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Question about a Diaphragmatic breathing exercise suggested by Tamplin

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fortheo

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Thanks Felipe. I did see your last post.

I did take offence to the zombie comment, not for myself but for others who have questions and would like answers. I understand the support and diaphragm connection.

I took it apon myself to speak for others because I can remember the confusion and what lead to it.

I also understand Daniels point of view. We have been breathing since we were born and our "Diaphragm" is exercised constantly, why focus on that? Sing.

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mdew, support is necessary. Diaphragmatic breathing is the way all humans and mamals breath, if you are not using your diaphragm you are dead (thus I figure zombies, dead people asking for info)

That is not entirely correct. The diaphragm is not essential for breathing. :)

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Not to dwell on the zombie thing but I took the statement as meaning mindless zombies reciting what they once read about the diaphragm.

For those who are still confused about the diaphragm in relation to singing read the article posted by Robocaup, the post by steven Fraser and the post by Felipe. That should put things in a better perspective.

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The demo using the sit-up has the vocalist take in the breath while lying on the back. The exhalation begins, and in fact is singing an ascending scale while slowly beginning to rise in a sit-up. The high note of the scale coincides with the full upright position of the sit-up. Still exhaling, the descending portion of the scale begins as the sit-up slowly goes down.

This demonstrates the increase in abdominal strength needed while the scale ascends, and continues, slowly decreasing in force, while slowly descending the scale. As the scale and the sit-up both end with the back on the floor, the remainder of the breath is then exhaled, and the abdomen is allowed to fully relax and rest before the next cycle.

This amount of strength required to performing a sit-up while slowly exhaling and singing a scale is similar to, and representative of the "support" force used to press down on the diaphragm (by pressing down on one's "insides"). This downward push creates an opposing force to counter the natural tendency of the diaphragm to rise uncontrollably when allowing the breath to expell. As pitch and power increase, so must this support increase to regulate and reduce the force of the air pressure against the small area of thinned/tightened vocal cords. This is how regulation of the releasing air can take place, by using countermeasures to control and slow down the autonomic rise of the diaphragm.

I agree with Steven's post suggesting how the extended belly is simply creating more room for the lungs to descend into the lower abdominal area, relieving a portion of the exhalation pressure that would otherwise be on the lungs.

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awesome post steve!!!

i liked that you mentioned two important things:

1. "what is of some interest to us as singers is the special use-case of breathing to enable singing of a certain description, an aesthetic, with its own tonal values and preferences. For us, the character of exhalation has substantial effect on phonation."

2. "There are many approaches that work, lots of ways to provoke the desired muscular action, many ways to describe how it feels to do."

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