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What kind of methods and techniques do you use? (Singing Teachers)
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IVA is the institute for vocal advancement: http://www.vocaladvancement.com. It’s pretty similar to SLS as I said. But last year a lot of people felt that SLS wasn’t being run very well as an organisation. So all the people who still wanted the education but didn’t want to do it with the SLS system moved on. It believes in the same thing: dealing with registrational imbalances in the voice using a resting laryngeal posture and adducted (but not pressed) vocal folds. I completely agree about Estill being good at the scientific side of things. For sure. IVA is still very scientific. And often-times IVA and Estill are trying to achieve similar things. I personally prefer IVA because it allows the teacher to think and hear in scientific terms (ie. What is this person’s larynx/arytenoids/folds etc. doing?), but then instead of communicating to the student in scientific terms, we use exercises and tailored sounds. We’re still getting the physiological effect, but in a way that the student doesn’t HAVE to know the science if they don’t want to. Not to get into too much of a debate between techniques, but one other reason that Estill doesn’t work for me is that there are multiple different configurations that are focused on. From memory, I think Sob, Belt and others. This is great if you can already vocalise from the bottom to the top of your voice with no breaks and are looking for different sounds to be artistic with. However, I find that most students have enough trouble getting into chest or head voice in a comfortable way let alone trying to make a whole lot of different configurations. But definitely if I had a student who was already proficient but wanted to know more about the science and the different configurations, I might well send them to an Estill teacher, for sure.
Alexander technique is definitely mostly postural stuff, but there are a few teachers out there who specialise in Alexander technique for voice (or for playing instruments). I studied with a really great Alexander Technique specialist when I was in Australia, but I haven’t done so much of it over here. It’s definitely not the whole picture in terms of technique, but there area few things I’ve learned from it that are helpful for certain students especially those who hold too much tension in their bodies. Just an extra something.
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Sorry about how exceptionally long that post was haha.
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I think a lot has to be said for the type of student, or whether the science is needed for students (particularly beginners) at all. Active singers probably benefit more from the in-depth science of it all – I know I would! Then like you said, Kat, the info is there if there’s a student who finds it easier to understand when they actually know what’s going on in there!!
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Also, first I’ve heard of the Alexander Technique!
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Wow Kat, sounds like your body of knowledge is going to be really great for this group 🙂 A couple of questions – first, what’s IVA?
Second, how do you find the Alexander technique in teaching? I’ve heard it’s great for posture – but I don’t focus too much on posture beyond the basic corrective stuff so I’d love to hear how it is when you get in-depth!
Also, the ‘science-versus-feeling’ debate could probably go on all day – but I find Estill is stonkingly good for allowing you to be specific when it comes to diagnosing difficulties in the voice (although it’s a bit light on abdominal support!)
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