Re: Voice Teachers--what to look for?

theatermom
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:52:30 +0000

Just wanted to say that while various athletic activities such as those mentioned, i.e., swimming, running etc, may increase an individual’s stamina, I think that it really has little to do with the kind of breath support necessary for singing. My D is a long time dance student and in very good shape, with lots of stamina. However, when she first started “serious” voice training, her teacher had to help her learn to totally change her way of breathing. Ballet dancers, like my D, are taught from a very young age to “pull up” their bodies and pull in their rib cages and as a result, they must learn how to “chest breathe.” The kind of breathing you use as a singer is totally different - it comes from diaphragmatic support and expanding all the areas my D instinctively pulled in from dancing. Singing AND dancing at the same time creates an entire additional set of breathing issues. Fortunately, Broadway style dancing, while it is often “puffy” (the informal term used by dancers for choreography that is highly aerobic), doesn’t often have the same postural requirements as ballet. And thank goodness as far as I know, there aren’t alot of singing ballets…

So while being an athlete may have lots of other advantages, not the least of which is overall fitness, I don’t believe that the breath stamina gained is directly transferrable to singing. Maybe the real voice “experts” can weigh in on this one.