If the human voice is the instrument most essential to songwriting, then breath itself shapes our art.
Songs contain pauses, or rests, where the singer can inhale. But if you consciously pay attention during your daily routine, you’ll notice that we also use these pauses while speaking, and we do not place the pauses randomly. We use them where they have impact. We use them to complete thoughts, to give our listeners a chance to reflect upon and process what we just said. Sometimes we use them to create tension and drama, to keep our listener hanging. All of these effects are useful to songwriters.
Some songs are meant to be rapidly delivered, with few chances for the singer to catch her breath. One example is “I’ve Been Everywhere,” The verses of which are just long, unbroken lists of Australian city names (there was an American version also), and if a singer isn’t careful to take a deep breath at the start of each verse, she’ll never make it through the entire verse without missing a city and losing her place. Verbal fluidity and endurance become one of the song’s main listening pleasures.
It’s interesting to note that even guitarists and pianists pause during instrumental solos–are they taking a breath themselves? Fingers don’t need to rest while the player breathes. Are they allowing you and I, their listeners, to take a breath? Are they marking the end of a musical thought? Are they instinctively simulating the voice? What do you think?
Players of non-wind instruments pause because they are speaking through their instruments and they want/need the qualities of speech to communicate better. At least that’s my opinion. I’ve heard plenty of jazz guitars players talk about wanting to phrase like a horn player, and piano players talk about emotional dynamics, etc., but it all comes back to wanting to communicate in the most human way possible and that means pausing to breathe every now and then (unless you are a metal god and have no need of weak, pathetic human qualities because you SHRED).
hahahaha!
I’ve heard some artists say that too, Jeff. And listeners definitely empathize with the musicians they’re hearing. Why else would anyone play air guitar? I think that part of the way we process music is by subconsciously interpreting what kind of gesture produced each given sound.
I’ve noticed that during the longer, more winding, and more intense passages from Marc Ribot’s solo on an Electric Masada recording called “Tekufah”, I hold my breath instinctively. I’ve never played a wind instrument and never consciously sought to emulate one, but I still hold my breath.