Dear Nick and List:
I'm impressed - you definitely have a flair for graphic design! I
don't feel that your page addresses further the issues I've raised,
but I like your design.
I would state again that I can provide answers to the questions I've
raised, but I am trying to point out issues that I find in Reid's
writings.
If Reid as a teacher has helped people, or if you studied with
someone that thought he was the gospel - that's great - I really
don't doubt that he is/was a good teacher for many. But I have
issues with the concepts he presents in writing.
My doctoral research was related to the area of motor control theory,
and Reid does not carefully distinguish the neural control and
physical configuration aspects of his "registration theories".
When Reid talks about coordinating say "falsetto" with say "chest" it
has meaning in his implicit concept of motor control - that more
complex actions (say "head voice") are built up at the neural control
level from combinations of simpler "hard-wired" ones (motor
programs). It is not an unreasonable theory that we learn more
complex coordinations based on combinations of simpler ones, and one
can argue that "raw chest" and "pure falsetto" are two simple control
strategies that perhaps are "hard-wired" in our nervous system.
However, some of the terminology of "mixing" and so on does not make
sense if one is thinking about physical configuration.
As Lloyd has said in somewhat different words, one can be a good
teacher even if the explanation for what one is doing is incorrect or
incomplete. As an aside, in my own lessons with various teachers
over the past 20+ years, I have learned to avoid spending too much
time on this kind of discussion. In a lesson, I do my best to follow
the instructions that are asked of me, and I evaluate for myself if I
think the teacher is being helpful.
Cheers,
Michael
--- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, "Nick Scholl" <opa@o...>
wrote:
> I've constructed a web page with a helpful diagram and explanation
straight from Reid's The Free Voice, which I feel is even more
important than Bel Canto.
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