We know a lot about the singer's breathing needs and techniques. If Falloppio and Mercuriale already noticed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that the screaming singers risked inguinal and abdominal hernias, Bernardino Ramazzini included them among the diseases of the profession, noting however that "castrati would not be affected by the hernia thanks to a technique and teaching from the theater, aimed both at the power of the voice and at agility and, consequently, at a correct use of the abdominal muscle belt ". Therefore the "correct use" of the respiratory dynamics is fundamental to the emission and to the power and agility of emitted voice, contrary to what has been said in recent times. The respiratory bands allow us dynamic studies in real, or almost.
We know a lot, from the Fifties of the XIX century and the Sixties of the XX century, about the vocal cords, even if we are far from knowing everything. But we have defined a lot of the dynamics that allow the air column in the trachea to turn into voice, passing through the vocal cords and the vocal tract. Vocal dosimetry has led us to observe a voice in its parameters in real, while voicing.
Thanks to the RespTech group of the Politecnico, prof. Dellacà and the Ghislieri Choir and Orchestra with Maestro Giulio Prandi - with the advantage of a phoniatrician colleague and alto in the group, Silvia Capobianco - we were able to couple bands and dosimeter and study the artists of the choir in vivo, documenting that the breathing modalities of the Artist are different from those of the amateur, because professionals make better use of the costal-diaphragmatic component, the supporto, the appoggio and obtain better and more constant voice performances.
It is a complex, learned gesture, as Zamorano and Coll remind us, and teaching must take this into account: correct breathing and a correct phonatory attitude are interdependent and simultaneous functions, a complex but fundamental objective to document the practice learned and prevent vocal effort.
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Cunsolo F, Ottaviani V, Capobianco S, Calcinoni O, Dellacà RL. Simultaneous monitoring of vocal doses and breathing patterns in professional singers. Comput Biol Med. 2022 Feb 26;144:105352. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2022.105352. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35286892.
Zamorano AM, Cifre I, Montoya P, Riquelme I, Kleber B. Insula-based networks in professional musicians: Evidence for increased functional connectivity during resting state fMRI. Hum Brain Mapp. 2017 Oct;38(10):4834-4849. doi: 10.1002/hbm.23682. Epub 2017 Jul 24. PMID: 28737256; PMCID: PMC6866802.