Hello Southpaw41L
You are absolutely right in what you say.
Singing is an art. And in my opinion, concentrating on breathing simply gets in the way of the art. Because it focuses on a technical skill that should work naturally. Concentrating on the breathing, especially in a way where one is NOT actually singing is moving the art into science.
In my humble, but learned opinion:
All forms of singing require the same basic breathing ability. (With some exceptions eg. classical---things we don't do in pop/rock/folk or jazz music.) But for the most part, we all have the same apparatus and when it's working naturally and correctly, it works the same in all of us regardless of what we're singing. It's just that the different styles of song cause each of us to use this ability differently. When I sing "More Than Words" or "I'll Be Watching You", I don't use the skill in the same way as when I'm singing "My Funny Valentine", but that does not mean that I need to learn two different techniques of breathing. Just a different style of singing. With one style one would maybe use more chest-voice in the mix; the other one might use a lighter head-voice. Or both combined. But that is not controlled by the breathing. It's controlled through the vowel.
And that's where the fun begins. That's where the artistic field opens wide up. Because you get to think about how to interpret a word or phrase. Whether to make it sad or angry or happy... And see what kinds of sounds you get. It is so much fun! But the breathing should just come along naturally to support it. I have learned by my own experience that this should not be learned separately.
Name any singer who sounds great, and you'll hear an instinctive use of vowels. And please don't think that I sing something like "Piece of My Heart" like an opera singer. Ooooooo... that would be pretty scary, He he he.... I am not a classical singer. Never was... Grew up on Procal Harem, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Led Zeppelin... I just wanted to sing this music but I didn't want to ruin my voice the way SOME of them did.... Look at Robert Plant for example, even two months ago(live concert I heard), he still sounds like he's 25 years old! Listen to his diction. His vowels. You can say that he breathes properly, but that wouldn't happen without a relationship to vowels.
If a blues singer sings a word in a song that sounds so great, it's because he or she played with the vowel. "Turned the WORD around in his/her mouth in an interesting way". That's about art. I talked about this in an earlier message that is somehow no longer there. (Doesn't matter. I must have I forgotten to press "submit".)
For example, Aretha Franklin had this great way of throwing a vowel around in her mouth that gave her this signature double vibrato. It was big fun figuring out how she did that. But I didn't figure it out through breathing. I figured it out by figuring out, "What is SHE doing?" ---- playing with a vowel...
(I used to be a jobbing singer--only for money--good money!) and I would do a set where in one song I had to sing it just like Diana Ross; next song-just like Bonnie Raitt, then Aretha, then backup for WHAM (ohmygod) or a Joe Cocker song, or Janis Joplin, then Whitney Houston. Then somebody wants to hear something from America or Jefferson Airplane. Can't do all that without knowing how they make their sound. In this work, one learns about vowels. Got NO time to think about breathing.
Learning breathing is like learning to ride a bike. Sometimes you just want to cruise slowly; sometimes you want to ride fast and furious; sometimes you want to pull wheelies, and bank off ramps (that requires some special training). But the ability to balance oneself on the bike and ride without falling and hurting oneself is something we learn naturally. I never tried to steer my advice in the direction of cutting out the ART of singing and concentrating on the science of singing. I am steadfast against this. Maybe you misunderstood what I said in a previous post. (Recordings will support me.)
In fact I mentioned that if one is having intonation trouble, it's probably not the breathing. (Although some other problem is getting in the way of the natural breathing ability. It's a reciprocal event.) So think about something else; ie, key.
Usually one needs to fix the vowels, (or posture, which I didn't mention, I think. Bad posture makes it hard for the body to support the sound). Sometimes fixing the key will fix the vowels because they're easier to sing when they don't always land on a break.
AND I don't think this way, because professors told me that. I have learned this from dragging through this quagmire of voice training that it's better to find the answers myself. I simply naturally rejected the notion of "breath exercises without tone" long ago. I just happily found that in the last 15-20 years, that most professors don't support it either.
And also, not all voice professors are classical. Mine weren't. But I DID work under one long ago who told me that I have to teach my students to train their diaphragms not to collapse. Huh? I asked three doctors about this and each one laughed and said: "If that happens, you would stop breathing and die!"
Come on, you gotta find that funny!
In most universities around the world (I'm talking pop/folk/rock/jazz departments), they simply don't teach breathing without tone anymore. It's just a fact. A wonderful fact because I always thought it was nonsense, anyway. (But lots of private and Music School teachers still buy into it, mostly because they're afraid not to... or they don't know anything else. Or they learned it from their teachers, but don't realize that they really learned it on stage, or through the songs they had to sing..... so they keep on teaching it... mostly out of insecurity... REALLY... sadly, this is true!)
If you compare the voice to a car, the vowel is the steering wheel. We don't concentrate on how the gas gets from the tank in back, up front to the motor. We concentrate on keeping on the road. And we work the gear shift, gas, breaks, and clutch naturally--hopefully. If you're having trouble with shifting gears, then concentrating on how the gas gets to the motor is kinda pointless because that's the CAR's function. You have to learn to coordinate your feet and arms. And you won't succeed if you concentrate on how the gas gets to the motor.
With voice, we coordinate the use of throat and abdomen muscles---diaphragm knows its job; If somehow it doesn't.... better not go to sleep!
My opinion is, forget about the breathing. Do exercises that turn the breath support on naturally. We were breathing naturally and correctly for singing already, without training, when we were babies... In fact, voice training is all about removing the problems we build in as we grow up, and try to come back to this natural ability.
This is what I said in the first place....
Before you write this attitude off, try it. One should sing some song that one always sings, and try different, let's say, "accents". See how the voice changes. See how the breathing ability adjusts itself. If something doesn't work, one can try something else. 'We artists are full of ideas, aren't we? We can go on forever until we find something that works. If not, then something else is wrong...
