“The Structures and Movement of Breathing” by Barbara Conable

Subtitle: A Primer for Choirs and Choruses

Recommended to me by: reading Conable’s previous book What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body

A brief book (45 pages) with lively, pithy anatomical details about breathing for singing. Illustrations show breathing anatomy from lips to pelvic floor, including where are lungs are (from slightly above the collarbones to the bottom of the sternum, and filling the space front to back) and aren’t (no lung whatsoever below the diaphragm doming up from the bottom ribs).

Reminders for singers include

• How are your ribs moving as you sing?
• Remember to organize around your spine like an apple around a core.
• When you take air in, your spine gathers, like a cat preparing to spring.
• When you are using air to sing, your spine lengthens, like a cat springing.
• Your diaphragm works on inhalation. Leave the area along to dome back up on exhalation.

Highly recommended for singers and anyone else interested in the anatomy of breathing.

Available at Amazon.