I have written about the dangers of an imagery-based mode of instruction for voice. Images are generally conveyed with words, sometimes also with gestures. Examples of imagery in voice teaching…
Tag: pedagogy
I have recently read Herbert Witherspoon’s fascinating and well-written Singing: A Treatise for Singers and Students (1925). His Chapter 13 is titled “Phonetics”, which begins as follows: The phonetics, or…
In the online forums I’m seeing many discussions about voice science – Explanations of “open throat”. Descriptions of sound profiles of ideal (so they claim) vocal attributes. Assumptions about desirable…
What is the purpose of vocal exercises in general? What is the purpose of a specific exercise, given at a specific time? Why this particular one, right now? If you…
When teacher works with student, he needs to keep in mind that he is trying to help the student to do something that she has never done before. Each party…
I have recently been watching a lot of videos from various voice pedagogy “leaders in the field”. Some are people I know personally, others I have only experienced from the…
Brad Jenks, a Chicago area voice teacher, recently made me aware of his excellent blog post. He questions the walls that exist between “classical” and “____” voice instruction. I agree…
I have dared to enter the fray in yet another social media discussion on the value of voice science in the teaching of singing. It gets so heated, but my…
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:…
This is a topic for a long book, but I’ll practice my conciseness skills. If you are teaching voice (or any other subject) and you use terminology such that “chair”…
In a Facebook forum recently a “teacher” (looking at her page I saw no qualifications) asked the question: “Can someone give me examples of popular commercially successful male singers that…
“Science is great at describing what happens, but you can’t do what happens.” – Stephen Smith, during his master class at the 2016 Conference of the National Association of Teachers…
