The Last Post Game!!!!

[Swatopluk]

You forget the option of circular breathing.
Do whales only sing below the surface 

Last _{Hm, what about singers using a water breathing system?} Post

[Griffin NoName]

Do whales only sing below the surface  

I should expect so. The water amplifies the sound so more whales can hear each other. After all, besides babies in the womb and people who can't get to sleep, other whales are their most likely listeners.

Last Post

[Swatopluk]

Or so they want to make us believe.

Last Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

My personal record for physical activity without breathing is 50 m of underwater swimming (approximately 1 minute). Takes a bit of training, although I can routinely do 25 m without practice*. Surely a well-trained singer could go significantly longer with this, assuming they could control their rate of exhalation appropriately. I'd suspect sopranos would do best at singing duration, as it seems to take much less airflow to sing high notes than low ones.

In good shape I can do 2m underwater without breathing (currently between 1 and 1:30), but holding/managing your breath while swimming is very different from singing, in order to get volume you must push a fair amount of air through the vocal chords so doing 5 bars (@4/4 quarter=60 -> 20 seconds) at full voice is between impressive and impossible. For reference long notes at the end with a fermata may last the equivalent of 2 bars plus the previous word or 8 to 12 seconds and a trained singer must prepare or will not last the full time. Considerations on volume o technique (fff or -interestingly- falsetto, will use more air than a mf) affect that equation as well.

Last _{not counting wear and tear, ask wagnerian singers} Post

[Aggie]

Yes, volume is perhaps the biggest factor, and I suppose in the context of opera it's vital. I was thinking in terms of oxygen deprivation (i.e. the need to take the next breath), but that might not matter as much with singing, since you're constantly pushing out accumulated CO2. To exhale over a 1 minute period might be such a small trickle of breath that actually producing song is near impossible.

Taking volume out of the equation, and singing 'easy' notes at a normal speaking level, how long do you think you can sing continuously without taking a breath?

Last _{my best point of reference is warmup exercises - but as long as red-leather-yellow-leather feels, it's probably 20 sec at best and more akin to speaking} Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

At mp I can do 15 seconds. I just did a minute in ppp, but keep in mind that I also studied french horn and have a decent lung capacity, and, that such feat isn't usable in a real performance.

Last _{always mark your breathing points in the score} Post

[Griffin NoName]

My breathing comes and goes in waves.

Last Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Don't let it go to much.

Last _{half alive} Post

[Griffin NoName]

But one is supposed to breathe out all of yesterdays stale air, rendering the lungs empty and ready for fresh supplies. In other words, it has to go.

Last _{relaxation/meditation} Post

[Swatopluk]

But with each breath only 5% get exchanged, so it would take at mimimum 90 breathing acts to get rid of 99% of the old air.

Last _{and that's under the assumptions that none of the old air gets sucked in again and that there are no dead zones in the lungs} Post

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

That's why rebreathers are useful.

Last _{no bubbles} Post

[Swatopluk]

We just passed through the maximum of a partial solar eclipse (74%) around here. Quite eerie. Totally contrary to the usual custom there is no cloud in the sky, all the shadows are sharp and focused but the light was still visibly down (like those day for night shots in old movies).

Last _{next partial one in iirc 2021 and the next total in 2083*} Post

*for the place I live

[Griffin NoName]

I am normally dead to the world at this time of day but I set my alarm for the partial eclipse. We have dense cloud cover so I wasn't expecting much. But it didn't even get a little bit dark. From a viewing perspective nothing at all happened. Surely it should have darkened as even with cloud cover there was reduced light to travel through the clouds? Or is G-ds light switch faulty?

Last Post

[Aphos]

Last _{being dead for a year for tax purposes} Post

[Swatopluk]

It's the new Hotblack thing

Last _{black body radiation} Post