Free books on singing that will blow your mind

There is a wealth of great reading for singers and voice teachers that you can access for free. Several books that are out of copyright that I highly recommend are:

The Psychology of Singing: A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern by David C. Taylor

Self-Help for Singers by David C. Taylor

New Light on the Old Italian Method by David C. Taylor

Position and Action in Singing by Edmund Meyer

The Head Voice and Other Problems by D. A. Clippinger

The first and last of these five identify problems with voice training that were rampant 100 years ago which are still very much with us. I shake my my head at how far we have not come with all of our science and mechanics about the voice. The idea that a voice could be trained to a very high level of artistry and technical freedom before the age of “voice science” is unacceptable to most people, but why?

As you can see, I have been reading a lot of David Clark Taylor recently. His work influences mine greatly. His rationale for what the “Old Italian Masters” taught, and why it has been abandoned, is very compelling. If that whole topic interests you, I can think of no better author from any era to start with.

There is also a plethora of links to downloadable books on Daniel Shigo’s website. Kudos to him for making them so easily available.