August Challenge; mono monday. Diva

This is Carol; she can be a bit of a diva at times. But she’s a very important part of my life right now. She’s an Australian opera singer/yoga instructor and she’s teaching me to breathe in ways I did not know were possible.

She runs a Singing for Breathing class at the gym (for decrepit people) that I go to. The basic idea is that exercises that singers use before performing - the use of posture, diaphragm, vocal warm-ups and so on - can help people with respiratory problems learn to breathe more easily. I’m talking about proper singers, by the way, not the singers I know whose warm-up routine comprises a couple of pints of heavy and a fag round the back of the pub, prior to going on to what we laughingly call ‘a stage’.

Carol is teaching me to breathe through my back. Well not through my back but breathing by inflating my back instead of inflating my chest. She’s also teaching me to inflate one lung at a time; this is a challenge for both of us as I’m short of an effective lung on the left side. I ache and grumble for a couple of days afterwards - far more than from a workout at the gym.

Singing for Breathing is a big deal right now - groups have been set up around the country to promote the idea; results in terms of increased inhalation and exhalation and general well-being are encouraging.

Singing as therapy is a big deal generally and there are Singing for the Brain groups working with stroke and dementia patients. The stroke case is really interesting - it turns out that many people who have lost the ability to speak can still, nonetheless, sing. The ability to sing originates in a different part of the brain from speech. Singing may even pre-date speech, in terms of human evolution.

A typical class lasts about an hour - we spend the first half exercising and the second half, singing. Or, in my case, trying. This is Carol at today’s session in non-operatic mode.