In 2019, Kim Hyuk Gun (김혁건), the vocalist of THE CROSS (더크로스), began the "respiratory rehabilitation and vocal education" section of his doctoral dissertation with posture. The reason: posture is the first thing every musician considers, because what they want to express comes from correct posture.
This is the nineteenth part of the series. It sets out posture and correct breathing, which the dissertation puts on the first two lines of vocal education. It is the part that shows what the breathing theory of Parts 2–4 looks like in the practice room.
01.Every Sound Starts with Posture
The dissertation quotes Brent Jeffrey Monahan.
| What is poor | Its cause |
|---|---|
| Voice | Resonance |
| Resonance | Phonation |
| Phonation | Breathing |
| Breathing | Posture |
It means the root of every sound and every song starts with posture. Whatever people do, they take a posture suited to it, and just as the efficiency and quality of work rise when posture fits the purpose, singing is no exception, the dissertation writes.
The singer Lisa Roma also saw correct posture as most important for correct breathing, and set out a posture of a straight spine, shoulders drawn back yet dropped, and a chest held high and steady, the dissertation notes. It then divides posture into mental and physical posture: keeping the mind comfortable and settled, and the body balanced and comfortable.
02.A Natural Posture
What the dissertation stresses is naturalness.
| Body part | The dissertation's explanation |
|---|---|
| Chest | Puffing it out too far raises the shoulders and larynx together and gets in the way of breathing |
| Head and neck | Not tilted too far up or down. No force in the muscles around the neck, the larynx or the shoulders |
| Lower body | Draw the belly slightly forward or bend the knees slightly to move the body's center toward the toes and lower body and steady it |
| Feet | The soles fully on the floor, with the body's center slightly forward toward the toes, but not too far forward |
| Alignment | A straight line from the feet through the legs and the curve of the spine to the head. Hips and belly not sticking out; chest comfortably slightly raised |
The dissertation also presents the views of several scholars. Moon Young-il stressed releasing tension from the whole body as the basic posture for beginners, which the dissertation explains not as going slack as if asleep, but as a state in which no part of the body is knotted and the jaw holds no force. Richard Knoll saw singing as a union of art and athletics, stressing a balanced, solid posture like an athlete's and a body that does not shrink in. Good posture frees the larynx, which frees the lips, tongue and jaw, and a free jaw makes pronunciation and expression precise, the dissertation concludes.
There is an interesting passage too. Lisa Roma's theory of drawing in and lifting the gluteal and pelvic muscles was once regarded as the basis of singing posture, but it was found instead to get in the way of singing naturally, by making singers conscious of those muscles before they sing, the dissertation writes. So its conclusion is that "the right way is to take a good posture naturally and sing." The wall posture of bel canto is in Part 14.
03.Five Principles of Correct Breathing
The dissertation groups names such as abdominal, diaphragmatic, pulmonary and ring-shaped breathing under "correct breathing," and sets out five things to keep when teaching and practicing breathing.
| Principles of correct breathing |
|---|
| ① Keep the spine straight |
| ② Breathe in so the lower ribs spread |
| ③ Do not let the shoulders lift |
| ④ Let the breath you take in go out as sound |
| ⑤ Do not take in so much breath that it feels unnatural |
The lower ribs in ② connect to rib breathing in Part 3, and the shoulders in ③ to the problem of chest breathing in Part 3. The dissertation writes that because many problems — from resonance to volume and range — appear together in singing, training in supporting the breath is stressed even more in vocal education.
04.From Below, Not the Chest: Ring-Shaped Breathing
| Breathing | The dissertation's assessment |
|---|---|
| Ring-shaped (circular) breathing — the belly, sides and back all come out | The recommended inhale. A deep breath in which the diaphragm and ribs both expand |
| Only the belly comes out, without using the sides and back | The diaphragm does not move deeply, a disadvantage in singing |
| Only the upper belly comes out, not the lower belly | The diaphragm does not move deeply, a disadvantage in singing |
"Note that the breath must not start in the chest." When breathing starts in the chest, it does not get the force of abdominal pressure, so force piles up on the vocal folds and you cannot exhale strongly, the dissertation explains. During phonation the breath must stay low, and the sound must start from the lower belly, not the chest, so it can be controlled with abdominal pressure using the diaphragm. Singing from the belly rather than from the throat alone — that is the principle of abdominal breathing as the dissertation describes it. It adds that today's popular-music singers, too, would do well to internalize abdominal breathing in order to sing for a long time.
05.Singing on the Exhale: Walking Breath
The dissertation writes that when people talk about breathing they mostly discuss the inhale, but what matters most for a good sound is how you let the breath out — managing the flow of the exhale. "We sing on the exhale."
So the breathing exercise it presents has the longest exhale.
| Step | Steps walked | Feeling |
|---|---|---|
| ① Exhale | Nine steps | Fully, as if emptying the body — like a deep sigh |
| ② Hold | One step | Holding the breath is a natural thing that happens when we concentrate |
| ③ Inhale | Three steps | Deep and low so the diaphragm goes down and the lungs expand. Snatch the inhale rather than dragging it in, and do not take in more than you need |
At first the exhale may feel harder than the inhale, but after a few tries you find the exhale is actually more comfortable than the inhale, the dissertation writes. Its last advice: practice consciously, but let it happen on its own when you sing. Support, the technique of managing the exhale, continues in Part 20.
06.Today's Practice
Turned into points to check while you practice, what the dissertation and the lesson highlight looks like this.
- Don't puff out the chest too far — Check that puffing the chest out too far is not raising your shoulders and larynx together (section 02; dissertation p.147).
- Check the five principles — Breathe in and out while checking the five items in the table in section 03 one at a time (dissertation p.151).
- Walking breath — Repeat exhaling for nine steps, holding for one and inhaling for three (section 05; dissertation pp.156–157).
- Listen for a floating breath — Lesson Season 2 Ep. 14 (Low-Mid Notes) plays examples of a breath that has floated up and one that has settled (video description). Listen to them alongside the dissertation's "during phonation the breath must stay low" (p.152).
The lesson to watch with this part is Season 2, Episode 14, "Low-Mid Notes." There is no lesson devoted to posture, so this part pairs a lesson that compares, by sound, where the breath sits. Its description lists carrying low-note resonance into the low-mid range while keeping the pitch, and examples of a breath that has floated up and one that has settled.
07.Where to Go Next
The differences among the three kinds of breath are in Part 3 · Chest, Rib and Abdominal Breathing, and support, which manages the exhale, continues in Part 20 · Support. THE CROSS's recent stage can be seen in THE CROSS's Open Concert Finale: "Poem of the Wind" and "Don't Cry". Lesson videos are in Korean.
Set the posture and keep the breath low — we sing on the exhale.