Dear Mike and Vocalisters:
Thanks for your reply.
One comment. I do not approve of the practice of singing with pencils in the mouth. It is a common device that was heavily promoted by a teacher in California but I have seen many damaging results of this practice. I primarily do not approve because it attempts to achieve tongue and internal mouth adjustments while, simultaneously, restricting the very adjustments it is purporting to achieve. Often, the singer becomes overly conscious of restrictions in adjustments of the vocal tract rather than the freedom of adjustment that is more desired.
It is my opinion that is much better to teach breath management so that the singer is always in control of sub-glottal pressure and can adjust these pressures as needed for the kind of singing that is desired. Although breath management issues tend to bring forward a plethora of management techniques, most of which are physiologically erroneous, it is still necessary to address the way in which we all use our breath as we speak and sing. It is not difficult to bring the students attention to how they use the breath in a most natural way and help them to understand that the natural use of the breath is also a most efficient method of controlling the breath.
I find your experiments with the spectrometer software very interesting. Keep up the good work. I am a Mac computer user and I have not found any available on-line software for this platform. If you know of some, please let me know.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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