Do I REALLY Hate the Word 'Support'? Breath Support for Singing
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- čas přidán 26. 03. 2018
- As I formulated my own response to the question "What does it mean to 'support' the singing tone?" and as I listened to the answers given by other singing teachers, I found myself rethinking the reasons why I ever rejected the term 'support.' Here's what I really think about this word.
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karyn@singwise.com
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Absolutely! I've found in my own teaching that it's important to have multiple ways to explain each concept, because different words conjure up different mental imagery and physical responses from different singers.
Hail and blessing, Karyn.
I must confess I used to have a similar problem with another term, it was "chest voice", "chest resonance" and suchlike. It caused me to want my voice to sound really "chesty" and imposing; but what I did in reality was apparently just the pushing down the larynx with the tongue root (not strong, though, because I tried to keep the NG-position at the same time) while letting the soft palate sink. You can imagine how that sounded. Well, first after some time I learnt (from you, I think, so it's one reason more to thank you) that the chest isn't a resonator in reality. In this case, the term "head voice" does also not make any sense because the amplifying always happens in the head in any case. So, in this point I agree: Incorrect and therefore confusing terms shouldn't be used too extensive. In any case I wouldn't speak of "chest voice" and "head voice" if I would teach somebody to sing - at the most, I would mention that there are such terms and they may be familiar to the student.
Otherwise, I think also, if one knows, if one is explained what happens in there when he or she tries to do so or so, it makes no big difference to him or her how this process or phenomenon is called because the (perhaps negative) imaginations would not play such a big role then. But maybe it's just solipsism.:-)
I couldn't agree more. I can't believe in 2018 people still use the extremely misleading terms "chest voice" and "head voice". Vocal pedagogy reduced to pseudoscience...
Hi!! Congratulations for your videos! Would you make a video about exercises for consonants positioning? How to sing them without bouncing everywhere and losing the real projection of the vowels. That's a tough topic which I guess is of everybody's interest. Thanks!
Thank you. I do have a playlist that addresses consonants and diction. Please check it out and let me know if there are any gaps in that series and I'll happily add more videos to it.
You touched one of the major problems in teaching that is not really discussed: language and vocabulary. Jerome Hines argues this is the primary problem in teaching, and some words might mean different things to anyone. For example, the words head voice and falsetto. Some say they are the same, some say they aren't different, and some do not believe in either falsetto or head voice at all.
It really is tough to establish a common vocabulary. In so many other fields (e.g., medicine), vocabulary is very factual and clear cut and therefore common across the entire field. I think the fact that there is still some science that's still up in the air with regards to the voice doesn't help matters.
No Karyn. Your initial impulse to reject the term "breath support" was actually very astute. It is stupid and misleading. What exactly are you supporting? It creates the illusion that you are supposed to do some kind of weight lifting with your diaphragm, when in reality it's nothing more than breath management, like you said.