Why Vocal Science
Why should a successful singing teacher bother about the functioning of the voice? A great teacher, with experience and skill, already mastered the voice function, and has developed a reliable terminology that can accurately describe the relevant phenomena. By gift, knowledge and intuition, the teacher manages to successfully instruct students how to use the voice so that they become proficient singers. Indeed, in such cases we may be tempted to conclude that science does not have very much to contribute.
But the situation may not be that simple. An accomplished teacher, armed with scientific knowledge, may create completely new approaches, that are more consistent, efficient and effective. Many teachers have developed specific professional curiosity and tend to ask themselves “why is this so?”, why the same instruction sometimes fails and sometimes succeeds. They might want to know what are the physical relationships between various vocal phenomena, such as loudness, jaw opening, pitch, vowel quality, vibrato, covering …
Science will never replace the vocal pedagogue, of course. Having solved own personal vocal problems, having reached a high level of technical a musical proficiency, and having benefited from the inestimable experiences of a successful public career, a pedagogue becomes a great teacher. Science should be seen as a friendly face that assists and enables the teacher to gain even better understanding of the functioning of the vocal apparatus and incorporate that understanding into the methodology, eventually replacing the language of imagery with a more precise technical information.
Also, in our profession, many feel the need for a fact-based, common terminology. Vocal pedagogy is loaded with personal jargon which remains unclear to most people, except, hopefully, the user himself – a regrettable situation that limits the possibilities of exchanging experiences between colleagues. The medicine against this disease is objective knowledge, that, ideally, scientific research should offer.
There has always been a link between vocal science and vocal pedagogy. The pioneering work of the Garcias or Lampertis had a profound impact on the vocal pedagogy of the day. However, over the past few decades and through the work of modern researchers like Vennard, Miller, Sundberg, `Titze, or Bozeman, to name a few, the vocal science has made such progress that its incorporation into the vocal curricula requires much more of a specialist input, while promising greater rewards. There is an increased realisation that the voice is an instrument that can be trained through exact communicative language – by using the factual information that comes from interdisciplinary scientific sources.
At yet another level, the new pedagogy can include modern technologies, for example the computer modelling of the voice production process and manipulation of the shape of thus obtained virtual vocal tract. The effects of such “improved” simulated vocal process can be presented to the singer as his/her attainable goal, entirely personal to each individual artist.
Finally, there is the student. Modern day students are used to processing information. They want to know and understand the physical processes that are going on when singing: the vibration of the folds, the mechanism of crossing the passaggio, the projection in a large concert hall, or changes when reaching for the mixed voice and “training for the high C”.
Here are some examples of where the vocal science can help the teacher in explaining various vocal topics:
Pitch controlling mechanisms and their effective uses
What keeps the larynx low when singing high notes? Training the relevant musculature
The mechanics of the chest, head and falsetto voices. Training the relevant musculature
Voice resonators and how to maximise their performance
Efficient voice production. Getting more voice power with less energy expenditure
Why the vowels darken in the zona di passaggio?
The mechanism of mixing the falsetto and the head registers at the top of tenor’s range.
What creates the singer’s formant? What produces the “ring” and the “twang” resonances?
The logic, the extent and the ways of keeping the nasal passage open.
Resonant voice by matching harmonics and formants.
What creates “space” in the throat?
Formant tracking in female upper middle voice.
The result of incorporating science in teacher’s armoury should be a pedagogy that is more precise, more adaptable to individual students and which shows more consistent results in terms of producing elite singers. To this end, and when combined with intuition, passion and pursuit of greatness, vocal science can indeed become an invaluable tool in the hands of a modern voice teacher.