For years, singers were told to ‘sing from the diaphragm’, ‘support more’, or ‘place the voice forward’. Some were even encouraged to ‘sing from the diaphragm, not from the throat’.

While these ideas can sometimes point singers in a useful direction, they were often difficult to interpret and provided little guidance on how to achieve the desired outcome. Progress was therefore often a process of trial and error, with singers spending months or even years trying to achieve meaningful improvements.