When / while talking and singing we use three systems:
• breathing system
• laryngic system
• resonator system

This lesson is devoted to an important part of the breathing system: the diaphragm and its movements.

Our body is a wonderful musical instrument. However to let it play we need to know how it works. Let us start from the breathing, so important to sing, talk and … to live.

To breathe well is essential to sing in a right way. Of course a correct breathing is not enough to sing well, but this is the most important thing to know to sing.

The diaphragm, whose etymological meaning is `what is in the middle', is the core of the breathing system. The diaphragm is a muscle with a large and convex shape witch divides the torax from the abdomen. When we inspire the diaphragm bends like a dome-shaped and in this way it can better hold the note.

What is the diaphragm for?
Besides dividing the two cavities with different functions, the diaphragm is the chief support of the sound and among its functions there is to hold a note. We could even compare it with a sound-tray.

To feel the `presence' of the diaphragm is one of the most difficult things for a singer, nevertheless is something you cannot give up.

To this purpose, here are some simple excercices:

Let us laugh, first low and then higher, trying to feel the subsultory
movements of this muscle.

Now we can try to yawn: in this way the diaphragm reaches its maximum
bending to hold the note. This excercise is useful to realize the position of your
mouth space and your pharynx, which you should always keep open while
singing to allow the right sound passage (this will be discussed in the
incoming lessons).

We can notice how the dyaphragm is involved in the hiccups or when we sob
(this cannot exactly defined an excercise and, indeed, I hope that we can prove
the presence of the diaphragm in this way as less often as possible).

Who attends singing lessons, can easily feel this muscle during the excercise of
picchettato sound.

This is the back of the diaphragm:



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Inspiration and expiration

To breath mens to inhale and to exale.

The inspiration.
First of all when inspiring, it is recommandable to try to "fill up" completely with air all of the lungs.
In fact the most commom mistake most of people do when inspiring is to fill up with air only the upper part of the lung (called "clavicle breathing").

We should bear in mind this "rule" of inspiration not only when singing but in every moment of our life.
In fact "clavicle breathing" is harmful for human body because makes it possible only a limited and inadequate oxigenation of our blood.
Modern life, with his hurry and stress, is the main responsable for this wrong style of inspiration. In fact animals and children breathe "naturally" filling up completely with air lungs.

Breathing starts from the nose (see: "Suggestion for the Voice"). Air reaches lungs (that as said must be fill up completely); then procedes to abdomen that swells out slightly.
The diphragm rises of several centimetres, then lower ribs "open" themselves laterally while diphragm lowers itself a little bit.
Chest is, in this very moment, wider vertically as well as laterally as, an effect of the lowering of diaphragm.
It is important to underline that the widening of ches is a consequence of the right inspiration and does not involve any movement of shoulders: shoulders must remain stationary and must not "rise" themselves.

The expiration.
Abdomen is still tonic to give pressure and to regulate it; diaphragm moves back in its originally position; ribs "close" themselves back.
During singing this "movement" must be controlled trying to delay rib's closure through abdomen muscles.
Of course it is important not to exaggerate this in order to block diaphragm.
As far the relevance of abdomen muscles in "maintaining" sound, it is advisable to do abdomen muscles exercices in order to help the tonicity of said muscles.

The emission of sound has to be "kept" and not "pushed" out, in order to avoid to "lock" of the larynx.
This is very important point (the larynx will be object of another lesson) because the "lock" of larynx damages vocal chords and furthermore ches does not vibrate in the proper way.

Here below are movements of diaphragm of a good singer:

Diaphragm movements lateral and frontal view
1= diaphragm
2= diaphragm opening (after ribs opening, it lower itself a little bit)

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Breathing exercises

N.1 How to practise abdominal breathing
This exercise teaches you to use your stomach in respiration. This is the base of the costal-diaphragm tecnique (later explained in exercise n.2), absolutely necessary for a good singing.

Lie down on your back on a rigid surface. Yours shoulders should touch the ground well. Now put a hand on your navel. Inhale through the nose and inflate your stomach. At this point you must see your hand going up because of the air inflating your stomach.

Keep the air inside for 2/3 seconds, then breathe out the mouth deflating the stomach. Your hand follows this movement too. Before starting it all over again, remain with an ampty body for a couple of seconds.

N.2 How to practise costal-diaphragm breathing
This very important exercise teach you how to utilise the costal and diaphragm system at the same time. Exactly what you need to know when you are singing and need to sustain the sound. This exercise is really diffucult to learn, expecially if you decide to do it on your own. In order to avoid mistakes, if you can, let your teacher guide you.

As for the previous exercice, lie on your back on a rigid surface. Put one hand on your stomach and the other one on the side chest (thumb forward).
Breathe through the nose inflating the stomach...and shift the air laterally to the chest. Breathe out maintaining tha costal expansion. Wait a couple of seconds before repeating the exercise.

N.3 How to develop costal and abdominal musculature
Having pratised exercise n.2, we can now concentrate on how to strengthen our support nusculature in the following way:

Breathe through the nose, shift the air laterally inflating the chest (confront preceeding exercise) and keep your breath for 2 o 3 seconds. We can now start to breathe out slowly maintaing costal expansion. Towards the end of the emission, try to prolong expiration with consonant SSSSSS regulary till the end.

Remember that a little bit of ait should always remain inside. This is true with all exercises and above all while we are singing.
Initially the emission of consonant SSSSS won't last more than a few seconds...Try to extend this time gradually till you reach a maximum of 30 seconds for women and 40 seconds for men.
If we practise this exercise regularly, we'll obtain a very good support for our sound

A right posture allows us to take advantage of our body's natural sonority and it is also preliminary for a correct base of the whole larynx system. In fact, if the posture is not correct, our throat won't open and the work of the vocal chords could be exhausted or compromised.

If, as we have said, yhe entire body is involved in singing, it is obvious that it should assume a correct posture.

Legs
First af all, the body must be safely supported. We must keep our feet slightly apart so that the barycentre of the body can dispose of an area sufficiently large on which to fall.
Knees must remain sufficently soft and elastic and at the same time sustain body-weight (as for ski beginners). Knees bend slightly in order to avoid that the pelvis should move backward.


Pelvis and trunk
The pelvis moves slightly forward, supported by a slight bending of the knees. The lumbar plexure diminishes.
The trunk must remain upright.
This posture allows you to obtain naturally the most difficult thing, that is the expansion of the thorax. As a matter of fact, the low ribs open as a consequence of thi posture.
If you have followed correctly the different positions, you'll find yourself with thorax dilatation obtained, the diaphragm in a sufficiently extended position so that the sound can be sustained.
The mental image to be followed is a vertical and somewhat soft line.
In fact, an upright but too rigid position does not allow good singing, because also the throat becomes stiff.

Falsetto is in fact an intermediate welding between the acute headregister, and the low register coming from the chest. Falsetto is a kind of protection utilized by the larynx, in order to move from one register to the other without damage.It is a device to limit the damages provoqued when the voice is forced into the acute register. Making use of a metaphor invented by Tomatis, we can say that the passage from one register to the other is similar to the change of gear in a car.

Falsetto corresponds therefore to the clutch that through 'disengagement' allows to pass from one position to the other softly. This happens if the larynx is relaxed. Therefore falsetto is a release that allows to reach headvoice. Falsetto is a defence for the larynx.

We must add that often we can find falsetto defined as sustained headvoice. in reality this was definited as accomodated falsetto since 1826.
In order to utilize fully falsetto and make it work, it is necessary to remember its function of clutch.

Wheather or not it is possible to work on falsetto and on the passage, shows how badly the voice has been utilized and also how much damage has been done to it. If that is the case, the work af adjusting falsetto is pratically impossible.
The art of singing means also art of erasing the passages. Working on the passages means in fact wishing to make them dissappear.

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Sound and pregnancy
A good piece of advice for pregnant singers or in general, for future mothers, is that they should sing for their child. This is not only a valid psycological support for both, but in fact it produces well being on a pure physical plane.

As we know, the voice goes around through the air but also through the bones. The unborn child listenes to the mathernal voice that reaches him through vibrations of the spine and skeleton.

Konrad Lorenz experimented at one point, to discover if the phoetus could hear. He began talking regurarly to a hatch of eggs, and when they opened, the new born duks, sensible to the scientist's voice, were ready to leave the mother in order to follow him when he talked!

"The human voice is capable to calm down a restless animal or a small child escluded from the use of language, thi is possible because the voice has a power independent from words. The baby from the uterus gets the voice and not the language. The human voice is an archetypal force". (A.Giuliani, La Repubblica, 30.10.92)

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Pratical suggestions
• when singing don't push your stomach forward
• don't stiffen abdominal muscles and avoid blocking the diaphragm
• practise moderatly to improuve your abdominal muscles: they 'll better sustain your voice. It is going to be less muted and will appear more intense
• the larynx is a mobile organ: do not eceed in too high or low positions. Check the right position touching your Adam's apple
• don't try to find a timbre that is not yours. Avoid finding a too clear or too dark timbre. That would mean stressing too much some sreas of sonority in opposition to others. You should try to find equilibrium in every phase of your singing. For this should have a good distribution of sound in the complex areas of sonority
• it is bad for your voice if you sing too loud or too low: you should be looking for a natural volume
• do not start singing by a blow of the glottis: the sound is precise but vocal chords are dangerously rigid
• do not corrugate your face. Good singing makes your wrinlrs flatter!
• diseases at the genital apparatus can modify your voice
• menstruation, pregnancy and menopause can make feminine voice hypotonical. This effect can be contrasted with regular vocal exercises and a good psychic equilibrium

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