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What kind of methods and techniques do you use? (Singing Teachers)
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Kat, thanks for that awesome post 🙂 I’ll make sure to have a look at that website this weekend! What does IVA have to say about registration changes – i.e. moving from chest to head? Neither Estill or CVI (Complete Vocal Institute, Cathrine Sadolin) has any time for register changes, saying it’s all part of the same set-up. I still teach chest and head voice, mostly for want of a better explanation. Does IVA have one?
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True that, Eliza – though I’ve had a shift in my thinking over the last couple of weeks: surely we earn our money better by training people to be singing teachers, not singers? So many classical teachers teach in that monkey-see, monkey-do type way – “No, sing like this!” – without any care for the cause-and-effect logic of anatomy. We have an opportunity to give people the ability to not only sing well, but also to give them the skills to start charging £25/hour for their understanding of the voice! So for me, I love teaching the hardcore anatomy even to beginners – especially if you can inspire them with the wonder of it all 🙂
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Hello guys! I covered a little bit of the Alexander technique at Uni could do With brushing up I also have my opinions on chest and head agreeing with you matt also about giving students that are interested those teaching skills! great to meet new people in the group and thanks for sharing!
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Re. registers: although in reality as we make pitch roughly everything stays the same except for a shift in primary usage from the TA muscle to the CT muscle, nevertheless, as students experience a shift in resonance, this can wreak havoc with the tonal quality of the voice. This is usually at E4 for the majority of men and A4 for many women (or the first passaggio) although of course there are exceptions. As you will have discovered, there is a often a “break” in the voice where it flips from chest to head or chest to falsetto etc., either suddenly or gradually. This kind of break can be found in most voices and is probably the singularly most hampering thing to the extension of range, and the expression of the soul in music. This is why most of the primary focus of SLS, IVA and other Bel Canto teachers is on registrational issues (ie. the blending of the chest and head voices to create one continuous and consistent voice that can be accessed and navigated with ease). This was also the main focus of the schola cantorum, and indeed almost all vocal pedagogy until about the 1850s. That’s (1800s) when “wagnerian” and more heavy, shouty styles of singing became the fashion in opera, and so the technique had to change from something that aimed for balance, to something that aimed for the maximum strain and loudness on the voice. Thats also when things like the resonance schools (“Place it in the masque!”) and the 100% breathing focused schools (“Support from the diaphragm! Support!”) came into fashion. Of course a focus on resonance and breathing can be helpful, but science has come a long way since then… If you read your Ingo Titze, Richard Miller, Cornelius Reid, Manuel Garcia, E. Herbert-Caesari, or any of that ilk of more recent scientists and pedagogues, there is strong evidence for the “mixed voice” as being one of the primary goals of vocal development.
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Haha I’m not even sure if that answers your question. But hopefully it does 🙂
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