Breathing In Singing ~ Music and Youth

Breathing in Singing

Nature meant everyone to sing well, so the first point to remember about singing is that it is a natural thing, like speaking. Sing naturally and easily always, and you will be on the road to good singing. Allow yourself to become artificial, stiff, uncomfortable, and you are on the road to bad singing.

But even speech, which seems natural to us, needs practice if it is to be understood by other people. We have all to learn to control our tongue, our lips, and so on, although that control may come to us unconsciously. Other things which are natural still need practice. It is a very natural thing to hit the floor with a hammer or a stick, but it needs considerable practice before we can hit an exact spot or a special nail with a hammer. It is not greater force, greater effort that we want. It is just the knowledge of how to control and manage the power we have.

How Breathing Helps Expression

Have you never noticed that when you feel more strongly than usual, whether it is joy, indignation, sympathy, or surprise, you take a deeper breath than usual, and that you voice becomes at once more expressive than it ordinarily is, and that it expresses just those things which you were feeling when you took the breath?

Well, that’s just what should happen when you sing.  You must enter into the feelings which the poet and the composer have expressed, and take in a deep breath as if you yourself were in that very place or moment expressed in the song.

Breath in singing is not only the motive power that keeps the voice in action, but the power which makes it expressive. If you feel, and breathe as you feel, your voice will express what you feel to all who hear you. J

ONCE UPON A TIME ~ Music and Youth

ONCE UPON A TIME - A Little Tale with a Big Meaning

Once upon a time a man who loved books came across a story which charmed him very much. So much did it appeal to him that he wanted all his friends to know about it and to share his delight. He invited them to his house and asked them to listen to the story whilst he read it.

But somehow or other the charm of the story was lost, for his friends showed no enthusiasm whatsoever.

And the reason for his failure was that he could not speak properly and distinctly. Some of the words he pronounced wrongly, sometimes he ran the words and sentences into each other, sometimes he spoiled the meaning of the phrases by confusing the punctuation marks, and his voice was unmusical and expressionless.

As soon as the man realised what was lacking he started learning the art of Elocution, and in due time he called his friends together and read the story to them again. This time they shared his enthusiasm and the story lived in their memories :-)

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How many students can see their own image in the likeness of the man just described? J

Again and again we meet young musicians who are quick to appreciate the beauty of a piece of music, but their enjoyment is marred by the fact that they do not bring out the poetry of the work.

The notes are inaccurate, phrasing done poorly, the beauty blurred by thoughtless pedalling, and neither is the touch varied so as to give beauty and expression to the music. Consequently the playing has neither life nor rhythm and the listener is unable to appreciate the music at its true value.

To make the mind and the fingers work together in perfect concord needs careful exercise and practice of little details, for it is the little details that make all the difference between good and bad playing. J J