A CURE FOR NERVOUSNESS
It cannot be too widely advertised that the surest remedy for that torture of singers and speakers, nervousness, is the great tranquillizer,--quiet, deep breathing, deeply controlled. The breath of nervousness is quick, irregular, and shallow, therefore, take a few, slow, deliberate, deep, and _rhythmic_ inhalations of pure air through the nostrils, and the panting gasp of agitation will vanish.
As a help toward deepening the breath and overcoming the spasmodic, clavicular habit, inhale quietly and slowly through the nose, or slowly sip the air through the nearly closed lips as if you were sipping the inmost breath of life itself.
NECESSITY OF BREATHING EXERCISES
To acquire control of breathing, proper exercises must be intelligently and persistently followed. In mankind, nature seems to have been diverted from her normal course so that we seldom find an individual who breathes correctly without education in the matter.
What we have said on breathing is based on the premise that respiration involves coordinate action of the body from collar-bone to the base of the abdomen; that is, expanding and contracting the chest and abdomen simultaneously. This is called "lateral-abdominal"
breathing; as the chest is the thoracic cavity, "abdomino-thoracic"
has been suggested as brief and more strictly scientific.
Work on any other lines fails to develop the full power and quality of the voice. Weak breathing is a prime cause of throaty tones. In such cases an effort is made to increase the tone by pinching the larynx.
But this compresses the vocal cords, increases the resistance to the pa.s.sage of the breath, and brings rigidities that prevent proper resonance. The true way is to increase the wind supply, as does the organist.
CORRECT BREATHING ILl.u.s.tRATED
The following figures show the outline of correct breathing. The inner abdominal line shows the limit of expiration; the outer line shows the limit of full inspiration.
Figure 9 shows the limit of full expiration and inspiration of the male, side view.
Figure 10 shows the lateral expansion of the ribs in both expiration and inspiration, front view of the male.
The expansion cannot be great at this part of the chest, as the side is so short a distance from the backbone to which the ribs are attached. The movement of the ribs in front is much greater, as Fig. 9 shows.
Figure 11 shows the front expansion and contraction in the breathing of the female, side view.
Figure 12 shows the lateral expansion of the chest in the female, front view.
These diagrams are made from photographs, and thus true to life. It will be noticed that there is no difference in the breathing outline between these subjects. The female subject, though a good singer, had had no training in breathing. She previously insisted that she used only the chest breathing, and did not use the abdominal muscles, but actual test revealed the condition to be that shown in Figure 11 and convinced her that she was mistaken.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 9.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 10.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 11.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 12.]
It is not unlikely that many other singers who now think they are using only the high chest respiration would, if subjected to the same test, find themselves similarly mistaken.
The contraction incident to forced expiration is much more tense than the enlargement of forced inspiration. When singing or speaking, forced inspiration is not used. Experience shows that the change in size of the body during speaking or singing is usually small.
Occasionally, long pa.s.sages in music demand that the expulsive power of the breathing apparatus be used to its limit.
ECONOMY OF BREATH
The quant.i.ty of air taken in with a single inspiration is, in quiet breathing, according to Prof. Mills,[3] from twenty to thirty cubic inches, but this may be increased in the deepest inspiration to about one hundred cubic inches. In forcible expiration about one hundred cubic inches may be expelled, but even then the residual air that cannot be expelled is about one hundred cubic inches.
[Footnote 3: Dr. Wesley Mills, _Voice Production_, 1906.]
It is not, however, the quant.i.ty of breath inhaled that is significant, it is the amount _controlled_. Get, therefore, all the breath necessary, and keep it, but without undue effort and _without rigidity_.
To test the amount of breath used in prolonged vocalization, a person skilled in the art of breathing, after an ordinary inspiration, closed his lips, stopped his nostrils, and began to vocalize. He found that the mouth with distended cheeks held sufficient breath to continue a substantial tone for twenty-three seconds.
While these experiments show that very little amount or force of breath is needed to produce effective tones, the impression must exist in the mind of the performer that there is a free flow of breath through the larynx; otherwise the tone will seem restricted and will be weak. The forced holding back of the breath begets a restraint that has a bad effect on the singer"s delivery. While the breath must be controlled, there is such a thing as an exaggerated "breath control"
that makes free delivery of the voice impossible.
It is quite possible to _overcrowd_ the lungs with air. Do not, therefore, make the mistake of always taking the largest possible breath. Reserve this for the climaxes, and inhale according to the requirements of the phrase and its dynamics. The constant taking of too much breath is a common mistake, but trying to sing too long on one breath is another.
THE INITIAL USE OF BREATH FORCE
The breath force when properly employed seems to be expended in starting the vibrations in the larynx; the vibrations are then transmitted to the air in the resonance cavities, and there the perfected tone sets the outer air in motion, through which the tone vibrations are conveyed to the ear of the listener.
RESERVE BREATH POWER
The correctly trained singer or speaker will never allow the breath power to be exhausted. Some breath should be taken in at every convenient interval between the words, according to the punctuation, but never between syllables of a word; this is correct phrasing. In this way the lungs are kept nearly full, and breathing is at its best.
The chief cause of breath exhaustion is _wasted_ breath. This waste comes from exhaling more breath (more motive power) than the tone requires, and _breath that does not become tone is wasted_. This fault is largely induced by lack of proper resonance adjustment.
The singer should always feel able to sing another note or to speak another word. To sing or speak thirty or forty counts with one breath is useful practice but poor performance. Occasionally, long runs in singing may compel an exception. Half-empty lungs lower the pitch of the tone, lessen the resonance, and weaken the voice, rendering the last note of the song and the last word of the sentence inaudible. The breathing must not be forced, but enough air must be furnished to produce the proper full vibrations.
BREATH MASTERY
What then does perfect control of the breath mean?
1. Ability to fill the lungs to their capacity either quickly or slowly.
2. Ability to breathe out as quickly or slowly as the occasion demands.
3. Ability to suspend inspiration, with the throat open, whether the lungs are full or not, and to resume the process at will without having lost any of the already inspired air.
4. Ability to exhale under the same restrictions.
The above four points are common to speaking and singing, but singing involves further:
5. Ability to sing and sustain the voice on an _ordinary_ breath.
6. Ability to _quietly_ breathe as often as text and phrase permit.
7. Ability to breathe so that the fullest inspiration _brings no fatigue_.
8. Ability to so economize the breath that the _reserve is never exhausted_.
9. The ability to breathe so naturally, so un.o.btrusively, that _neither breath nor lack of breath is ever suggested to the listener_--this is the very perfection of the art.