First, breathing movement and push-pull confrontation
Singing is to exhale the air in the lungs through the trachea, forming an airflow to impact or vibrate the vocal cords. This force is a driving force to push the airflow upward and outward, that is, "push". In order to make this airflow meet the requirements of singing (singing power, strength, length, etc.). ), you can exhale evenly, forcefully and for a long time. In order to avoid exerting any excessive breathing pressure on vocal cords, it is necessary to control breathing when exhaling, which requires a kind of holding force, that is, "pull". This kind of holding force is just the opposite of the driving force, and it is a sense of respiratory pressure caused by artificial downward movement. It comes from and restricts the driving force, and the two forces are both unified and opposite. Driving force is a kind of power, and retention force is a kind of resistance. In singing, they are interdependent, antagonistic and balanced. Of course, the driving force is greater than the holding force. Therefore, when singing, the breath can be exhaled evenly in a controlled way, which becomes the correct breathing method in singing. Using this breathing method, we can feel that the ribs under the thorax have not collapsed obviously, but have gradually recovered. The diaphragm did not relax obviously, but recovered smoothly. It seems to be still expanding, and it still feels like inhaling. As Lombardi, an Italian vocal educator, said, "When singing, it seems that the process of inhaling continues." Vocal music teachers always ask students to keep their breath, not to emit it, but to suck and sing. These feelings are the result of the interaction of two opposing forces in respiratory movement. Of course, in the process of singing, these two forces should be used freely, otherwise the breath will be stiff and the voice will be tight. Long-term training is a subconscious conditioned reflex.
Second, singing state and elastic confrontation
Looseness and tightness are two functional states of singing. Improper use of these two States will directly affect the quality of singing, and more seriously damage the health of the vocal body. It is also a question of unity of opposites whether it is better to sing loosely or tightly. Mr. Shen Xiang once said: "Where we should work hard, we should not work hard." Here, hard work and no hard work mean tight and loose. Explain that singing is tight and loose. The key is to find out where it is tight and where it is loose. Kesali also explicitly mentioned in his Song of the Heart: "Singing in a relaxed way means relaxing everything except the vibration source function itself and the respiratory organs." The role of vibration source is that during the whole singing process, the vocal cords should be fully close together, tight and have enough tension, so as to make a solid and shiny sound. On the contrary, if you relax here, the sound will be slack, vague and dull, giving people the feeling of air leakage. At the same time, in vocal breathing, some parts should be in a certain "tight" state, such as the muscles around the chest and back, diaphragm and waist expanding outward, the lower abdomen contracting inward and lifting upward, pushing the breath, and the arm muscles contracting inward and lifting upward. If these parts are loose, there will be no promotion and support of the breath mentioned above, and there will be no breath of singing. Similarly, when singing, the brain nerves must be in a state of high excitement and concentration. If they are in a relaxed state, they cannot sing. In addition to these parts, other parts of the body should also try to relax. Especially the jaw, chin, neck muscles and facial muscles, as well as the inside of the mouth, tongue, soft palate and throat. If these parts are tight and too hard, it is not conducive to singing.
Song and Jin are in the whole of singing, and they are antagonistic, cooperative and interdependent. The tightness of some parts is for the looseness of other parts, and the looseness of other parts makes some parts tight. It is true that even the tight parts should be properly relaxed, and the relaxed parts should have a sense of tension. When singing, the brain is highly excited, the spirit is concentrated, the vocal and respiratory organs are active, and the work is tense, but the appearance, that is, the facial expression and physical state, should give people a relaxed feeling. In short, in singing, we should be loose and tight, moderate in tightness, loose and unremitting, tight but not stiff, tight inside and loose outside, and tight in meaning. This is the good state of singing. In addition, there is also a problem of tightness in singing and articulation. If the word is bitten too loosely, it will be unclear, and if it is bitten too tightly, it will kill the word and affect the sound and quality. Therefore, singing and enunciation should also be elastic and moderate in order to be round, clear and natural.
Third, tighten your throat and open your throat.
"Tight throat" is a major functional feature of Bel Canto, which is formed by stabilizing the larynx, raising the posterior part of the hyoid bone and epiglottis above the larynx, making it half-rolled and contracting the posterior pharyngeal wall. In this way, an inverted funnel-shaped tubular acoustic cavity is formed on the vocal cords, that is, the non-plastic pharyngeal cavity is adjusted to a plastic "sound high-pitched cavity", which changes the dominant state of only the natural laryngeal cavity and prolongs the laryngeal cavity. This not only greatly improves the pronunciation efficiency, but also obviously changes the timbre of the sound. "Tightening the throat" makes the sound have a high-frequency vibration peak and a strong and loud high-frequency bright sound. Because of the strong and loud high-frequency bright sound, the sound has a beautiful color similar to a wind instrument. According to the observation of modern scientific instruments, excellent bel canto singers are in a tight state when singing. "Opening your voice" is another technical feature of Bel Canto. Opening the throat means lowering the throat, raising the soft palate moderately, opening the mouth and jaw moderately, and opening the mouth, throat cavity and nasopharyngeal cavity, so that these parts are always yawning when singing. As the larynx descends, there is a gap between the back of hyoid bone and the back of thyroid bone, which makes the laryngeal cavity longer and become a larger tube. Lowering the larynx avoids the blockage between hyoid bone and thyroid bone and opens the vocal tract. Due to the moderate opening of mouth, jaw, nasopharyngeal cavity, etc. As well as the moderate lifting of the soft palate, the sound is full of overtones and becomes rich, round and full. So "opening your voice" is actually equivalent to putting an overtone horn that can change the tone on a pitch horn that can emit high-frequency bright sounds. This emphasis on overtones makes "opening your voice" an indispensable functional feature of Bel Canto. Gino? When Becky talked about the three basic conditions of Bel Canto, the first thing she emphasized was to keep the Adam's apple at the bottom and open her throat.
"Tight throat" and "open throat" are two important functional features in Bel Canto, which are located in the throat and pharyngeal cavity. It is contradictory that one should be tightened and the other should be liberalized. If you don't adjust it properly, singing will go astray.
Singing is a complex physiological movement process, which requires the active, organic, orderly and moderate participation of all physiological organs. A good occurrence state is the result of mutual cooperation, mutual restriction, mutual coordination and mutual supplement of various organs during exercise. Using the viewpoint of unity of opposites, we can understand the nature of contradiction in singing, avoid one-sidedness in singing training and teaching, seek the coordination and balance of the whole state of singing, give full play to the potential of human voice, and make the method of singing sound not deviate from the scientific track.
(Author: Wuhan Conservatory of Music)
Editor in Charge: Wen Jian