Breathe to 'sing'......remember - "Less Is More".....

This week I met a new 'breather', anxious to know what "Less is More" refers to - and can I demonstrate it? Well - Yes, it's very simple, but as with all things simple, rather tricky to explain...and often elusive to the impatient explorer, especially if they've spent years with 'singing teachers' encouraging them to take a deep breath in through the mouth, and "PUSH Darling!"... and WHAAAT..?? Death to natural phonation...mmm, but it keeps many medical practitioners happily employed chopping bits and pieces - polyps, nodules - basically 'corns' on the vocal folds - etc...Very lucrative business...mmmm. I was horrified by a singer in Sweden who announced that it was usual for singers to experience the aforementioned conditions, being inevitable - and NORMAL - simply because she had suffered such self inflicted injuries 'several times' - what UTTER RUBBISH !!!...not sure is she is still 'in the business', a miracle if so.... The secret of 'singing' is not to 'sing'...! What the heck am I talking about...? As a student at the now defunct, London Opera Centre, I was blessed by the good fortune of meeting and becoming a friend of the most influential singer of my life, the adorable, generous, vivacious and genius talented New Zealander Kiri - te Kanawa. What an amazing stroke of fate.... We've had so much fun over the years, although our paths went their different ways, and the reason for bringing her into the picture is that her attitude to singing has influenced me more than I realised, until I started helping other singers 're - train' their voices when they'd 'lost their way' vocally. I've found myself advising them what Kiri told me all those memorably happy years ago...When I remarked that I could always understand her words when she sang, she replied "Anna, I never 'sing' , I just talk on musical notes " - simple as that !! I've never seen her use the 'hippopotamus mouth' method thankfully.. Sometimes, if the singer has a sense of humour, I vow to park my car in that vast apperture which is their mouth ....and I discovered with my limited lung capacity after a fire accident, that the less air pressure you create under the larynx, the more effective and easy is is to 'talk on a musical note'....I recently wrote to Kiri, treadin' the boards' entertainingly in the cameo role of 'The Duchess of Krackenthorp" - (Wooow - that hat !!) in 'La Fille du Regimant' at The Metropolitan Opera, New York, that HER advice has been the secret of MY - success with so many 'breathers' over the years...teasin', teasin' ....thanks a bunch Magical Maori Maiden...So, if you wanna know how to control your air flow minimally ..let me know and we'll have some fun...it's great for all, not just singers....k..p b.......g...and warm..