Breath Is A Starry Night

		By Dr. Kimberly James in General Published: Wednesday, 10 September 08 - 07:59 PM (GMT) Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 September 08 - 08:19 PM (GMT)

I was talking with a student today about breath. More specifically, it is breath "legato" that leads to vowel legato that results in a legato sound even when consonants are incorporated.

I often talk about breath being a "river." Some of you are directed to "stay in the middle of the river." Some of you need to be thinking about "fish in the river." Some of you are told to "sing like a glassy pond." Sound familiar? If not, feel free to ask me about it (leave me a comment below or ask in your lesson).

Today, I got the sense that my student needed to focus on one breath "pulse" per phrase. Within the breath pulse, the breath may "slow down" or "speed up," but you should have a sense of continuous breath feeding the entire phrase until you take a breath. Then there's the pickle of a phrase like "Finche non splende in ciel..." in "Deh vieni non tardar" (Figaro). Though the breath continuously feeds the voice, the phrase is billowy, circular, "up and over."

Like this . . .

Starry Night