As easy as breathing? Singing technique

From back breathing to German belly breathing, there is a wide range of methods, techniques, language, styles, concepts, words, approaches – call it what you will – available to employ or discard when learning to breathe as a singer.

But surely breathing is simply… breathing? Well, it is certainly a hot topic that can incite passionate debate among singing teachers. For research purposes for this article, a discussion on this subject was opened on a social media platform for singing teachers around the globe. The plan was to collate responses to evaluate general trends, but it proved impossible to glean a consensus. One respondent did note that it was likely, at least in part, a matter of geography: certainly, in the UK in the past few decades, there has been a good deal of focus on the Accent Method.

Global methods

One of the advocates of the Accent Method is Dinah Harris, professor of singing at the Royal College of Music. She has used it since 1985, both as a singer and then a teacher. ‘It works!’, says Harris.

‘It conditions low abdominal and diaphragmatic breathing and support like nothing else I have ever come across in both speech and singing. As a singer I tried absolutely everything to little effect, until a speech and language therapist introduced me to “huffing and puffing”. I keep the language simple but precise and practical, which is what the young singers I work with want.

‘The major discussion, perhaps, should be about how teachers talk about breathing and support. For me, the main problem can be the lack of precision anatomically in the way it is sometimes taught. The vocal folds need to be supplied constantly with healthy subglottic pressure and trans-glottal airflow. There are many ways of achieving this, but, as far as I am concerned, abdominal diaphragmatic breathing and support is the simplest and most efficient, and dare I say pleasant, to use of all the various techniques.’

Singers look to their conductor for guidance, posture included

The Accent Method is seeding in several of the UK conservatoires and tends to hold a regular place in conferences and professional development days, so it is certainly establishing a foothold. Looking across the water to Canada and the US, some teachers have not heard of the Accent Method. In fact, respondents from this part of the world were pointing to the research of Robin de Haas and MDH Breathing Coordination, or to Carl Stough Breathing.

Anatomy matters

Singing teacher Jenevora Williams says that she uses a lot of the ideas from the Accent Method, but like any method it is often misinterpreted. ‘Sometimes the singers end up belly dancing instead of breathing’, she says.

‘In general, if there's a problem, it will be because everything is too effortful. Inhalation will be a huge overexertion and then vocalising involves too much pushing the air and too much squeezing the larynx to compensate. The whole process should be far more subtle: it's an elegant exchange of gentle breath management with the tummy muscles, and a sense of poise and release with the voice. We tend to think we're doing well when we work hard – whereas skilled technique is the process of actually reducing the work to the minimum.’

Is there wording that is particularly helpful for singers? Williams says: ‘I have a policy of using general terms, if possible, such as tummy or belly. If one is to use anatomical terms, do get the right one. We don't sing with our diaphragm, it's an inhalatory muscle that we can't feel, and we don't sing with our stomach muscles either. That would make an awful mess!’

Dinah Harris supports this: ‘I refer to the diaphragm as the primary organ of inspiration, pointing out that it has no sense of place and no great neurological feedback, but acknowledging that it remains briefly contracted at the beginning of a phrase: this happens unconsciously. It has nothing to do with conscious support. I am astonished that people still tell singers to support with their diaphragm, a physical impossibility.’

Choral director David Lawrence, by way of experiment, asked members of the three choirs he works with to put their hands on their diaphragm. ‘The youth choir looked confused,’ he says, ‘but the majority of the two adult community choir members reached for their abdomens. I found this fascinating. I explained that if they could actually put their hands on their diaphragm then we would need an ambulance right away! I don't believe referring to the diaphragm is helpful, or even ever was. It exists, and it is essential to our breathing operation.

‘There is no point in blinding our singers with science. In terms of breathing I tend to talk about “connection”, modelling muscles in the lower abdomen. But who is to say that in five years’ time I won't be re-reading this article, cringing behind my sofa?’

Lead from the front

Good breathing behaviour needs to be maintained during performance. What can choral conductors do with their gestures to enable a choir to breathe well? ‘They could be more helpful by using lower, waist-level gestures for the in-breath and keeping everything flowing,’ says Williams. ‘Problems arise when singers hold on to things, often momentarily while waiting for the downbeat.’

Lawrence adds: ‘Gesture is terribly important when it comes to breathing. We have a huge influence over how members of our choirs breathe and much of this is exercised at a subconscious level. Firstly, we need to model great posture and for sure this influences the success of good breathing. Our preparatory beats will most usually coincide with the inhalation, and how we show this has an effect on how our singers breathe in. I used to invite choirs to use the four bars of piano introduction to gradually breathe in. That seems such nonsense now. The sort of thing I might find myself encouraging now is the exact opposite – to exhale during an introduction, forcing the inhalation to have a large dose of natural reflexivity. My own experience of concentrating on using breath during singing is that the breath lasts longer, and the tone is fuller and more sustained.’

There is a case for singing teachers and choral directors to collaborate, and there is evidence to suggest that this is happening more frequently. ‘I love working collaboratively with singing teachers,’ says Lawrence. ‘We have so much to learn from each other. I recently needed a deputising conductor, and taking my adult community choir was a young professional singer who is embarking on a choral conducting career. The following week the choir sounded so different! I told them this, and I asked the young singer what she did. “Oh, it was just about breathing properly,” she told me. So soon we are taking the rehearsal together and I plan to learn lots.’