Vocal Technique - Julia Davids and Stephen LaTour - Chapter 3 & Chapter 4/Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults - Jenevora Williams - Chapter 5

Some A-Ha moments I took away from the readings were:

1) When I began reading Chapter 3 of Vocal Technique, I became very overwhelmed with the use of anatomy of the body while singing (ex. thyroarytenoid muscle, glottis and cricothyroid). I was thinking to myself: how am I supposed to explain this to any of my students, when I don’t understand it myself? Then I read the quote on page 48: “Beautiful sounds start in the mind of the singer. If you cannot think of a beautiful sound, it is an accident if you make one” (McKinney 48). It then goes on to say “it is best to think about the kind of sound one wants to produce and the sensations associated with good sound rather than about the larynx and the vocal folds” (McKinny 48). This made me feel much calmer and showed me that there are other ways to explain pitch and tone.

2) Vocal Technique explains that it is normal for younger singers to have a breathy quality to their voice. Not only do they sometimes have an “inability to close one-third of the vocal folds” (Davids 55), they will try to model their voice to their favorite pop or jazz singer.

3) I enjoy the diagram and explanation on page 81 of Williams’ book. She writes that singers need to breathe effectively and to do this she writes that you should be able to draw an “imaginary straight line through the ear, the shoulder, the hip, the knee and the foot.”

4) The exercises used in Williams’ book are great. They are exercises that the non-singers are able to understand.

5) Something I liked in Williams’ book was the exercise on page 109. It is called the Soft Palate Exercise 1. “Sing an extended [a] vowel and, halfway through, hold your nose and then let go again.” She goes on to say, “if the sound quality changes ... the vowel is nasal.” This is a very cool exercise.

A few questions I decided upon were:

1) This question doesn’t so much focus on what the readings said specifically, but what do you do in the situation where your young voice students ONLY wants to sing popular music?

2) On page 74 in the book Vocal Technique, yawning is brought up. When singing correctly, should you really have a yawning sensation?

3) On page 83, Davids writes that for a "surprise breath" you inhale through both your mouth and nose. When singing, do you ever breathe through your nose? I am a brass player, and we were never encouraged to breathe through our noses.

Works Cited

Davids, Julia, and Stephen A. LaTour. Vocal Technique: A Guide for Conductors,                                            Teachers, and Singers. Long Grove: Waveland, 2012. Print.

Williams, Jenevora. Teaching Singing to Children and Young Adults. Oxford:             Compton Pub., 2013. Print.