This is a book for all who enjoy singing and who study it, whether they are teachers, aspiring performers, partners in music-making or employers. It is for all those who are concerned with the health of voices and for singers who wish to improve their vocal performance. And it is for anyone who is interested in the integrity and depth of human communication.
The singing voice is a natural phenomenon belonging universally to the human species. I begin my book by discussing how this innate instrument of expression is adversely affected by so-called civilising processes and locked into inflexible cultural-linguistic 'shapes', which normally prevent it from realising its true singing potential. This discussion provides an invaluable background of causes and effects (physical, psychological and emotional), of diagnostic clues and reference points for the work of vocal reconditioning.
The holistic principle is currently at the cutting edge of scientific research and philosophical explorations into how the world works or might work better. 'Holistic' means 'whole' and by extension 'healthy'. My holistic approach in The Human Nature of the Singing Voice deals therefore with the singer and his or her voice, the singer's material (text and music) and the dynamics of communication. I explain how in singing these various aspects help or hinder each other according to how well their interrelatedness and interdependency is understood and realised. The health of each aspect depends on the health of the whole and vice versa.
My hope in writing this book is that a truly holistic understanding of the singing voice will provide all those concerned with this phenomenal human asset with a basis for logical, comprehensive training processes and procedures which in turn can lead to more healthy, effective and durable outcomes than are generally achieved.
A SELECTION OF TOPICS COVERED
- Speaking and singing - fundamental differences
- Fitness and specific vocal training
- Singing as a barometer of health
- Voice and other instruments: crucial differences
- Training and singing as distinct activities
- Muscle training: how to/how not to exercise, fitness and hard training
- Dangers of product-based training
- Ethics: I question the soundness of training voices to satisfy a specific sound-style
- Listening to the voice and the dangers of physical monitoring
- Tools and the training process
- Terminology blocks: support, vibrato, registers, technique etc. redefined
- 'You are your voice and it is you' - what this means for training and performing
- Individuality: its importance in training and potency in performance
- Gender, sexuality, rhythmic vitality, creativity
- Pupil's participation in her/his own development
- Preparation: its bearing on memorisation, confidence, spontaneity
- Physiology of emotions and the singing voice
- Compatibility of singing music, articulating words and expressing emotion
- Attributes of a fully liberated voice
- Communication as a human imperative
- Bel canto redefined in terms of truthful communication
- Role of the singer's audience
- Obstacles to progress, including egoism and Gurus
published by
DUNEDIN ACADEMIC PRESS
(2006)
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