Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
"Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
Date:  Tue Oct 24, 2000  6:28 pm
Subject:  [vocalist-temporary] Re: Empirical Science


Dear Martyn and Vocalisters:

You wrote:
I have nothing but admiration for such experience (referring to the
long and extensive experience of successful voice teachers) , and
find that the more I meet such people, the more respect I have for
everything BUT science, for disciplines where a person's EXPERIENCE
is seen as being as important as their knowledge. Singing teaching is
one of these areas. There will never be any quick answers. An
experienced ear is worth everything to the singer. We will never be
able to analyse the voice in the same way an experienced ear can.

You also wrote that you were "for ever amazed at how much higher
value singers and singing teachers place on whatever I have to say
about the workings of the voice than what other singers/teachers say"

COMMENT: Your statements imply that there is something that must
come between scientific knowledge of the workings of the voice and
the empirical learnings of the successful voice teacher. Many on
this list have expressed similar ideas, that is, that vocal science
is somehow the antithesis of vocal knowing which is obtained via
non-scientific means. I am at a loss to understand why any area of
learning or understanding or knowing should be viewed in so skeptical
a manner.

As a voice teacher for some 45 years I have more than my share of
empirical experiences and I draw on this experience daily. But
nothing I have found which works well is, in any way, contradictory
of what I have also learned through science, in whatever guise one
wishes to describe this science.

In fact, it is the findings of science and the training in scientific
method that has made me a more effective and efficient voice teacher
because I better understand why such-and-such procedure works with my
students and I am, perhaps more importantly, able to better predict
the outcomes of my teaching through a better knowledge of what is
occurring in the vocal mechanism.

Many successful voice teaching ideas are used with no knowledge of
how they work so explanations are invented to explain their
effectiveness. However, if any of these "successful voice teaching
ideas" eventually produce poor or dangerous results, there is little
if any attempt to understand why they turned bad; they are simply
dropped from the repertoire of that teacher's methods. But they may
be passed on by that teachers students to be propagated again and
again through generation after generation of singers.

However if explanations of the workings of an exercise or method are
based on a more accurate description of what is happening in the
vocal mechanism, it also follows that other exercises or extensions
of the method can be extrapolated from this understanding.

It is this seeking for such understanding that, in my opinion,
creates the "higher value singers and singing teachers place on
whatever (you) have to say about the workings of the voice than what
other singers/teachers say" when you present at conventions etc.

--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011

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