Practical Vocal Acoustics

Pedagogic Applications for Teachers and Singers.

Voice teachers have been addressing vocal acoustics in some manner for as long as there has been voice instruction. Given the history of excellence in singing, singers, and teachers, the historic empirical approach clearly has had success. However, our scientific knowledge about and understanding of vocal acoustics has grown exponentially in the last sixty to eighty years, and will certainly continue to be refined by the growing number of ongoing collaborations between voice scientists and voice teachers interested in voice science. With sophisticated yet inexpensive sound analysis technology now widely available, more voice teachers are curious about its potential value for the studio, and are seeing the need to understand and be well-informed about the acoustics of vocal registration-at the very least, as a means to more efficient pedagogy, but also as an essential element of voice pedagogy courses. This book represents an attempt to distill from the science of vocal acoustics those factors that are essential for teachers at the beginning of the twenty-first century to understand, that are most likely to be productive for improving our pedagogic efficiency, and to present them in language that is generally accessible. It also aspires to contribute to more productive, mutually respectful and beneficial conversation between the pedagogic and scientific communities. Practical Vocal Acoustics also includes appendices of clear, simple charts of acoustic events by voice type, guided explorations on the Madde voice synthesizer (a free downloadable shareware application), as well as a DVD of undergraduate students demonstrating all of the acoustic explorations cited in the text. KENNETH BOZEMAN, tenor, holds performance degrees from Baylor University and the University of Arizona, and is chair of the voice department at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI, where he teaches voice, voice science, and pedagogy.