‘Tis the season for high school musicals here in the suburban Washington DC area. I have students right now rehearsing or performing in “The Drowsy Chaperone”, “Cabaret”, “Les Miserables (School Edition)”, “Cinderella”, “Into the Woods”, and “Legally Blonde”. The schools and private theatre programs around here aim big – often too big. Tonight I had
On a singers board recently, my advice to a tenor with squeezing and pushing problems that he needs to work with falsetto exercises has met with a lot of resistance. What I heard from a couple of other tenors (I am also a tenor) was that they found no use for falsetto exercises and that
Many singers are extremely loyal to their voice teachers and coaches. Many of us in the business search long and hard for people we can trust to be part of our support team. It is only natural when we come to the person who is the best collaborator we have had so far, that we
Back when I was primarily a flutist, the “open throat” was constantly mentioned by teachers and other supposed experts. Later, when I delved into vocal pedagogy, I again ran into this phrase frequently. What does it mean? I don’t think I received an accurate definition before figuring it out myself. Since then, I have seen
It is not uncommon for a young male’s voice to change more than once! Voices rarely mature at an even rate. The larynx continues to develop beyond adolescence, and the voice can change significantly well into the 20′s, and then usually more slowly thereafter. During puberty, the falsetto* will be a bit wild and rough, and will not go very low. With time, the falsetto comes back and becomes possible below C4 (middle C) again, and uniting the registers in the new, more mature configuration becomes an important project. Later in adolescence or young adulthood, another noticeable change may occur.
This second change may or may not be accompanied by changes in the range of the chest voice, but the coordination with falsetto to form a full head voice is usually affected. The boys/men who have a second voice change may go from tenor to baritone, baritone to tenor, baritone to bass, or have a change in vocal weight or timbre.
Noticing as clearly as possible what the voice is doing presently, and making conditions better for improved functioning, will clear the way for where the voice needs to go. It’s best for the teacher and singer to withhold predictions about “where the voice is going”, and instead, work to make it freer and stronger, and allow a natural result.
*Call it “light mechanism”, “pure head”, “heady head”, etc. as you prefer.
Singing, like other performing arts, is an act that involves the body, the mind, and the soul. In our current culture, talking about the mind is always encouraged, but talking about the other two seems to be more controversial. Today I want to write a little bit about general challenges to physical health.
There are some very disturbing trends in the physical health of many Americans. Most of us are overweight and do not get enough exercise. Most of us expect and experience some degree of disease as we age, including joint problems, lack of mobility, digestive problems, breathing difficulties, and failing brains. The upward trend in the incidence of diabetes and obesity is well-known.
How much should I, as a voice teacher, advise a person about their health? I’m not a physician or a scientist of any kind. Yet when I see a singing client making unhealthy choices, should it be part of my job to discuss these things that are compromising the body, the instrument?
There is growing evidence about the value of an anti-inflammatory diet. Inflammation seems to be a cause or contributing factor for most of our chronic illnesses. Should I be encouraging an anti-inflammation diet, or is it “out of my territory”?
I have students who never exercise beyond walking from the building they are in to their car and back. Should I explicitly tell them to get out and move more? Should a voice teacher express concerns over a student’s body fat?
All of these things affect their singing and their quality of life.
As time goes on, I feel more strongly that approaches to health that are not pushed by the pharmaceutical industry, corporate agriculture, or the government agencies which are largely run by former executives of those groups, are not getting heard over the din of advertising and the corporate food-making machine which makes harmful food so readily available and cheap. It is not inevitable that we grow old with with excessive body fat, inflammation, chronic degenerative diseases, declining quality of life, and singing voices that no longer function past middle age. The task is to try to find out what is the truth, and how to act on it, regardless of fashion or politics.
Please take a few minutes to watch this video talk by Terry Wahls, MD, who reversed her multiple sclerosis with diet, with huge implications for the health of all people.
‘Tis the season for high school musicals here in the suburban Washington DC area. I have students right now rehearsing or performing in “The Drowsy Chaperone”, “Cabaret”, “Les Miserables (School Edition)”, “Cinderella”, “Into the Woods”, and “Legally Blonde”. The schools and private theatre programs around here aim big – often too big.
Tonight I had the pleasure of attending “The Drowsy Chaperone” at Einstein High School in Kensington, MD. It was thoroughly delightful. It was my first exposure to this show, but I thought it worked extremely well for the deep and wide talent pool of Einstein’s Academy of Visual and Performing Arts.
And then there’s “Cabaret” across town, also cast with high school students. Why, oh why? I can understand wanting a challenge, I can understand being attracted to a show of very high quality, I can understand picking a show you love – but recent high school productions of this, “Sweeney Todd”, “Parade” and “Chicago” just seem wrong to me.
There are themes that young people can fully grasp and realize in dozens and dozens of musicals, both old and new. Then there are shows that that young people may understand on many levels as an audience member as well as older people, but which THEY ARE NOT YET READY TO PERFORM.
Contrasts: We had a production of “Spring Awakening” here last fall that was really excellent. The somewhat melodramatic plot is actually about teens, as raw and sexual as it is. Those young people were able to convincingly portray those characters and tell that story. Then there is “Cabaret”. What teenager is ready to fill out the character of Sally Bowles, the hardened, 30ish world-weary show girl bound for ruin? And are they really going to have high school girls humping chairs as Kit Kat girls? And is a boy playing Emcee (lead and cover both 16) really going to give us the polymorphous perversity required, both sexual and political?
It’s not just about “adult themes”. It has to do with a progression of theatrical repertoire that takes into account maturity, complexity, and dramatic skill level. We would never have a 15 year old soprano sing Wagner arias, but there may be masterpieces by Handel or Rodgers and Hammerstein that would suit her just fine. She may have the range, musicality, and language skills for Wagner, but not the gravity, vocal maturity, and life experience that an excellent performance would require. Is it not the same in theatre? I am no expert in musical theatre production for high schools, but I wish that the very cynical, bitter, decadent, or hopeless themes would be left to the college and pro crowd, while high school performers hone their craft on repertoire that is appropriate for their age and level of understanding.
I’m not saying that we should make the kids do only juvenile material. There is darkness in “Oklahoma” or “The Sound of Music” or even “The Drowsy Chaperone” which I think high schoolers can do a great job with. But these do not have the crushing gloom of a “Sweeney Todd” or “Chicago” or “Cabaret” that encourage a student to imitate a professional performance rather than understanding the depth of the character that they need to pull out of themselves.
On a singers board recently, my advice to a tenor with squeezing and pushing problems that he needs to work with falsetto exercises has met with a lot of resistance. What I heard from a couple of other tenors (I am also a tenor) was that they found no use for falsetto exercises and that they developed their head voice without them. One called falsetto a “dead end”. Apparently he was making falsetto sounds without any idea of their purpose in the big picture. After several more anti-falsetto posts, I realized that in these cases, there had been no explanation of what training purpose falsetto vocalizing can serve.
To give a little bit of context, I’d say that my work with falsetto exercises comprises about 2 minutes of a typical male’s voice lesson, and is followed up by coordinative (full-voice) exercises.
“What does falsetto contribute if we don’t actually perform with it?” is the question. The cricothyroid group of muscles (CTs) which stretch the folds to create pitch are easily overpowered by the thyroarytenoid group (TAs) which bring the folds together to make the “full voice” sound, especially in men. A separated, uncoordinated, operatically-useless falsetto allows pitch-making to happening without stress. With the TAs out of the way, the CTs are able to contract and release without interference. We thus send signals to the body that pitch-making is a function of the voice that CAN happen without force.
Look at sprinters getting ready to start a race. So many rituals of stretching, loosening, setting their feet and arms just so – they don’t run with stretching and loosening movements, but they feel that those help them with “the real deal”. Falsetto and lip trills are like that – two of many possible types of vocal activities that are used for training, and not used for performance.
I was in a dressing room once with another tenor who was making awful sounds. I asked him what he was doing and he said “It’s a falsetto warmup from Cornelius Reid”. It was nothing like the falsetto exercises I learned from a Reid teacher, and he had no idea what to do with it. There are a lot of flavors of falsetto. The ones that help open the throat and lead to easier pitch-making in real, full-voiced singing have to be demonstrated, and the student and teacher have to understand why they’re doing it, or they shouldn’t do it.
Many singers are extremely loyal to their voice teachers and coaches. Many of us in the business search long and hard for people we can trust to be part of our support team. It is only natural when we come to the person who is the best collaborator we have had so far, that we call them the “best” – end of sentence. However, no one person can teach you everything you might want to know for all time, or always give perfect advice. There are always many sources from which to learn, and we need different things at different times.
We find Voice Teacher X and realize that this person is helping us to unlock our voice to a greater extent than ever before. We curse that it took “so long” and that Voice Teachers A through W were so clueless! But we tend to generalize and oversimplify. Maybe without that journey from A to W we never would have gotten to X. Maybe the teacher wasn’t as clueless as the student! Maybe both teacher and student were not yet ripe, or in sync with each other, or speaking the same language. There may be dozens of reasons why one collaboration worked differently from another.
Regarding unhelpful advice I received (Did I really receive such, or was I not ready for it?) from various teachers, if I really think about what may have prompted what they said, it usually makes some sense – now. With almost all of them, the things that they did not explain well or at all, don’t have to subtract from the helpful things they did say. Sometimes a tidbit from one of them only makes sense years later.
I have a team I am very happy with now. I also have had some excellent teachers and coaches in my past. In the big picture, it seems best to thank all the previous people I worked with who helped me to form the path that eventually led to the resources I needed. My teaching career has also caused me to look at my teachers with more kindness and sympathy. Teaching isn’t easy and the teacher-pupil relationship is a two-way street.
Every singer has a unique story of how they learned their craft. There are so many variables that we can never declare that there is one “best” anybody or anything.
Back when I was primarily a flutist, the “open throat” was constantly mentioned by teachers and other supposed experts. Later, when I delved into vocal pedagogy, I again ran into this phrase frequently. What does it mean? I don’t think I received an accurate definition before figuring it out myself. Since then, I have seen that others have come to similar conclusions long before I did.
I am convinced that an open throat is one that is not constricted or squeezed, but also not forcibly held in a more open position than when one is breathing quietly. When someone says “open throat” to me, I think “nothing throat”, or else I will screw it up. People call my singing more “open” and “free” when I totally let go of all conscious shaping of the area close to my larynx.
For years on flute and voice I tried to make a big stovepipe of a throat so that it would be more “open”. I fixed this misconception on flute first, letting my throat just sit there quietly as a passageway (or is that passiveway?) for the air. My flute tone did not diminish, and became much more consistent and dependable.
Fixing this in singing took longer, and I still must be vigilant in not overdoing “getting into position”. Fixing my misconception of an open throat was a process of undoing until eventually the nondoing is habitual. There are definitely pharyngeal adjustments required to make a big, resonant vocal sound, but “opening my throat” only makes things dull, woofy, inflexible, and flat in color and pitch. When I’m singing in a way that other people call “more open, resonant and free”, I feel a nothingness in my throat that I would have called “closed” before.
Now I use this: “open” = “not closed”. That is enough. My old mistake was believing that “not deliberately opened” = “closed”. The words make a big difference in how I treat my body.
Definition of a vowel from dictionary.com:
“(in English articulation) a speech sound producedwithout occluding, diverting, or obstructing the flow of air from the lungs (opposed to consonant).”
Air flow itself can make vowels without the adduction of the vocal folds. We call this whispering. But for sung sounds, the vocal folds must come together to vibrate, hence providing an extra step beyond mere “air flow”. Given that the folds must come together to vibrate, let’s focus on what happens above the level of the folds to make the various vowels.
The different vowels are made by changing the shape of the vocal tract. On one pitch we can sing many different vowels, each having a different shape of pharynx, mouth, and mouth opening. In other words, we change the shape of the instrument for each vowel.
On a clarinet or a flute, we have an instrument with a basic shape that becomes shorter or longer as pitches change, but it will never suddenly change its tubing diameter or go from a perfectly round cylinder to something more oval in cross section, or from a thicker tube wall to a thinner one, even when the player adjusts his embouchure or blowing pattern to vary the timbre. However, the human vocal tract exhibits large changes going from one vowel to the next, and/or when the singer attempts a different timbre on the same vowel (classical compared to jazz vocalizing, for example).
It seems to me that crossing over from one style to another is the equivalent of playing the same instrument with a different kind of tone quality. Listen to examples of classical saxophone or trumpet compared to blues and it’s very apparent. But changing vowels (as required by sung lyrics) is more like playing a slightly different instrument for each vowel. The instrument is reformed for every vowel. The space in front of and behind the arch of the tongue changes, the mouth shape and opening change, and the position of the soft palate changes. There is also evidence that parts of the pharynx just above the larynx change, although these are considered to be changes that have more to do with timbre/genre than with vowel formation.
The big question becomes: How can we make the vowels equally resonant and still have distinct vowels? Won’t an /a/ always be more brilliant than a /u/? How far to go? How to make /u/ and /o/ bright enough and /i/ and /e/ mellow enough, but still keep clear boundaries that make lyrics intelligible? There are many instances in many genres of singers choosing a certain kind of instrumental sound over lyrics, and also many instances of singers choosing lyric intelligibility over instrumental consistency. Choosing when to do which is part of vocal artistry.
There are hundreds of articles, chapters, and videos about breathing for singers. How about breathing for the teacher? Specifically, how about breathing while the teacher is listening to the student?
When I have observed Jeannette Lovetri teaching, I and those around me have always been aware of the peace that pervades the room. She is calm and relaxed, and therefore calming and relaxing for the student. In her pedagogy classes, she stresses this attitude as a skill that teachers need to develop.
I have been experimenting with this for the last year and a half. It is not easy at first. A student who is calm and singing well makes it easy. But a student who is struggling, with either singing or emotions, can encourage me to react with a rise of anxiety and tension, which can affect my breathing, posture, vocal demonstrations, and ability to listen productively.
Often I find myself breathing when my student breathes, as if I’m silently singing along (which I often am). I am more effective when I break the cycle, so I try to breathe in while the singer is singing out. It helps me to accept and hear the singing better. Then when I go into correction mode, I have more to say because I have heard more.
When I take the time to “breathe in” the singer’s sound, I hear more, talk less, and probably have something more productive to say. At least I am likely to say it in a more calm way. Just changing the speed and tone of the delivery makes a big difference. I can never know exactly how the singer reacts to this, but I know that this is what I prefer as a student, so it makes sense to pass it along.
This is a topic more for teachers than students, perhaps, but it’s important for both.
I frequently hear or watch snippets of voice lessons. Some of these are clips that colleagues post in discussion groups, others are videos on the internet, and occasionally I get to observe a lesson in person. I also have had several teachers over the years, and presently study with a superb master teacher, George Gibson. In the last two years, after being exposed to Jeannette Lovetri’s ideas on “pianoside manner”, as well as Mr. Gibson’s thoughtful and deliberate approach, I have been more aware of how a lesson is paced, particularly the vocal exercises that are so important to a singer’s vocal improvement.
There are two main issues that I find alarming in how vocalises are done in some lessons:
1. Rushing. There is more than one kind of rushing. It can take the form of not allowing enough time between reiterations of an exercise, or a non-rhythmic interval between them, or in each repetition being done too fast. I find my own breathing getting shallower and anxiety rising when I hear a series of repetitions of an exercise being done with no space between them. Problems seem bigger when there is the feeling that one is falling behind or is not “going fast enough”. Occasionally I will have a student who rushes, and I bring them back to the rhythm of the repetitions. Sometimes I’ll take a little break on the way up the mountain. It can be very refreshing for teacher and student to take a little time out, to check in about how the exercise is going, or at other times to take one’s mind AWAY from the exercise for a bit.
A pace that allows for easy breath between repetitions, and that feels like there is a rhythmic connection between repetitions, can help the singer to feel safer, and more mentally and physically organized and focused. Rushing is anxiety-provoking and unsettling, sometimes very subtly. Some very kind and well-meaning teachers are guilty of being in too much of a hurry.
2. Talking to the student while he is singing. This is almost always counterproductive. Firstly, the singer probably won’t hear what the teacher says while he is singing. Oftentimes the singer will stop to ask what was said, unless the teacher is quite loud. Also the teacher talking during singing is sending the message “You have just become less important. Listen to my noise momentarily before continuing your noise.” It’s jarring and a bit rude. If you as a teacher have something urgent to say, it can wait five seconds until the arpeggio is completed, for Pete’s sake! If you wait another few repetitions, sometimes the issue goes away anyway. Give the exercise some time to work, or stop and explain it if it can be executed better.
Recently I listened to three excerpts of lessons from different teachers (all three were male, if that means anything) in which all the teachers rushed repetitions to an alarming degree, and two were constantly talking over the students’ vocalizations.
Our students tend to look at us as the experts in all things vocal, and don’t have the metaknowledge of voice teaching to ask us to establish an ideal pace for their learning style. We have to establish a good environment for them. It doesn’t hurt to ask! “How did that feel?” “Would you like to try that again?” “Let’s talk an easy, replenishing breath between each arpeggio.”, etc. I have also become more comfortable with sitting and thinking for a few seconds before selecting the next exercise. I had a teacher who would take quite a bit of time, sometimes close to a minute or so, before resuming the vocalises. He was thinking! This is a great thing to model for the student. They see the teacher thinking and they might get the message that thinking is part of learning how to sing better. And time! Time in exercises, in lessons, in practice, and over the long term.
We are not mechanical windup toys that have to go, go, go. We get enough of that outside of the studio. Let the studio be a safe, calm and comfortable place in which to do new and daring things!
Fall Recital Program
Students of Brian Lee
Founders Hall, Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville
November 13, 2011 at 3:00pm
Free Admission
Ten singers and one flutist will perform a great variety of music for friends and family. We will have classical art song, American musical theatre, R&B, blues, and rock & roll represented. There will be a reception after the performance. I hope you can join us in a celebration of music-making and learning.
We will be in the part of the church marked “Children’s Worship” on this map.