Consistency of inhalatory breathing patterns in professional operatic singers

Respiratory behavior is generally considered important to voice function, t he assumption being that it affects the voice source. Accurate and consiste nt control of the voice source is particularly important in professional op eratic singing. An erratic behavior of a factor influencing voice productio n is incompatible with a well-controlled vocal behavior. We analyzed the co nsistency of inhalatory breathing patterns during singing in five professio nal operatic singers, using the same material as in a previous investigatio n of phonatory breathing patterns. Rib cage (RC) and abdominal wall (AW) mo vements were recorded by respiratory inductive plethysmography. Consistency was analyzed in terms of the mean correlation between three takes of ton m usical phrases. Results revealed a high consistency in lung volume (LV) cha nge and RC movements in all singers and in AW movements in three singers. C onsistency across different phrases was slightly lower. The results are com patible with the idea that inhalatory behavior is important to voice source in singing. A high correlation between LV change and RC movement was found in all singers and between LV change and AW movement in three. The contrib ution to LV change from RC was greater than that from AW in all singers.