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
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