-breathing there is. Our objective is to find that balance in the respiration that we can comfortably suspend the breath and allow the vocal folds to vibrate freely and intensly resulting in an accoustically productive tone. I agree that there is a general ignorance to the natural coordination of the breath that was demonstrated by the older, great singers. What tends to happen is an exaggeration of what comes natural. And instead of allowing things to come naturally we are encouraged to exercise deliberate action on our body and over-ride the instinctive reactions that would happen to fulfill our desire for tone. That is ultimately what singing should be, an instinctive reflex of the body to fulfill the desire for tone to express emotion.

Breath IS the Problem

I have many people come to me either in person or over the Internet with some problem or other and tell me that their last teacher told them they needed to remedy the issue with more breath. This advice has tended to be the solution to every vocal problem for many teachers. I have even heard the advice given first hand. I hate to say it, but they are just making the problem worse. In many of these cases the breath is the problem, so by recommending more breath it just makes things worse. The breath needs to be well coordinated to allow the vocal mechanism to function freely. It must be remembered that the voice and the breath must balance each other. If you increase the breath it risks knocking that relationship out of balance. The breath should not be dealt with directly because this imposes the breath onto the voice. Instead we should allow the breath to respond reflexively to the needs of the moment. If we want to crescendo, then we do that and the breathing system reacts to the need to participate. In action it is really quite simple, but it requires that the body be in the proper state, or condition, in order for it to respond reflexively. This is why posture is so important. More on this later.