6.9.11 Adam News & Info

Normally I would post this on the vocal masterclass thread, but because things have been so sloooooooowww these last few days, I thought I would bring over these comments from Angelina. (Q3, if you want me to remove, I will. But, hell, it's better than the pics last night of Gokey. We are desperate for something to talk about. )She had written a blog on breathing and breath support using Adam as an example. In the comment section, I asked a couple of questions and she responded.


Angelina,
You are always so gracious. I never find your articles boring. I only have one complaint about them….. they leave me wanting more. I end up with so many follow up questions. For example, you say that correct breathing becomes second nature to the seasoned, trained singer. So, I am assuming that Adam doesn’t have to think about it at all? Or does he sometimes get a little sloppy? He usually sings great legato lines, but occasionally I hear him break them up and take an extra breath where he doesn’t usually. Do you hear that as well?
Also, several people have asked me why we can hear pronounced breathing at certain times and in certain songs, but not in others? Is he intentionally making the breathing audible as part of the interpretation?
And what about his breath support when he is moving and dancing all around the stage? It seems that many pop singers these days lip-sync while dancing because their breath support can’t sustain good tone while moving. I would think that the bouncing, moving, bending down, bending over all would have serious impact on breath support, but it doesn’t seem to interfere with Adam hitting the notes smack on pitch or sustaining a note or line. And, he doesn’t even look out of breath at the end.

See, I could ask questions all day long. I love your generosity in sharing your knowledge with us. Thanks a bunch.
Reply

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soundbath says:
June 2, 2011 at 12:04 am

Hi Cassie,

Thank you so much for your wonderful compliments and kind words. I’m so glad you asked questions – I’d love for this to be a place where we can all explore the world’s oldest musical instrument, the human vocal instrument and everything that surrounds it, which helps to create some of the worlds’ greatest art.

Yes, breath control for singing does become second nature to seasoned, trained singers, but that doesn’t mean we never think of it again – in fact, we think of it more – not necessarily about the mechanics of it as beginner-singers have to do, but rather how to use our breath to enhance our interpretation of a song. ( Sometimes I compare it to driving a car when I teach. When you first learn to drive, you have to concentrate on the mechanics of the physical act of driving, but once that’s mastered and ingrained, you end up thinking and concentrating on the best way to get to your destination – and so it is with breathing for singing, too.)

I know what you mean about Adam sometimes breathing where he doesn’t usually and I suspect he’s often doing it deliberately – we all know how he likes to experiment and change things up all the time, but, as happens even to the best opera singers, we sometimes get distracted for a moment and then find we didn’t take in enough breath to get us to the end of the phrase we’d set up for ourselves. I have certainly witnessed Adam doing that in front of me during a live performance – so he is human after all! But he clearly hides a third lung, because no matter how little breath he has left, I have never, ever heard him breathe in the middle of a word, something which ‘normal’ pop singers often have to resort to doing. It is a testament to his classical singing techniques and training, his good taste, and his astonishing discipline, perfectionist and professionalism.

I too have been asked about his audible breathing – Adam’s breath control is astonishing and he certainly knows how to breathe ‘correctly‘ for singing, but as we’ve established, he’s human, so as with the best opera singers, in very fast songs, it is not always possible to breathe inaudibly because you have to keep up with the tempo of the song, so that might be one reason people can hear him breathing. But as long as it doesn’t distract, I personally don’t see anything wrong with it – it happens to great opera singers too. But something that has fascinated me from the beginning, is indeed the fact that he uses his breath and breathing as elements of his interpretation of the songs he’s singing – and that’s rather difficult to do – it takes great concentration and you have to have very, very strong muscles!

As far as moving and dancing is concerned – again, it is because of his perfect breathing and voice control techniques that he is able to do so.

There is a perception that opera singers are static when they perform – but actually we too move rather more than people might expect: we dance, have love scenes, fight, jump off castles, die, etc., and operatic singing is very physical – one can lose weight during an opera!

Musical theatre singers move around the stage even more – a good example might be Adam’s performance in Wicked, so this is where superb breath and voice control techniques play their part in making it look so easy, but in fact it is rather more difficult than it appears. Pop singers who have to lip synch in order to dance, have to do so because they have very little to no breath and voice control techniques in their tool box, whereas Adam’s is comparable to some of the great opera singers. He is therefore, unique in today’s pop music world, because as far as I know, there are no other trained singers currently out there doing what he’s doing. But many people who listen to Adam‘s music, may perhaps not be used to seeing a trained singer in action, especially if they don’t also regularly attend opera or musical theatre shows. So he would be even more astonishing to them.

The fact that he makes it all look so easy, is his artistry.

I hope that helps?

Thanks for bringing that over. It's very interesting. It does sometimes seem amazing that an opera singer loves him so much!

cassie, thank you. This was interesting.

Bringing this from yesterday's thread:

saulikoskinen1 saulikoskinen
Bad sauli yfrog.com/5pubcyj
7 hours ago

Adam Lambert
adamlambert Adam Lambert
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@saulikoskinen1 A little Bora Bora Glam taken by yours truly!
5 hours ago

in reply to ↑
@saulikoskinen1 saulikoskinen
@adamlambert yes!
51 minutes ago via web

So still hiding *crumbs* today or

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