Vocal Technique - Julia Davids and Stephen LaTour - Chapter 5 & Chapter 6

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

1) My first A-Ha moment was right at the beginning of chapter 5. I had no idea that when forming vowels, the “tip of the tongue should rest at the base of the lower front teeth” (Davids 87). This was something interesting to know as a non-trained singer.

2) Something that was very interesting to me in chapter 6 was a statement made on page 115: “sometimes consonants should precede the beat.” It then goes on to say, “if … consonants are formed on the beat singers may be perceived as late. Formation of these consonants just before the beat will avoid this problem.” This was very interesting to me, and it is something I would have never thought of. I guess it is a similar situation to trumpet. We position the lips before we are supposed to start playing, because it allows us to set up our embouchure so we are not late on an entrance and it prevents us from ‘flubbing/cacking’ the first note. (Maybe not??? – Feel free to correct me if this is an incorrect statement.)

Two questions I decided upon were:

1) In chapter 5 I am noticing that singers can experience a lot of jaw tension. Davids reminds singers not to ‘clench’ the jaw. Not only does this create tension, but also it affects the sound and can make your tone sound too bright. I know first hand that many brass players suffer from TMJ. Is this a common issue among singers as well? Are there exercises you can do to relieve jaw tension?

2) The quote on page 113 of chapter 6 raised a question for me. “Singers often pay consonants insufficient attention because they focus on the vowels out of a desire to create beautiful tone quality.” I know for me, as a trumpet player, I put my main focus on creating a beautiful tone on the instrument and I focused less on articulation and the proper positioning of my tongue. I began to notice that when I would play a heavily articulated section of a piece, my tone quality would diminish. Because I focused less on the articulation aspect of playing, it then became VERY hard to play with a clear tone for these articulated sections. Is this a similar sort of situation with the quote written above? Is it important to focus on consonant formation just as much as vowel formation?

Works Cited

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