While humans are able to last weeks or more without food, and days or more without water, we can only last a brief few minutes without oxygen from the air.
Breath is crucial to the fundamental workings of the voice. Without breath there would be nothing to power the voice, or even to ensure that the vibration of the vocal folds can be heard. Quite simply, the voice cannot exist without the breath.
The Thoracic Diaphragm is a trampoline-like dome-shaped muscle stretched across the abdominal cavity, separating the organs of the chest cavity from those in the lower abdominal cavity. The movement of this muscle allows the lungs to expand and contract during the process of breathing.
The commonly heard phrase “Singing from the diaphragm” means that by expanding the abdomen during inhalation, increasing the rate of contraction in the diaphragm and taking more air into the lungs, the singer is able to provide more power, through increased breath support, and control through strengthening of the diaphragm muscle.
The following page contains a Flash Movie designed to inform the viewer about the intricacies of the sinus cavities. These cavities are found within the bone structure of the face, where they act as acoustic resonating chambers, adding higher frequencies and increasing the brightness and vitality of the sound.
The Flash Movies requires a Flash player plug-in, or is easily viewed in Internet Explorer 5 or later.
