Voice Portfolio Entry 3: Respiration - Getting To Know Your Voice

Respiration - Getting To Know Your Voice

Introduction To Respiration:

Vocal Delivery is just one of the many tools available for an actor on stage.  At no point should the holistic nature of performance be forgotten.  It is, better all, the use of movement and gesture as well as voice that creates and communicates meaning into an actors performance.  An actor should understand how his/her voice is produced and identify personal areas for improvement.  The whole body determines the overall quality of the voice an actor produces; the way in which an actor uses his body with physical, intellectual and emotional responses to the material that they are engaging with.

Exercises Carried Out Within Lessons:

• Deep Inhaling and Exhaling (w/Beats):

For this exercise, I was given the task to inhale a large amount of air for a selected amount of time and then hold it for several beats, starting from 4 to 8, to then exhale the Carbon Dioxide.  I had carried out this exercise 3 times within the lesson to help gain benefits towards my Respiration.

Performing this exercise had enabled me to intake much more air for the later exercises within this session.

•  Finding Our Diaphragm: 

For the purpose of this exercise, I was to find the location of my Diaphragm within my body and then perform the same exercise that I'd mentioned before.

When performing this exercise, I could definitely feel my Diaphragm moving up and down for when I was breathing in and out.

• Humming a Still Tone:

For this exercise, I was required to hum a random still tone which was both best suited for my vocal cords and for me to be able to execute for the longest time.

For the purpose of this exercise, I had chosen to do a deep sounding still tone, since this is the register of voice that I have, resulting in me to be able to go the longest due to being used to that pitch of voice.  I had performed this exercise twice with the second time doing a different still tone that wasn't suited to my vocal production.  For this, I had chosen to do a high pitched still tone, which had cracked at some points, resulting in the air that I'd inhaled to be wasted since I didn't expect it to happen.  Doing this did give me a weird feeling in my throat also after I had performed it, which could mean that my vocal cords either didn't like me doing it or it was trying to get used to that pitch, and due to it vibrating much more, it started to give a weird sensation.

A Description & Explaination For Respiration:

Respiration is the act of breathing that follows two steps: inhaling (inspiration) is the act of taking in oxygen and exhaling (expiration) is the act of releasing carbon dioxide.

The Human Body has a system involved with the act of breathing called The Respiratory System which is made up of the organs involved in breathing and consists of the mouth, nose, pharynx, larynx, trachea, bronchi and the lungs.

Oxygen enters the Respiratory System through the mouth and the nose.  The oxygen then passes through the larynx (where speech sounds are produced) and the trachea, which is a tube that enters the chest cavity.  In the chest cavity, the trachea splits into two smaller tubes called the bronchi.  Each bronchus then divides again forming the bronchial tubes.  The bronchial tubes lead directly into the lungs where they divide into many smaller tubes which connect to tiny sacs called the aveoli.  The average adult's lungs contain about 600 million of these sponge, air filled sacs that are surrounded by capillaries.  The inhaled oxygen passes into the aveoli and then diffuses through the capillaries into the artificial blood. Meanwhile, the waste-rich blood from the veins releases its carbon dioxide into the aveoli.  The carbon dioxide follows the same path out of the lungs when you exhale.

The Diaphragm:

The Diaphragms job is to help the Respiratory System pump out the carbon dioxide contained in the lungs and to pull in the oxygen to fill the lungs with clean air.  The Diaphragm is a sheet of muscles that lies across the bottom of the chest cavity.  As the Diaphragm contracts and relaxes, breathing takes place.  When the Diaphragm contracts, oxygen is pulled into the lungs.  When the Diaphragm relaxes, carbon dioxide is pumped out of the lungs.

The Intercostal Muscles:

There are two types of muscles for this system: The internal Intercostal Muscles and the external Intercostal Muscles.  The internal Intercostal Muscles are placed perpendicular to the external Intercostal Muscles.  Both the internal and external Intercostal Muscles work differently.

The internal Intercostal Muscles, or the Inner-Cartilaginous Muscles, stretches the ribs so that they are pulled up and higher volume for the lungs is created, due to this happening, the lungs can be filled with more air.  During the working of this, when the muscles shorten and contract, the ribs are lifted.

This working can be compared with the Traverses Throacais Muscles.  The only thing of difference is that the internal Intercostal Muscle escalates the ribs, whereas the Traverses Throacais Muscles performs the work of depressing them.  The internal Intercostal Muscles, which are present in the bony rib part, is better known as the interosseous internal Intercostal Muscles.  These muscles perform the function of counteracting the activity of the external Intercostal Muscles.  When these muscles shorten or contract, the ribs come closer, this creates a positive air pressure which is developed between the lung air and the air present outside.  The internal Intercostal Muscles are hence associated with the functioning of exhalation.

The external Intercostal Muscles also performs its work by shortening and contracting.  When the muscles contract and shorten, the rib is raised, thereby enhancing the lung volume, which creates a negative air pressure to build up.  The external Intercostal Muscles are known to help the lungs with inhalation.

With the help of the Intercostal Muscles, Humans can register their voice within three classes: High, Medium and Low.  People have different sounding voices because the Intercostal Muscles have a Muscle Memory.  This means that the muscles choose a class of voice that makes them work to their best potential.  In my case, I have a Low class with my voice since it's so deep and more distinct.

Since I have such a low voice, I don't need to contain much air in my lungs to be able to project my voice, whereas someone with a much higher voice class will need to build up more air to project theirs.  This could explain why singers with a high voice will breathe repetitively whilst singing a song, this is so they can reach the highest notes contained within the song with their voice.

Below, I will include an image of the Respiratory System:


Analysis Of How And Why Exercises In This Area Can Help Improve Vocal Performance:

Any person can benefit from improving their Respiratory System, especially Actors, by going through the exercises that I'd previously mentioned.

For those with diseases related to breathing, this can mainly be actors and/or athletes, coordination with breathing can help:

• Reduce symptoms of asthma COPD, Emphsema and Cystic Fibrosis
• Improve Vocal Quality for performance
• Improve athletic ability
• Reduce Insomnia
• Improve systolic blood pressure
• Improve general pain management, including back pain
• Flatten your stomach

Improving your Respiratory system helps raise your Diaphragm.  This allows for more room for your Internal Organs and also, as previously mentioned, flatten your stomach.