Re: [Harp-L] Re: 2 naked Tones 1 cup :)

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
<The other important thing to do along with opening your throat and mouth is to expand your chest muscles as well so your entire <oral cavity from lungs to mouth acts as a tone amplifier. Playing hunched over and looking like you're trying to cough up a lung <does nothing for tone and is more a stage presence thing IMO. Assume the position of an opera singer if you really want to belt <out the notes. :) 

Assuming the position of an opera singer is a good idea, but expanding the chest muscles is not tops.  The real action is in the diaphragm, which is below the chest.  When you breathe from the diaphragm, your stomach expands on an in breath, and contracts on the out breath.  In other words, the diaphragm acts as a bellows, pulling air in and pushing it out.  This creates a column of air nearly the length of the upper torso, which in turn creates a sound that is both deep and very personal (because it's the sound of your own body resonating).  

Expanding the chest does a few bad things:
1) The shoulders tend to go up as the chest expands, creating tension in the upper body that leads to weak tone.  I always tell my students to watch themselves in a mirror: if the shoulders are going up on in breaths and down on out breaths, the breathing is coming from the wrong place.
2) The chest muscles stiffen as the chest expands, cutting off the column of air.

There's a piece on breathing technique, with exercises, on my site here:
http://www.hunterharp.com/breathex1/

Also check out this nifty video from Steve Baker on tone:
http://www.hunterharp.com/video-of-the-day-12-march-2013-steve-baker-talks-tone/

Thanks, Richard Hunter


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