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The Great Breathing Debate (Singing Teachers)
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Nice one, Monika!
Yep, just as I thought; recoil isn’t so complicated after all. Phew!
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I just shared this with my students and I thought I would post it here too, as I found it to be very relevant!
“For those of you that don’t already know, Gareth Malone is my idol. Hopefully you saw the inspiring and tear-jerking Christmas Number 1 by the NHS Choir. (If you haven’t, Youtube it right now!)
But something he did just before that was help those with breathing difficulties to sing. He brought together a group of 18 Americans, some of whom suffer with respiratory problems having been directly affected by 9/11.
This is an amazing story and the reason I’m sharing it with you is because singing basically ALWAYS comes down to confidence, no matter what physical or emotional barriers you have. Watch and be inspired
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXp0jenlSvg&index=3&list=PL3WBa0emAbeLOhMB44FslIiz7pyVbhjEa
Full story here: http://www.philips.co.uk/a-w/innovationandyou/article/extended-story/breathless-choir.html?&origin=|mckv|slOnAh2BP_dc&pcrid=85954895814|plid|&trackid=”
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Woah! Super inspiring:)
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@Eliza Woohoo! Guess my SEO must be working!
Let’s demystify the recoil breath. It helps to remember that the diaphragm only works ONE WAY. And that way is DOWN. Just like a bicep can only pull in one direction, the diaphragm can only flatten. This means that ‘singing from your diaphragm’ isn’t quite true, because the diaphragm isn’t active during singing.
@Monika – Great to have you here! The lungs do have some natural elasticity to them, but they don’t pull the air in when they rebound: just like a balloon doesn’t pull the air in after you deflate it. But 3 perfect exercises nonetheless.
The recoil breath comes down to one idea: wherever you place your attention, there will be tension. We’ve all seen this: students who, when you say ‘breathe’, inhale like a hoover doing screamo. Tons of visible neck tension, tons of audible ‘turbulence’ on the breath (which indicates laryngeal and FVF tension). Bad breathing.
This means that focusing on the in-breath is actually counter-productive. So recoil breathing focuses on the out-breath. In other words, you breathe out so your lungs completely deflate (on a ‘ff’ sound or any fricative), then allow the breath in. I replied to a post on reddit with a really helpful gif to describe it.
This actually comes from a practice called ‘Accent Method’ which Janice Chapman loves (but for which most of the books are out of print!), but ‘recoil breath’ was coined (I think!) by Jo Estill.
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The diaphragm isn’t active during singing?! Oh my god. But that’s what I teach everyone, to feel the power from your belly… I can feel it right now as I sing!
The out-breath focus is brilliant and I’m now really into fricatives:) and yes I’ve seen this lovely gif already Matt, as I am now a bit of a Pocock Follower. What do you think you’ll name your fans?
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