Lloyd: In fact these treatises are so confusing that it is commonly
said that one cannot learn to sing from a book. But when one reads
the writings of such people as Richard Miller, Barbara Doscher, Ingo
Titze and others, complex and difficult as they are, we find a common
thread of expression between these authors that is not as individual
but is more in keeping with accepted medical and scientific
terminology.
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I can't think of three writers about singing and the teaching of
singing that I respect more that Miller, Doscher and Titze (except
maybe Coffin) but I honestly think they make things much more
difficult than they need to be.
I am going to be completely candid here and I sincerely hope that I
don't offend anyone; that is not my intent at all. I just want to be
completely candid. And I admit my ignorance about the bulk of Titze's
work since what I have read of it has only been the articles posted
at the NCVS site which seem to be perfectly sensible to me.
Miller and Doscher are too bogged down in minutae, especially when it
comes to anatomy. Their written works seem more geared to impress an
academic audience and to satisfy the "publish or perish" requirements
of academic institutions than to provide useful information to most
people of normal intelligence. It's just too much work and too hard
to understand for what one gets out of it. It could easily be written
in a more accessible style; not the language, the style in which it
is presented.
I am also very dubious about the usefulness of such detailed
descriptions of anatomical function. In order for anatomical
knowledge to help us sing better, we have to be able to tie it in to
what we feel, see, hear and do when we sing because that's how we
control what we are doing. I don't see where either Miller or Doscher
are particularly good at accomplishing that.
Friends who know Miller personally, tell me he's very humble,
personable and accessible in his workshops and in private and that he
doesn't come across the way he does in his books at all. I have heard
tapes of his teaching also which seem to bear that out. His teaching
seems pretty normal to me. I can tell you however, that If I knew he
were sitting at a nearby table at a NATS convention, I'd be very
careful about what I said.
Miller and Doscher are the best-in-class among the writers about
singing that are "out there" today. I just wish they wrote in more
accessible language.
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Lloyd: In fact, a "language of singing" terminology should not be
attempting to "describe our sensations". It is describing function
and, possibly, the process our bodies use to achieve a particular
result.
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Exactly! The "language of singing" should describe the function that
yields a known result and not a specific sensation that results from
a given function. That purely intuitive teaching has worked at all in
the past is a testament (of a kind) that there must be some
commonality of sensation that must follow function. The trouble with
that idea however, is that no one has documented it! You can't prove
or disprove the value of anything if it isn't documented.
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Lloyd: The fact that almost all of the vocal instrument is built out
of muscles and nerves systems that are defined as involuntary
requires that we have an even more thorough knowledge of these
systems if we are ever to have their use completely available for our
singing needs.
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But we have to be careful that we might miss seeing the forest for
looking too closely at the bark of the trees. Knowing how the larynx
works is important, especially if it can help us learn to work the
larynx better. But I am not convinced that knowing the names of each
of the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the larynx and how they
function will help us know how the larynx works.
Is there anybody out there that can tell someone how to reduce their
subglottic pressure or change the basic timbre of their voice to make
it more like they want it by language alone? I suspect that it takes
more than the "Language of Singing" at its present state of the art.
Regards,
Les
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