.sherlynchia.com. Vocal coach. Performer.

Vocal range and voice classification

Always Choose Audition Songs Appropriate to Your Age & Life Experience

Just because we like a song doesn't make it a good song for us to sing in an audition. In order to believably deliver the emotions of a song, you have to relate to the content of the lyrics on a personal level. Choosing a song that you can relate to emotionally is extremely important. There are lots of people who can sing well - what will set you apart is your ability to communicate emotion.

Always Choose Audition Songs in an Appropriate Style

What sets a show tune apart from other songs is its character. Don't choose an audition song that is nothing but a technically challenging tune unless you are asked specifically to display your technical skills. If you are unsure about the style you should be looking for, research about the previous auditions and also the show you are auditioning for.

Your Audition Songs Should Show Your Strengths First

Never choose an audition song just because you think that is what the audition panel wants to hear. When given a choice, always choose the best audition song you have to offer. Choose an audition song that is within your comfortable singing range - this is not the time to stretch for a note, as blowing a note will almost certainly also blow your chances for a role. The audition panel will expect you to show off the very best you have to offer, and this means performing a song that is well polished and well rehearsed.

Choose Audition Songs That Let You Be Yourself

Be the first you, not the 52nd Mariah Carey wannabe. Many auditioners have the tendancy to try and copy the style of whoever sang the recorded version of their audition song. DON'T DO THAT! Pick a song that you can identify with, and use it to show your own personality and style, not someone else's. Make sure you practice with only the accompaniment - singing along with a recording will not help you develop your own style.

Choose the Best Audition Songs for You

I see postings on discussion boards all the time, asking for audition song suggestions. What people seem to forget is that what makes a song right for you is your voice and personality, the two things that other people cannot see over the internet! If you want a truly great audition song, you'll have to search for it yourself.

Accompaniment For Your Audition Songs

There are three choices when it comes to accompaniment. The first is to use a piano accompanist, as usually one is provided. The second is to sing a capella. Finally, you can use recorded accompaniment.

It is important to be aware that not all auditions will give you a choice. Many auditions will insist that you use their accompanist. If you are given a choice, you need to be aware of a few factors that should influence your decision.

Accompaniment will keep you on pitch, and will fill in the instrumental sections of the piece. Live accompaniment also best mimics how you would be performing in the show, and demonstrates how well you can work with an accompanist. However, using an accompanist requires you to have sheet music in the correct key, and you will need to practice singing with the accompaniment before the audition. While using pre-recorded accompaniment makes rehearsing easy, it limits your ability to make creative changes in dynamics and tempo. Singing a capella should be done only when absolutely necessary.


Modified from MusicalTheatreAudition.com

Imagery has long been a primary skill of high profile sports competitors like Tiger Woods and Michael Johnson. Yet, traditionally, the value of imagery in the training of singers has been regarded simply as a useful tool to increase dramatically their interpretive skills, probably by at least fifty percent. Alma Thomas and Shirlee Emmons, after many years of combined experience teaching singers to utilize imagery in far reaching ways, propose that imagery skills have more than one application and offer a myriad of benefits.

Far more than increasing singers’ interpretive skills, imagery strongly supports a singer’s ability to give an elite performance by promoting correct performance thinking. Imagery facilitates singers’ capacity to modify their vocal skills toward improvement when that proves necessary.

Imagery enables a singer to practice proficiently and to reduce musical problems to a manageable entity. Imagery provides singers with a method of avoiding distractions during performance. Imagery allows a singer to rehearse silently on those many occasions when that is useful. Imagery helps makes it possible for singers to do under the stress of performance what they have been doing in rehearsal. Imagery can even be utilized to work at controlling singers’ performance anxiety levels.

Our theory, based upon eleven years of shared work as the only known voice teacher/ performance psychologist team, states that imaging for singers can be described as a “method of using all the senses to create or re-create an experience in the mind.” It is clear that those singers fare better in their careers who have acquired a heightened awareness of all their senses: of visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli, of kinesthetic feedback signals, of taste and smell—and are skillful in their use.

They bring a much greater detail to their interpretations and do so with far more ease. They see colors; they hear sounds; they feel the emotions; they sense the performance kinesthetically as part of the body. In addition, it is a simple matter for them to rehearse repertoire while awaiting their turn at an audition or competition. Efficiently and silently they see and hear and feel themselves executing the piece perfectly (while not being distracted by their surroundings).

Those singers who have honed their imagery skills will find it simpler to remember more clearly the essence of a vocal technical skill and repeat it efficiently until it is firmly within their grasp. In this way, they will eventually move from analytical thinking, which is decidedly not recommended during performance, to the intuitive, musically-responsive thinking that is necessary for elite performance.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," 

EXERCISE 4.
Breathing is a fine way to reduce anxiety. Inhale evenly through the nose, taking four or five long, deep breaths. Then exhale to the same count through the mouth. While exhaling, focus on your relaxed hands. Repeat the process, but this time focus on relaxed shoulders, jaw, or neck.

EXERCISE 5.
This is known as ratio breathing. The length of the exhalation should always be double that of the inhalation. It combines relaxation and concentration. This method is useful both before and during performance. Inhale deeply through your nose to the count of 5. Exhale through the mouth to the count of 10. During the exhalation the focus should be on watching yourself perform well.

EXERCISE 6.
For those who must deal with too low on motivation level, this exercise can be helpful. There are three possibilities:
1. Do a short physical workout like running in place. This will raise the heartbeat.
2. Use inspirational music to make ready for performance.
3. Use strong verbal cues to lift the energy:
This is tough music; I love it when it is hard.
I thrive on pressure. Let’s go.
I’m ready. Let it come!


Have a great performance!

Before applying any strategies that will help manage and control anxiety, the symptoms of both physical and mental anxiety must be recognized. Therefore, use the first two self-awareness exercises to help reveal your choir’s pattern of anxiety and the symptoms that accompany it.

EXERCISE 1.
Think back to a performance that was ideal, one in which you performed very well. Recall all the things that were done before the performance: the travel arrangements, the time of arrival, the kind of warm-up, etc. Note all the details that can be remembered. This performance represents the ideal arousal zone and will also give an idea of how it was achieved.

EXERCISE 2.
Check the following list of symptoms to see which you exhibit. Not all somatic symptoms are negative. Pounding heart, increased respiration and adrenaline need not be negative signs. However, the presence of physical symptoms together with mental symptoms may mean that the level of arousal has gone too high. Then you will have to lower the level.

Mental Symptoms
Indecisiveness
Feeling overwhelmed
Inability to concentrate 
Feeling out of control 
Narrowing of attention 
Loss of confidence 
Fear 
Irritability

Above: A overview of the production of voice and how our ear distinguishes a voice 





High frequency sounds selectively vibrate the basilar membrane of the inner ear near the entrance port (the oval window). Lower frequencies travel further along the membrane before causing appreciable excitation of the membrane. The basic pitch determining mechanism is based on the location along the membrane where the hair cells are stimulated.

Test your pitch perception! Click the link below

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/tunetest/

To the performance psychologist, anxiety is a complex emotional state. To the general public, anxiety is synonymous with worry, fear and forebodings. To a singer, it is public enemy number one!

Is there anything good about anxiety?

When singers freeze or commit a blunder in a big performance moment, anxiety is either the root cause or the outcome. For the most part, anxiety is the result of other unsolved problems. Performance, by its very nature, places stress on performers and makes demands on their mental and physical energy. But it also offers the participants a challenge, great opportunities, and a chance to push back their own personal boundaries, all of which can be very liberating. Yet it does produce some uncertainty, some doubts–how will it go? Consider anxiety as a reflection of uncertainty. Yes, this powerful combination of stress and uncertainty is the villain, but it is the kind of villain that could turn out to be a blessing as well.

What kinds of anxiety are there?

Whenever a performance is imminent, what thoughts run through performers’ heads? How important it is? How much it means to them? The probable consequences of the outcome? Do they ask themselves certain questions? Will I do well? What might happen if I blunder? Will the result mean something great for my future? If I don’t do well, will that diminish my reputation?

Not only singers have doubts. Anxiety, characterized by worry and tension, is a demon for everyone. These doubts and worries can either make a performer anxious or free from anxiety. They can add to their confidence or they can crush it. How they perceive any performance, what they say to themselves about that performance--these things will trigger their emotional reactions.

But....if they were able to change their way of thinking about what the performance means to them....if they were able to change their way of viewing their own ability....if they were able to deal with the situation in a positive way, then they could transform their emotional responses. The only change would be in their self-perception or their interpretation of the performance. It could, in short, be the means to free them from fear and anxiety.

Anxiety is Internal

Some performers manage to sing well, stay confident, maintain their focus without too much anxiety. It is possible. It is possible because anxiety is not an evil ogre waiting out there. Anxiety is internal. It does not exist outside thoughts, outside the performer’s own head.

Stress resulting from anxiety is not imposed by other people or by the situation. One
might feel anxious about certain circumstances, but it isn’t mandatory that one become anxious. It’s not the situation that is anxious. It’s the performer! Ultimately, anxiety is always under one’s own control.

Anxiety results from one’s perception of an imbalance between what is demanded of him/herself and feelings regarding one's own capability to achieve what is being demanded.

Example: If someone views a performance as very important and if, at the
same time, he/she does not believe that the repertoire offered is “perfect enough,”
if he/she is convinced that it cannot reach the required level, then the imbalance,
the difference between the two, causes the performer to be anxious and stressed.

To remain in control of their anxiety, performers must keep the two sides in balance--that is, they must balance their perception of the performing situation and their belief in their own ability to handle that situation.

A certain level of anxiety is necessary to perform well, but too much anxiety can exert a negative influence on performance. It’s OK to feel anxious, but it’s not OK to be unable to manage this anxiety. To perform in an ideal way the performer needs some anxiety, just enough to feel excited and ready for performance. The ability to perform at an optimal level of anxiety or arousal at each performance is a skill that can make or break the ability to perform consistently.

Once you are self-aware and in control, then you can reach level three, self-confidence. Many think that self-confidence comes before self-awareness and self-control. Unfortunately it is the other way round.

Useful video.

Your heightened awareness and determination to change will help reach step two,
which is to acquire self-control.

Successful singers control their own destiny. They differentiate between the
things that are outside their control (such as an audition panel) and that which is
within their control (such as their perceptions). When you become responsible
for your own actions, then control is yours. Then you are free from luck, good or
bad, from any accidents that might occur, and, most importantly, from other
people. Your voice teacher, coach, partner, or colleagues do not control your
performance--you do.

Try this exercise:
Go back over an audition at which you were not successful and ponder the details of the
following sequence:

a. The event
Was the audition not in your control?

b. Your perceptions
How did you perceive your lack of success?
Others luckier than you?
Not appreciated as a singer?
Audition not within your control?

c. Your self-talk
What were you saying and/or thinking about yourself?
Not as good a singer as others?
Not as deserving as others?
Audition not within your control?

d. Your feelings
How did you feel?
Rejected? insecure? unhappy? angry? depressed?
Out of your direct control because they were within yoursubconscious?

e. Your behavior
What was your resulting behavior?
Less enthusiastic? less interested? too determined? too anxious?
all resulting in a lower performance?
Out of your direct control because it came from
within your subconscious?

Never surrender control to external forces. By changing what you can directly control you will have more success.

One of my recent read is The Element by Sir Ken Robinson. This is a timely as I begin my plans for 2009 and have been thinking lots about what do I want to accomplish for the next few years.

One of the stories that really impacted me from the book is the story of Gillian Lynne. Lynne had been underperforming at school, so her mother took her to the doctor and explained about her fidgeting and lack of focus. After hearing everything her mother said, the doctor told Lynne that he needed to talk to her mother privately for a moment. He turned on the radio and walked out. He then encouraged her mother to look at Lynne, who was dancing to the radio. The doctor noted that she was a dancer, and encouraged Lynne's mother to take her to dance school.

She is now best known for her work on the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Aspects of Love.

Do you want to be a successful singer? You can be. It is in your grasp, and it is certainly within your control. Count on it!

Successful people are not born that way. They empower themselves to create their own reality and are aware that the only limitations on their accomplishments are those imposed by themselves. Successful singers are committed. They remain completely in control of their own destiny. Successful singers believe they can succeed. Their attitudes, being right, result in appropriate behavior. Therefore they perform consistently well at their own level.

How do you learn to expect success? Here is an easy four-step program and some simple exercises to see you on your way.

1. Your first step is to achieve self-awareness.
The more aware you are of how you view yourself, of what you are saying and thinking about
yourself, the more likely you are to begin your journey to success. But, do you have adequate
self-knowledge? Do you understand how you think or why you respond and behave in a certain
way under particular circumstances? To reach your full potential you need to become more aware
of your own physical, technical, and mental strengths.

Try the following self-awareness exercises:

a. Write down your strengths and qualities as a person and as a singer, grouping them under physical, technical and mental. Do not give up too soon; you have many more positive qualities than you think. Once the lists are completed, keep reading them and saying them aloud,
“Yes, I am ..........................................” “Yes, I can .........................................”

b. Sit quietly and imagine yourself feeling wonderfully confident as a singer,
completely at ease with yourself and your surroundings. Watch how you stand, breathe, smile,
etc. Work with your positive image and say to yourself,
“Yes, I am ...............”
“Yes, I can................”
Repeat this exercise 8-10 times a day for at least a week so that your subconscious mind will have
fixed your positive image.

Through self-awareness you will gain more mastery and control over yourself and your thinking.

If one disregards stylistic demands, it might be said that opera singing differs from recital singing in only one substantial way, that is, the voice of an opera singer must be audible in a large hall despite the considerable decibel output of an orchestra. A recital singer is required to be audible only above the weaker sound created by a piano, except for those occasions when the modern concert business forces the singer to perform in an unsuitably large hall. Thus, “carrying power” becomes the distinguishing technical characteristic of an opera singer. Indeed, unless the conductor can be persuaded to hold the orchestra down, a singer who lacks a big voice and/or the ability to cut through an orchestra is at a grave disadvantage.

Clearly, the auditory parameters of your voice are more or less determined at birth. Your vocal gift is just that—a “gift” possessing certain proportions. Trying to enlarge a basically slim voice to suit the operatic marketplace, where “large” is venerated by most listeners and many musical colleagues, almost always ends in the tragedy of a lost voice or the loss of high notes and pianissimo.

Yet, achieving a tone with enviable carrying power is not out of the question, regardless of the size of your “gift.” The first step toward understanding is to define our terms carefully. (Vocal language is notoriously imprecise.) Is a rich, deep, large, warm voice synonymous with a voice that carries well? Not necessarily. “Size” is not the defining issue for an opera singer. The annals of opera are stuffed with stories about that type of singer whose voice, judged to be too bright, almost drove the listeners out of the rehearsal room, only to triumph on stage in the performance as the only member of the cast whose tone quality seemed to have infinitely more beauty in the house than in the rehearsal room, and the only singer who could be heard in the top balcony and the back of the hall. Or, what about Tito Schipa, a legendary tenor with a smallish voice, about whom each and every article mentions at some point that “every note of his slender voice could be heard in every seat in the house!”

The next step is to understand what will give carrying power to a relatively small voice--or indeed, to a large voice as well. (Just as a flabby three hundred-pound man is not stronger than a one hundred eighty-pound man who works out, a big voice can be large but flabby and a small voice can be slender but focused!)

With the appearance of the many fine vocal research teams in the United States and abroad, it became evident that there is an overtone, the frequency of which, when present in the singing tone, will permit it to be heard through the sound of the orchestra, none of which instruments can play in this vicinity. That overtone lies somewhere between 2000 and 3000 Hz. The human ear can distinguish this overtone (commonly referred to as 2750, the frequency of “ring”) from a group of other overtones, thus making the listener hear as “louder” the tone that contains it better than he/she can hear a tone that is without it. Listeners’ non-scientific descriptions of a tone containing 2750 include:

“focused” “centered” “packed with beauty” “full of tone” “visceral”
“slender, but with great tensile strength” “satisfying” “clear” “strong core”

This “ring” can be maintained by the singer regardless of the vowel being sung and regardless of the dynamic level. It is not a figment of someone’s imagination. It is visible on the graphs. On the printout one can clearly see anomalies such as the momentary loss of the overtone or its presence throughout an entire small slide upwards during the attack of a particular high note. Singers vocally gifted in such different ways as Birgit Nilsson and Edita Gruberova have a very strong showing of this overtone. One could say that this overtone is somewhat more valuable for men than for women, because men sing in the pitch area where the orchestra plays most of the time. Women’s voices of the lower fachs spend a lot of time there as well. But a poor high C will actually carry as well as a good high C, more’s the pity.

A followup from issue #5, Performance:

Singers tend to think that perfection is the only thing that counts in performing. Even though they all know that perfection is unattainable, singers refuse to abandon their quest. A very successful baseball player once succinctly summed up the issue like this: “Stop trying for perfection. Just get on first base.”

The key performance skill, therefore, is learning to work to your own recognized strengths and qualities rather than being concerned with things outside your control. Performance is about control. Performance happens in the present. Within that present you can control only what you are capable of doing now. Yet singers often spend a lot of their performance time thinking about other concerns:

Oh, oh, there’s so and so. What will he think of me if I don’t do well?
These shoes are killing me.
Why didn’t I plan something for these three bars?

Change your thinking pattern! Here is an excellent exercise that will help. First, think carefully about your best audition piece. Then draw the following diagram on a sheet of paper.

0____________________________________________________10

0 represents the worst your song or aria could be at this moment in your life, and 10 represents the piece when it is as good as it could ever be today. Mark on this diagram a line at a number that represents how good this piece is at this moment in your development--not last week, not next month, NOW!

Let’s say that you marked 7.5, meaning that right now 75% of the performance is excellent and 25% is not. During the performance the only information you need is the information that constitutes the 75%. That is what you can do now. Never mind the 25%. Eventually that number will change, but it is not important now.

Now organize your 75% performance assessment into three parts: physical, technical, and mental. Under each heading list what strengths make up your 75%.

Under the heading “physical” you might write:
∙ My body language is very confident during this piece.
∙ I’ve conquered that old nervous habit of flexing my thumb.
∙ I’m proud of how I present myself.

Under the heading “technical” you might write:
∙ The musical requirements of this piece are totally under my control.
∙ I manage the low notes well enough to make them powerful but not vulgar.
∙ That third high note at the end is always really good.

Under the heading “mental” you might write:
∙ I am focused for this piece and will not easily be distracted.
∙ This is MY performance. I own it, and I will sing well.
∙ The audience is going to love what I do, and I will enjoy myself.

“Knowing that you know” is a great confidence builder. Accepting the positive truths about your skills will make you execute those skills even better. Complete these lists when you are feeling calm, logical, and thoughtful about your singing. They should be unemotional and unbiased. It would not help you to remain positive if you did your lists when you were feeling angry or frustrated about your singing.

Develop the habit of working this way for all your repertoire. Soon this kind of thinking will be automatic. The information gleaned from the exercise will form the basis for your performance thinking.

Keep this thought: if what you can do right now is 75%, then that’s just fine!

How does studying vocology make one a better singing teacher? I see several aspects of teaching that benefit from vocology study:

Vocology: “The science and practice of vocal habilitation and treatment of voice disorders” (Titze, Principles of Voice Production). This definition emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the field of vocology. Vocologists include those who explore how to best enable a person vocally - why one approach works better than another, for example (voice scientists and medical doctors) as well as those who take this knowledge base and apply it in the training of voices (speech pathologists, acting voice coaches, singing voice teachers). For vocologists who specialize in the singing voice, our job is to find a way to implement the most up-to-date, scientifically-based knowledge on voice training, which has been gathered from all voice disciplines as well as from the fields of psychology and medicine, in the training of an artistic endeavor. The science informs our methodology.


1. Vocalizing, by including the incorporation of non-singing strategies and exercises from other disciplines, such as laryngeal massage, using vocal fry, humming, lip trills, etc.;
2. Organizing teaching methods and practicing strategies based on motor learning theories;
3. Using technology from the speech sciences to assist with initial assessments of students, to enhance the teaching studio environment and to track progress objectively;
4. Choosing repertoire;
5. Pedagogy teaching (drawing from all voice disciplines for resources; using technology to enhance learning pedagogical principles);
6. How one listens (functionally as well as artistically – this can be learned in part with the assistance of technology);
7. Collaborative relationships between teachers of singing, teachers of acting voice, medical doctors, speech-language pathologists, voice scientists, which aid all parties in understanding the relationship teaching singing has with other voice disciplines.


Here is a sample dialog between a vocology trained singing teacher and a new student. Note the types of questions the teacher asks:

Teacher: What's your favorite vocalise? Can you sing it for me?

Student: OK. [Sings 1-3-5-8-5-3-1 arpeggio on /i/]

Teacher: Ok. Nice sound! But how do you use it?

Student: What do you mean?

Teacher: In what range?

Student: Well, I generally start at the bottom and work my way up.

Teacher. Ok, that helps me understand what you do. [Taking notes]. Do you always use the same vowel?

Student: Well, I start with /i/, then try other vowels.

Teacher: Do you ever use consonants with it – like using a consonant to start the exercise, or one at the top of the arpeggio?

Student: Oh, sometimes I will – other times I just do vowels.

Teacher: Ok. When do you use it? Do you use it early in your vocalizing?

Student: Fairly early. Usually I do some sighs first, then this exercise.

Teacher: Ok, that’s good for me to know. How long do you stay with this one exercise?

Student: Oh, I go through different vowels and so forth, then move on to something else.

Teacher: OK. Why do you like it? What does it do for you?

Student: Oh, it helps me feel like I have my voice focused on the way up.

From here, the teacher can examine how this student’s favorite vocalise works: the vowels, the consonants, the pattern, the range the student uses it in, when he or she does it, and what it is doing physiologically. Then the teacher might be able to suggest ways in which the student might make it more effective.

Here’s another sample dialog between a vocologist/singing teacher and a new student.

Teacher: Tell me how you vocalize...you know, what do you do first, second, third, etc.

Student: Oh, well, I generally stretch some, then do some lip buzzes on descending patterns, then maybe some
descending scales [sings 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 on /u/], then some shorter ascending patterns, like [sings 1-2-1-3-1-4-1-5-1 on /va-i-a-i-a-i-a-i-a/]. After that, I might do a down-up-down pattern, like [sings 8-5-3-1-3-5-8-5-3-1 on /e/], then maybe some long scales or some phrases from pieces I am working on.

Teacher: How long do you spend vocalizing at one time?

Student: Oh, about 25 minutes.

Teacher: How much time do you spend with each exercise?

Student: Depends on how I feel that day, I guess.

Teacher: How many vocalises do you do in one session? You mentioned four before you started working on repertoire.

Student: Yeah, that sounds about right.

Teacher: How many times a day do you vocalize? Do you do several sessions per day, or just one?

Student: Well, if I have a rehearsal with my pianist or an opera rehearsal, I might practice more than once in a day.

Teacher: Did you devise these exercises yourself? Did you get them from your former teacher, or from a book?

Student: From all of the above – some I had heard other singers doing, and tried them and liked them; others are from my old teacher …

Teacher: Do you vary your vocalizing when you are warming up to perform?

Student: No, typically I just do the same stuff I always do.

Teacher: Why do you do what you do? Why in that order?

This type of initial dialog can give the teacher a great deal of insight into the student’s practice habits and how they have gotten to where they are technically. From this short interview, the teacher can begin to help the student shape their practicing in more effective ways.

One of the most detailed and accurate explanations of diaphragm and breath control I have read and I highly recommend this way of teaching

If you use "the lower stomach system initially to inhale" your "diaphragm is pulled down on the inhaling effort by the (weight of the) lower stomach muscles". This approach to inhalation is often coupled with a breath control exhalation method of "pushing downward and outward on the abdominal viscera, much as in difficult defecation" (Miller).

I do NOT suggest any part of the above as a correct method of breath control.
What I do propose is that you inhale from a position of correct, erect posture with the sternum in the elevated position that it assumes if you raise your arms over your head as you inhale and, holding that breath with the inspiration muscle system (not the closed vocal folds), lower the arms to your sides and slowly exhale without lowering the now elevated sternum. This should give you the correct posture for the singing breath.

Each subsequent inhale is accomplished without additional raising of the rib cage but with a sense of expansion or fullness in the epigastric area (that area between the bottom of the sternum and the navel and extending outward to the ribs on each side). If you are long-waisted you will have less sense of this epigastric expansion because there is more vertical room in the long-waisted abdominal area for the viscera and less outward expansion is the result.

Each inhale will also be accompanied by a sense of expansion of the lower ribs. This rib expansion is caused by the contraction of the external intercostal muscles and should feel a quite natural part of a substantial inhale.

All of the above gives a common felt sense of "suspension" at the height of your inhalation when you are breathing deeply.

When you begin to sing this sense of "suspension" should be maintained as long as is comfortable, with the sternum still elevated, the epigastric still comfortably full, the lower ribs still expanded. It is this position that prevents the diaphragm from collapsing upward too quickly. The abdominal muscles should be relaxed and you will find the necessary exhalation will occur without your having to be overly concerned about the action of the muscles in the abdominal area. As you arrive at about the last 1/3 of your exhaling breath you will, naturally, feel your epigastric move slightly inward but you should attempt to keep the lower ribs in as outward a position as you can. Yes, this is a learned response but it is the only way to deter the early ascent of the diaphragm.

To be more technical, the weight of the abdominal viscera (your lower abdomen area) pulls downward against the upward pull on the diaphragm created by the negative intrapleural pressure in the thorax as air is exhaled. The diaphragm remains relaxed and is acted upon rather than being active. The amount of the abdominally caused downward hydrostatic pressure is dependent on the perpendicularly size of the abdominal cavity. This size is controlled by the exterior intercostals. The wider the rib opening and the longer this expansion can be maintained, the greater the downward hydrostatic pressure and the greater the pull against the elevation of the diaphragm. Consequently it is this rib expansion that becomes the most conscious effect for the singer. And we do get stronger and more adept at controlling and maintaining this lower rib action. This lower rib expansion and the epigastrice fullnes which, in turn creates the feeling of inspiration suspension, is "appoggio".

Can all the above create tension? Of course! Should it? No! At least not the tension of major muscle fighting major muscle.

Lloyd

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

The issue of vibrato in a singing tone causes many problems for singers. Although all singers are concerned with their vibratos, choral singing often gives rise to vibrato problems, and many of these problems occur in choral singing. Many choral directors want that elusive thing, “blend,” and worry that, when their singers give them a tone with vibrato, the blend will be ruined. Clearly, they equate vibrato with tremolo or wobble. In so doing, they are blaming the wrong thing. A vibratoless tone resembles a boy soprano’s tone, where absence of vibrato is natural. Singers are confused when someone tells them to take the vibrato “out.” This is because they do not believe that they are “putting” vibrato “in.” It is a natural component of adult singing.

Let us use the choral director’s reasoning and attitudes in order to clarify our own. One wonders whether choral directors have ever noticed that orchestral conductors never ask their instrumentalists to “synchronize their vibratos?” Observing, one can see that the string players are actually moving their hands in various rhythms to achieve their vibratos. The movements are far from uniform among the players, although the resulting tone is in accordance. Nor do orchestral conductors consider whether or not there should be vibrato in their instrumentalists’ tone. It is viewed as a necessary component of a beautiful tone. So should it be with a singing tone.

Many choral directors believe that a soft dynamic level will obliterate the vibrato and deliver “blend.” In this belief they are wrong. Vibrato will still be there in pianissimo, just not as audible. More importantly, expressive possibilities are severely limited when only soft singing is permitted, and vocal fatigue is a sure result. Dale Moore, noted pedagogue, has this to say: “I would rather have a soprano of potentially operatic caliber serving as part of a cheerleading squad than have her singing in a group where the tonal ideal for a soprano is the sound of a tired English choirboy.” Paul Kiesgen, celebrated teacher of voice and vocal pedagogy, echoes Moore: “Loud singing with inadequate vocal technique can be harmful....Poorly produced soft singing, however, can be equally harmful....For most voice students, soft singing is the last skill mastered and one of the most difficult to acquire.”

Note: Soft singing however do take away anxiety from contemporary soloists (not choir), therefore the involvement of soft singing to reduce tension in learning

Often choir directors justify their dislike of vibrato in a tone by citing a belief that singers of early music never used it. Before we accept the premise that singers in Renaissance and other early music styles used no vibrato we must ask several salient questions:

1. Do contemporary writers from these two periods accurately describe in unmistakable terms the sounds they admired and those they disliked? Bear in mind that there are no recordings from which we could draw our own conclusions.

2. Do the writers of the period clearly indicate that there was or was not vibrato in the vocal tone? Or whether some singers used it and others did not? Do they report whether some singers may have used it part of the time for specific music and eschewed it in other music? Are we in fact sure of the meanings of the descriptive words used by period writers on music? Do we now understand what was meant by the terms they used at that time? (Even present-day voice teachers have considerable difficulty agreeing on exactly what constitutes a wobble, or tremolo, or even the desirable degree of vibrato.) Do we really know exactly what Tosi meant by his treatise of 1723, often quoted by both sides of the vibrato argument?

3. What does the music itself really tell us? We know that the use of the voice changed significantly in Rossini’s day after the tenor Dupré demonstrated the possibility of the high C in full voice rather than falsetto. Was there a significant change at some earlier point between the early music we are discussing and that of, say, the Baroque?

4. Does the range used preclude the use of any particular type of tone? How about the tessitura of solo parts and the tessitura of ensemble parts? It is possible that some of the dissonances used must have been sung without vibrato for the sake of clarity and accuracy. Was a distinction made between the tone adopted by soloists and by ensemble singers?

5. Do we have any reliable information on the vocal longevity of singers of that period? Did they go on singing well into their later years as some of our recent and even present singers do? Were there in fact professional singers in the current sense at all?

All of the above questions (extracted from a Statement issued by the American Academy of Teachers of Singing, “Early Music and the Absence of Vibrato”) seem relevant to the subject of singing early music and the possible vocal abuse in relation to singing early music. Choir directors should know that, across the profession, voice teachers are very concerned about the vocal debilitation that occurs in their students who sing nothing but early music in groups that shun vibrato.

Former Indiana University pedagogue and vocal researcher, and a great singer himself, Ralph Appelman, wrote, “Correctly produced, the vibrato is a vocal ornament that is directly related to the sensation of support. It is physiologically controlled by the muscles of respiration and is thereby, basically a respiratory function assisted by coordinated laryngeal controls.”

The assurance with which Appelman makes this statement should not cause us to ignore the complexity of the task facing the singer who is attempting to keep an optimal vibrato rate through the vicissitudes of :

1. Singing in many different musical styles: early music, mainstream, bel canto, jazz, Middle Eastern, etc

2. Changing dynamic levels, crescendos and decrescendos, sustained and non-sustained utterances (trills, staccato, marcato, martellato, etc.

3. Fluctuating vowel and consonant demands of different languages,

4. Activating glottal onsets, stresses, and unvoicings in languages not their own, achieving their musical intentions or those of their conductor,

5. Executing extreme pitches, both high and low.

These are not simplistic tasks and they are not made easier when the singer does them as part of a group in a chorus situation. Each of the tasks listed above influence the rate and extent of the vibrato. Each of the tasks listed above are made easier by the maintenance of the appoggio, which produces vocal stability.

This chapter discusses the identification of musical potential in childhood and considers the impact of an environment that is nurturing and stimulating. It addresses the place of musical ability tests as well as personality assessment and suggests that while these are areas for the teacher's consideration, they may prove to be of minor significance in any formal selection processes. The chapter describes the manner in which parents and teachers might consider musical potential, not as something finite but as something that may gradually emerge during childhood. The question of children's potential to play various instruments is considered as well as the existence of certain stereotypes prevalent in musical circles. Suggestions are offered to parents and teachers so they may become aware of a child's potential as soon as it becomes observable and nurture it in a facilitating environment.

“This child is musical, you know. ” How often have we heard an adult—a proud parent, an elderly relation, a friend of the family—say something like that! What do they mean? And are they right?

The chances are that the adult is trying to say something positive about the child, something that marks him or her out as more special than other childrenin a manner that is wholesome or at least harmless. Being a musical child is, in the eyes of an interested adult, normally good. The adult thinks that something has been spotted in the child that destines him or her for greatness as some kind of musician or at least indicates that it is worth giving the child opportunities that may be denied to other children, for example, lessons on a musical instrument. In other words, the adult is suggesting that the child has what we shall describe in this book as musical potential: a latent, but as yet unrealized, capacity to do something musical—for example, play the flute.

But is the adult right? Is it possible to spot that one child has more potential than another to play flute or piano or trombone before either has been given achance to try doing any of these things? The biographies of musicians sometimes give an impression that verges on that of a baby emerging from the womb with the musical skills of a very competent adult. But clearly that cannot be the case.

Some children who seem much like other children nevertheless turn out to be
gifted musicians. No child is a blank sheet with respect to music, but the experiences that children have of music vary widely with respect to quantity and
quality. The signs of musical potential that adults think they spot are manifestations of musical achievement. These are the results of musical experience and learning, formal or informal, that some children have had, but others lack. And
there has to be someone there to spot these signs.

A child may move in time to music, play large numbers of pieces of Bach from memory, sing along with a parent, or become engrossed when an older sibling plays the viola. However, a child cannot sing along with a parent if the parent does not sing. Neither can a child play Bach on the piano if there is no access to a piano or the child has never heard any Bach. Nor can a child be seen moving in time to music if no one has time to spot this happening. It is likely that virtually all children have the potential to do all manner of things musical that they never have the chance to do.

Musical potential is something that all children have, although arguably some may have more of it than others, and musical potential may come in different shapes and forms. Musical behavior such as joining in singing means that a child has responded favorably to an opportunity to learn in music but does not necessarily mean that a child has more potential for music than any other child. Neither does it necessarily mean that the child will show more aptitude if offered the chance to learn an instrument, that is, that he or she will realize the potential to develop the ability to play it effectively more speedily than any other child.