Dear Caio and Vocalisters
Caio wrote
>1. Most teachers ( and that seems to be true worldwide, according to
>complaints and comments on this list ) are clueless about what exactly
>happens on the inside. Therefore, they may not be saying anything about that
>for the very obvious reason that they don't know what to say.
>
>2. As has been said, singing teachers with successful methods have existed
>since a long time before vocal science appeared, so they shouldn't owe
>anything to it. However, isn't their rate of success due to natural
>selection of students? isn't it the same success 'shamans' had when they
>beat people to rid them of 'bad spirits'? Placebo effect cures, but
effective medication cures at a higher rate.
COMMENT: A wonderful post Caio. On target. It is possible for a
teacher to be very successful as "collector" of outstanding voices
but not have sufficient knowledge to be a voice "corrector".
You continued:
>3. Many teachers advocate using nasal vowels in order to reach for higher
>pitches, since they believe that sending air to the sinus cavities PRODUCE
>higher pitches and more overtones. According to what I've read in scientific
>books, and also here, mask resonance is only simpathetic: it doesn't produce
>higher pitches ( thus, the questioning of the placement concept by most of
>the scientifically informed teachers I've read- Lloyd and SLSers included ),
>but is a resonating consequence of them. Could we decide between two
>theories without knowing what does really happen on the inside?
COMMENT: The latest issue of the NATS Journal of Singing
(November/December 2000, Volume 57, No. 2) has an article by Stephen
F. Austin, a former contributor to this list, entitled Nasal
Resonance-Fact or Fiction? He provides research to prove that nasal
resonance removes the singer's formant and thereby reduces the "ring"
in the voice. He postulates that the rather new phenomenon of
teaching nasal resonance came from the "ma, me, mi, mo, mu" exercises
developed by the physician H. Holbrook Curtis who "reportedly helped
the tenor Jean de Reske regain his injured voice" through the use of
nasal resonance. "The famous de Reske promoted their work together,
and the rest is history." He also states unequivocally that nasal
resonance has never been promoted by the great Italian teachers of
the past but rather that they warned against its use.
You wrote on:
>4. An anecdote: one of my former teachers used to say that head voice was
>the result of sending air to the higher resonating cavities. At the same
>time, she used to say that we should lift our soft palate to open up
>resonating space for the sound, mostly for higher pitches. As I had already
>read a lot about singing ( thanks to this list ), I asked her: But how can I
>send air to the those cavities and, AT THE SAME TIME, block it? She had a
>mental block... and I never got the answer. Once again ( I've mentioned this
>cat before ), only Schroedenger's cat would be able to follow her
>instructions!
It is often suggested that a way to raise the soft palate is to
imitate the smelling of a rose but, of course, to do so requires that
the soft palate be lowered in order to open the velopharyngeal
opening so that air can be inhaled through the nose. This would seem
to work against the attempt to raise the soft palate unless there is
some form of immediate raising of the soft palate after the breath
inhale. It has been my experience that if such a quick raising of
the soft palate does occur it is because the student has always
tended to keep the soft palate raised anyway.
Basically the soft palate is not under very direct control. If you
place a clean finger into the mouth and touch the soft palate at the
upper back of the mouth and while touching it, take a breath through
the mouth, the soft palate will raise away from your finger. But if
you do not take a breath and try to consciously raise the soft palate
it will only become tense but it will not raise appreciably. It is
primarily through particular actions that the soft palate raises.
These actions include inhalation, surprise, pressurized consonants
such as /t, d, p, b, k, g, f, v/ and even /s/ and /z/. and others
that one can imagine.
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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