Ian Sidden

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Open Jug Breath Holding

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Holding the breath comes naturally to us when underwater or when lifting something heavy. This is the closed-jug technique (my name). Picture a jug with a cork in the top. We fill our lungs with air, close the glottis (bring the vocal folds together to block further inflow and outflow of air), and leave it at that for as long as we need to. We can relax the breathing muscles themselves since the closed glottis is doing the work. In fact, we can even tighten our abs and push.

In both of the cases I mention above, swimming and lifting, that’s a good strategy.

But for singing, this is not so helpful. We want to maintain a sense of inhalation and expansion. We want to reduce excessive abdominal pressure. We want onsets that aren’t glottal attacks.

Think of your body as an open jug. Inhale and then leave the body in the position of inhalation. The ribs remain expanded, the remains belly gently down and out, and the glottis remains open. The air in the lungs remains as long as the lungs remain open. Any collapse leads to the air leaving, and any expansion allows more air in.

We’re holding our breath, but we’re not trapping it. Instead, our breathing muscles are doing the work instead of the glottis.

From here, we can practice remaining in the position of inhalation, or we can sing a note.

What if…

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Once at a coaching for the aria “Avant de quitter ces liuex”, which I regard as a technically tricky aria, I was advised to apply musical ideas from this piece to the aria:

What if you pretended a piece wasn’t hard to sing technically? What musical idea would you want to express? How do you get there?

Sing with Structure

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It’s easy to lose the plot when discussing singing technique. It’s too easy to focus on high notes and volume and forget why we want to sing well in the first place.

The techniques are about making music, and for the classical singer that goes back to singing with structure.

I like using the term structure, because it communicates the hierarchical challenges of good singing. But I also like legato or “line” since they offer additional clues for how to solve musical problems.

But if you’re singing, then you have lines within lines. Individual melodies have their own best structure, but so do individual words, and so do sentences or verses or stanzas. And underlying it is the subtext and broader story you’re telling.

The task of the singer is to combine these disparate lines and combine them into a whole structure.

And of course that means knowing something about the language and the style of the music. It’s useful to have some sense about what the composer wanted beyond what’s written, but sometimes you have to make it your own. And it has to be in concert with your collaborators who need to fit your story into the bigger story.

Your technique has to be up for the challenge. But don’t wag the dog with your technique. Determine your musical goals and then apply the technique to that structure.

Macro vs Micro

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Last week, I saw former NMSU alumna Kirstin Chávez give some lessons here as part of her Artist in Residence position. You know? She’s a pretty darned good teacher, and one thing really stood out to me:

She knows how to see the big picture.

One of my favorite distinctions in any field is macro/micro. It’s the difference between the overall big picture and the smaller details. You see this in a number of fields including evolution, economics, and … Star Craft (truly, search for micro and macro on Google and you’ll see the first result).

In singing we also have macro and micro. Let’s check out what I see as the macro side of things:

  • Breath
  • Life philosophy
  • Overall health
  • Body connection and coordination
  • Musical taste
  • Musical skills
  • Language comprehension

On the micro side we have:

  • Diction
  • Individual muscle tensions
  • Vibrato
  • Tuning
  • Vowel modification
  • Timbre
  • Loudness
  • Onset

The list could go on.

Any of the micro things could in fact be the most pressing issue for a singer. For example, if I’ve got everything else going great, but I insist on singing pure “Ah” vowels really high in my voice, then that is my most important problem.

But often it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees (or shift the deck chairs on the Titanic, etc.), and I’m as guilty as anyone. It’s so easy to get totally wrapped up in one micro issue and miss the macro issue that’s causing several smaller issues. It’s easy to notice the lack of vibrato and not notice that the singers isn’t taking in enough air to begin with. It’s easy to see one tension but miss the lack of air that’s causing it.

But we need to see ourselves and any singers we work with as total beings rather than just a collection of parts. And often, micro problems will vanish after working with the big picture. And when they don’t, then dig in for some micromanagement.

Strength vs. Technique

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Painting of man lifting barbell with one arm
What is more important: strength or technique?

More and more, I am appreciating the value of strength when it comes to singing. When I turned into a tenor, I could technically sing the high notes [mostly :)] . I knew what to do because I’d been secretly practicing them for years…

But they weren’t strong, and recently they’ve only gotten stronger because I’ve gotten stronger. I’ve been practicing the phrase from Rodolfo’s aria “Che gelida manina”, “Talor dal mio forziere”, which ascends to an Ab and then returns in that beautiful Puccini legato way. When I first tried this, I was miserable at it. But since I just obsessed over it, it’s gotten much easier.

Sure, my technique has gotten better, but I just feel stronger.

My teacher is experiencing a certain Renaissance in his voice due to simply [mainly] practicing a lot more. He thought that he had lost his high C. Nah. He had just lost the strength to do it.

But again, with his increased practicing, certain technical truths are becoming evident to him.

So my questions to you are:

  • What is more important? Strength or technique?
  • Are they equal?
  • Can one become so dominant that it fills in any weaknesses in the other? For example, perhaps one’s technique CAN become so good that strength is less of an issue…or vice versa.

Please leave a comment below.