1
What is breath
As the most well-known vocal term- breath, I think everyone has heard it. Many vocal music teachers have emphasized breath all their lives, many students who have studied vocal music for a few days open their mouths and close their mouths to breathe, and even many ordinary people who have never been exposed to vocal music have to chat with vocal teachers or vocal students.
In terms of popularity, the breath in vocal music is like a dunk in a basketball, a drift in a racing car. Their role gradually extended to enable the melon-eating masses to integrate into the circle...
However, as a real thing, do we really know what the concrete expression of the breath looks like?
Breath is the airflow that is delivered by our lungs. This process is: we suck air into the lungs through our noses, and the lungs compress and purify the air to produce airflow, which will slowly rise from the trachea to our glottis when we make sounds, because of the exhalation effect.
At this time, a part of the air flow blows two vocal cords under the glottis, causing the vocal cords to form vibrations; the other part of the air flow intersperses through the gap between the two vocal cords and rushes to the mouth and nose, stirring up reverberations and forming resonance. The vibrations of the vocal cords combine with the resonance of the cavity, and ultimately produce the sound we make when we communicate or express emotions.
You will find that breath is not something that comes out of thin air, from nothing. Each of us has mastered the breath, and as long as we speak, we must have used the breath. Even if we don't speak, don't make a sound, look at the sky in a daze, and use the breath. Because, as human beings, we live in this world, inseparable from the process of inhalation and exhalation, and the process of inhalation and exhalation is essentially the process of breath operation.
Therefore, there is nothing mysterious about the breath at all, not only humans, but even the cute animals such as cats, cats, dogs and dogs, they have also mastered the breath, they can also use the breath, and it is the breath that supports them to be able to meow and meow.
2
The real relationship between breath and singing
The above discussion is bound to make many friends wonder, since everyone has breath, then, in vocal music teaching, special breath training does not seem meaningless?
Of course, such an idea is quite one-sided, for example, the essence of vocal teaching is the training of sound, but everyone also has a voice, is it difficult to teach vocal music without any meaning?
Whether there is mastery or not, and whether there is a good grasp, are always two things. That is to say, when a person sings, there will never be a situation of not using breath, and there may only be a situation of not using good breath. Manipulating the breath steadily and firmly is the meaning of breath training in vocal music teaching.
So, how can you master the breath? Quite simply, the better the texture of your voice, the better it proves that your breath is used better, and vice versa.
The flow of breath is always complemented by the closure and vibration of the vocal cords, so sound is the embodiment of breath. Nowadays, many vocal educators understand the breath, it is easy to get rid of the sound itself, in the eyes of these vocal educators, the breath is the breath, the sound is the sound. This is a manifestation of the severe lack of medical knowledge of the voice.
The breath required for singing has more complex requirements than when we usually speak. Just like the sound, we usually speak, do not care too much about whether the sound is high or low, strong or weak, casual, naturally good. Singing is not the case, singing must require accurate high and low tones, clear strong and weak voices.
Therefore, in the face of singing, whether it is the control of the output amount is large and small, or the control of the sense of direction when flowing, the complexity is much higher, and it still relies on the control of the usual speech, which obviously cannot be supported. This is the real reason why there is so much emphasis on breath training in vocal music teaching, not that we do not use breath, but that we do not use the breath required when singing.
3
The relationship between breath and abdomen
We have learned that when we make normal sounds, our breath is in a state of natural flow and does not have to be deliberately controlled. The requirements of singing for the complexity of the voice make us have to "calculate" in the use of breath.
So the problem is, controlling the vocal cords, which is invisible and intangible, has been very difficult, but fortunately, the vocal cords are still a solid. However, as a gas, how should we control it?
The answer is our belly.
Whether we inhale or exhale, our lungs are working and have nothing to do with our abdomen. This also makes some students who have a preliminary understanding of voice medicine wonder why the vocal music teacher emphasizes the movement of the abdomen so much since the breath originates from the lungs. The answer lies in the "output power" of the breath.
We speak normally, do not require high notes, do not require long tones, and do not require high notes and long tones to coexist, so the normal output of breath from the lungs is completely sufficient.
However, singing requires both high and long tones, and also requires the coexistence of high notes and long tones, in which case the lungs normally output breath, it will be difficult to support. Many vocal failures, such as squeezing and pulling, are often caused by these reasons.
Through the movement of the abdomen, we can effectively lift the diaphragm, set off the lungs, and make the breath output more powerfully, so as to meet our needs for high and long tones, as well as a variety of difficult sound forms.
Here we can talk about how the abdomen should be exercised. The movement of the abdomen is no more than two, the abdomen and the bulging abdomen. In the field of vocal education, supporters of these two forms of movement have also been controversial.
If we can understand vocal music according to the logic of vocal medicine, it is not difficult to understand, and when we make sounds, it must be correct to close the abdomen.
The process of making sounds is essentially the process of exhaling, that is, the process of our lungs transmitting breath outward. And if we want to let the breath of the lungs out more powerfully, we can't do without the diaphragm rising upwards. So, how can the diaphragm be raised upwards? The answer, of course, is to close the abdomen, not only simply inward, but also slightly upwards, so that our diaphragm can really rise upwards.
And when the sound is made, the most direct result is the stiffness of the diaphragm, or even collapse, in addition to the lung air flow transmission power can not provide support, but also affect the flow of our basic breath, so that the flexibility of our voice is greatly reduced.
Whether in theory (voice medicine) or in practice (the way the singer controls the lower abdomen), it all proves that the effect of abdominal constriction during vocalization must be completely incomparable to that of the drum abdomen. And when the sound is closed, due to the diaphragm rising upwards, so that our chest is gradually erect, this abdomen and chest double action, is many friends are familiar with the "chest and abdomen joint breathing method".
The breath is not mysterious, but the breadth of its display often makes many students misunderstand it in various ways. The biggest problem is that our understanding of various sound technologies is unitary, not integrated.
In fact, almost all vocal techniques are the result of being guided by breath, such as breath blowing the vocal cords to form vocal cord vibrations, such as breath rushing to each cavity to form the resonance of each cavity.
A foreign vocalist once said: The essence of singing is the art of breathing, the art of breath.
In fact, this sentence is not wrong, because because of the breath, our vocal cords can form vibrations; because of the breath, our various chambers can activate the resonance. Breath is the key that opens the door of sound, the bridge that connects every door of sound.
Friends who like to sing can click "Learn More" below the article (above the comments) to learn systematically