Lessons in Vocal Anatomy - The Fuel Source, Part I
This
is post number ONE (of THREE) on the Anatomy of the Voice. As a singer or actor or public speaker, it is
imperative to understand WHAT is necessary anatomically to produce the voice
and HOW the voice is physically created.
The reason there will be THREE posts instead of just ONE is because
there are THREE areas involved in overall production but within those three
areas, there are many different components and processes. The THREE general areas are: The Fuel Source; The Vibration Source; and
The Resonating Sources.
We’ll start with The Fuel Source. The Fuel Source is made up of the Diaphragm
and the Lungs. Many times, people
believe their lungs are causing them to be unable to breathe correctly or that
they don’t function as well as they should.
However, the Lungs are NOT a muscle, so they can’t breathe at all. The muscle you need to strengthen is the
Diaphragm. As a child, I had terrible
asthma AND at age three, I also had double pneumonia, which means the pneumonia
is in both lungs. Between the two
challenges, I had a lot of trouble breathing!
Years later, a doctor told me I could have saved myself much struggle had
I but practiced blowing up a small, brown paper bag. I didn’t understand that at all until I learned
about the process of respiration. Yes, I
had scar tissue in my lungs and, it turned out, I had allergic asthma, which
meant the bronchial tubes in my lungs would prematurely close when I was exposed
to something I was allergic to, like grasses, various trees, and things like
dust. Wonderfully, however, I had no
challenge at all to my diaphragm, which was the main source of the respiratory
power I needed. I learned to jog and was
able to build up my lungs and diaphragm to a point where I could sing for hours
every day, powerfully belting or singing a controlled, pianissimo high note.
We’ve all watched, terrified as magicians
“saw in half” a woman drawn randomly from an audience. Thankfully, it IS magic, so no one is
harmed. If that magician actually did
cut the woman in half, it would expose our friend, the Diaphragm. It is a large, dome-shaped muscle that
separates your chest from your abdomen.
It connects directly to the Sternum, the Costal Muscles at the bottom of
the ribs, as well as, the Lumbar section of the Spinal Column. It, quite literally, cuts your body into two
parts, the thorax and the abdomen. When
the Brain senses an absence of air in the Lungs, it signals the Diaphragm,
which then contracts down into the abdomen, creating a vacuum in the lungs, and
then, causing air to be sucked into the Lungs.
NORMALLY, these are pretty SHALLOW breaths. As you go through your day, most of your time
is spent sitting at a desk or casually walking, and those efforts don’t require
deep breathing. However, if you had to
run, you would have to take longer, deeper breaths to fuel your exercise. If you didn’t, you’d develop a sharp pain in
your side from lack of Oxygen. Singing
is not running but if you want to do it well, you need to be a “vocal athlete” (see my earlier post on being a "Vocal Athlete"). What that means in this instance is that if
you can control your breathing, especially your exhales, you have a much greater
chance of being a wonderful singer.
Hopefully it’s obvious, but the more air you have to work with, the more
fuel you have to get wherever you need to go, so to speak. You don’t want to hyperventilate but you need
to be able to take deep enough breaths to ensure strong pitch, phrasing, and
overall control when you sing. Once you
have inhaled, your diaphragm has flattened into your abdominal cavity, and your
Lungs have filled with the air brought in by your inhalation.
Your Lungs are essentially two
balloons but within them are upside-down “trees” of Bronchi, containing Bronchioles,
containing Alveoli, containing Capillaries.
Wow, that’s a lot of information but personally, I like to understand
what is going on inside me, in case I can “help out”. We don’t need to know all the nitty-gritty
details but I think it is important to grasp that this is NOT a simple process
and so, we can definitely “feed” our Lungs greater quantities of air by
inhaling more deeply, AND by exercising more aerobically; we can help our Heart
and Lungs be more efficient in processing the air. Just below the throat is the Trachea or
Windpipe. The Windpipe splits into two
main Bronchi, so that one major Bronchial Tube leads into each side of the
Lungs. These are the Bronchi that then
split into the lobes of the Lungs and down to the capillaries. The right lung has three Lobes; the left has
two Lobes. The Lobes are wrapped in two
membranes called Pleura, which keep the right and left Lungs separated from
each other. At the culmination of the
Bronchi/Bronchiole/Alveoli, that air you originally inhaled, finally passes
into capillaries and then, into the Pulmonary Artery. This entire process is reversed when the
Carbon Dioxide is ready to be exhaled. Your diaphragm contracts back up to its
original position and as it does this, the Carbon Dioxide is pushed out of
your body. This action completes the
process of basic respiration.
The
ultimate goal of the Lungs and its components is to “exchange” the gases (yes,
our air contains several different gaseous elements) that enter our Lungs, for
Oxygen, which our cells use, and Carbon Dioxide, the “waste” gas, which is then
exhaled back into the atmosphere.
Besides this exchange of gases, the respiratory system also warms or cools
air to a usable temperature; moisturizes and humidifies the air; filters out “bad
stuff” by sneezing, coughing, or swallowing it; and feeds our olfactory sense
of smell. This is accomplished by a
system of “checks and balances” within individual components.
It’s a little weird or gross to
think about but your body is lined in several areas with microscopic “Cilia” or
hairs that can “catch” things like dust, pollen, and other impurities that you
inhale. This is why it is best to
breathe in, inhale, through your nose, as the nose is lined with Cilia, as well
as Mucus glands. Again, not the most
pleasant thing to consider but because mucus is thick and sticky, impurities
captured in mucus can then be swallowed, causing no further challenge for
breathing. If these particles are introduced
into the nose, a sneeze is often the result.
If you breathe in through your mouth and the impurities get into the
throat or begin to travel into the Lungs, your response might be a cough. Dust, allergens, and especially smoke of any
kind can cause the narrowing and tightening of passages, thus lowering the
efficiency and capacity of the Lungs, and causing you to have to expend much
more effort for each breath. For the
singer, these effects can be disastrous, so that phrasing is extremely limited,
tone becomes anemic, overall production is choppy and lifeless. Obviously, this is the opposite of the effect
you want as a performer. Of course, conditions
such as asthma, bronchitis, cold, pneumonia, and allergies exacerbate
difficulties, as well. Like every system
in the human, the Respiratory System performs one miracle after another,
quickly and without effort to an individual.
Check out these links for further information and understanding or PLEASE send me comments or questions below. Thanks so much for reading! Check in again soon and Sing it Forward!
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