Teaching Philosophy
Kimberly Barber, Assistant Professor of Voice
WLU Faculty of Music
It is my firm belief that singing is the ultimate sensory experience; it is possibly one of the most primal of all human experiences-indeed, research has shown that human beings, by virtue of the way the vocal folds are constructed, must certainly have sung before they developed speech. To sing is to experience the power of breath, the intensity of muscular engagement, the exhilaration of expressing in song what simple words cannot. I sing, and as a pedagogue I attempt to instruct my students to use their bodies and to revel in the sensation of their physical instrument. To learn how to sing while engaging the entire body-to sing holistically-is a challenging physical and emotional sensation very different from our everyday experience in a high-tech culture, which causes us to become increasingly estranged from our sensory responses.
The Voice (read: larynx) cannot be viewed in isolation, because the singer’s instrument is comprised of many elements- on the one hand, resonating bodies in the head, neck and torso, the vocal folds themselves, the vocal tract, the palate, tongue and jaw, the breathing apparatus and the accessory breath muscles, and on the other hand, the singer’s intellect, personality, spirit and emotional make-up-all (and probably many more) of these physical and psychological factors determine the quality of the singing instrument. To consider the vocal folds in isolation is like considering a violinist as nothing more than the violin itself-it negates the importance of the bowing arm, the weight and pressure on the strings and on the neck of the instrument, the aural sense of the player to maintain tuning, the ability to make the instrument "sing", not to mention the personal experience of the player which informs his or her interpretation. My goal is to train the total singer, by bringing my students back to their own instrument, to their bodies.
By the same token, I feel it is essential for singers to take ownership of their instrument. Rather than positioning myself as the omniscient "authority", I see our relationship as a partnership, where I can enable the student to understand his/her instrument more fully and give him/her tools to aid in this discovery.
Method:
The individual nature of each human being indicates to me that the approach to each student must also be unique. To this end, I keep notes on each one of my students, tracking their progress lesson by lesson, observing where weaknesses exist and identifying solutions. I also encourage my students to journal their own progress, documenting both lessons and practice sessions. I help them develop a sense for process by having them do this for the first six weeks of each academic year, and many of them find it so successful that they continue this work on their own. (Inevitably, these are the students who progress most quickly!) This exercise also gives them ownership of their instrument, gives them a growing vocabulary of sensations and technical ideas and helps them to articulate in words (or in pictures) what they perceive in both lessons and practice. In addition, throughout the year, students are given opportunities to evaluate both their own performances and those of their peers, during master classes and class recitals. They are invited to give both written and oral comments, objectively assessing their own performances and those of their colleagues, determining both areas for improvement as well as rewarding themselves for their successes. These assessments are conducted in an extremely supportive, non-judgmental environment, and students are continually encouraged to tell things as they see them, but in a constructive and non-threatening way.
I use my voice studio as a sort of laboratory, where both my students and I discover the best routes for each of them to optimal vocal production. Recent educational research suggests that human beings learn optimally in a combination of three ways, one of which is generally predominant: either Visually, through imagery or other visual cues; Aurally, by hearing spoken instruction; or Kinesthetically, through the tangible, physical experience and manipulation of the material to be learned. As I get to know each of my students individually, I begin to determine, by incorporating these different teaching methods, what learning type my students belong to and to incorporate these methods into the teaching and coaching of the individual singers, to help them achieve their highest possible level of singing and performing. In each of the areas below, I give examples of exercises used, involving these three learning styles either individually or in combination.
1. Breath and Alignment:
This is the first tenet of my vocal technique. I am not stating an original idea when I postulate that The Breath is the beginning of all good singing, and this is not only where I begin, but is the place to which I continually return. It has been my observation that virtually every "problem" in singing, be it tension of tongue, neck, jaw or palate, over-darkened sound, unevenness of tone, lack of flexibility, inability to sustain a tone-whatever it may be, its roots can generally be found in a problem with the breath, whether it is the ease of the inhalation or the management of the exhalation. One of the first ways I acquaint students with their breath is simply to give them the space to observe it. Seldom do we have the time or inclination to simply lie back and examine our breath, yet this is the first step in understanding it. Holistically speaking, I allow the student to encounter his/her breath in a tangible, physical way, as well as through visual and aural imagery with the exercises that follow:- Alexander Technique exercises (lying on floor, book under neck)
- Pelvis shake out
- Stretching side ribs, pectorals, and hips while lying down-"breathing" into the hand on hip/panting
- Rollovers/ seated breathing
- Opening side ribs while standing, taking 3 exhales to expand the ribs-imagery of bellows or fan ribs opening
- Released knees, pelvis dropped forward-maintaining alignment, feeling lengthening of spine and sacrum in opposing directions (drawings or images can help in this, as well as standing against the wall to feel the natural lengthening of the spine while exhaling)
- Using "Ha" to release breath at onset
- Repeated use of "Hmm" or "Zz" consonants, while drawing attention to the natural response of the body to the onset of breath / vocalization
- Sustaining the breath: Hissing
- Diaphragm pump-aiding the student to feel breath elasticity (d-drm-mrd-d-d scale, with breaths in each hyphen; can be supplemented by physicalization of this exercise)
- The Release-letting the breath go in order to let it "take itself"
- Cyclical nature of breath (exercise in tandem with student, giving, receiving-back and forth breathing; inhale leading directly to exhale in circular motion)
2. The Sensations of Singing: "Appoggio"
One of the most difficult aspects of singing for students to grasp is the idea of support, or as the Italians call it, appoggio=lean. This powerful physical sensation is somewhat foreign to us. There are various sorts of imagery and exercises that can be used to help a student understand this concept, feeling the subtle but definite sensation of engagement of muscles in the lower body. Because we cannot "see" these muscles as they work, I have various methods of increasing a student’s concept of this. Using different "tools" and body positions more advantageous to sensory perception of the breath, and in addition, visual and aural imagery, this can be facilitated with the following exercises:- Seated breathing exercise to feel the engagement of abdominal and lower back muscles at the moment of phonation
- Breath connection: Engagement of abdominal muscles at onset of breath-using "zzz"
- "mm-hmm" gentle moan to feel abdominal muscular engagement
- Use of fricative and labial consonants ([s], [ð], [θ], [f], [v], [b], [m], [z] etc.)
- Sensation of palate lift, tongue extension, stabilized larynx in conjunction with breath (hang-a, la la-ya ya-nga nga)-when these exercises are used while focusing on correct alignment and posture, the student can feel the sense of "column" and connection between the sound and its generator, the support system
- Going down to go up-bending knees, using elastic bands
- Use of physical imagery to feel appoggio-pressing hand along the piano; pushing hands in a downward motion to imitate the displacing of energy ("Plunger Effect")
- Use of elastic "therabands" to give a visual and kinesthetic sense of the onset, connection and release of sound-the singer can stretch them horizontally in front of the body, behind the back (to open the chest) or use them vertically, feeling the "anchor" of the breath at the pubic bone
3. The Vowel:
Bel canto means beautiful vowels! The most clearly articulated and purest of vowel sounds is an indicator of sound vocal production. Students have various ways of discovering what the ideal sounds are for each vowel. Some can adjust simply by imitation of the instructor, but I often find that students grasp these ideas more readily when they are presented with a visual image of tongue and palate position, as well as with a more tangible idea of what the shapes in their mouths are through manipulation of materials, shapes they make with their hands or drawings they make themselves to describe what they are feeling. It is often the intense physical experience of the vowel shape, which will be the most powerful and enlightening for them, clarifying the feeling of the "forward" vowel sound. I remind my students that the best composers set particular vowel sounds in the optimum part of the voice for their most resonant production, continually affirming for them the concept that if the vowel sound is right, the voice will be correctly placed. The following exercises are examples of the holistic approach:- Whispering vowels (intense physical sensation of vowel shape and movement of the breath through the vowel)
- Clarity exercises ([i], [e], [a], [o], [u])-tongue positions-see diagram from John Moriarty’s Diction, Schirmer, 1975-feeling of distinct shapes of the vowels through hand movement or use of modelling clay
- Modification (the joy of "uh")-finding the "Back drawer" or "attic"
- The Tube-bringing the vowel forward (student sings each vowel [i], [e], [a], [o], [u] into a paper towel tube, imagining the end of the tube as their lips, then covering the end of the tube to feel how much more they have to articulate the vowel in their mouth with palate and tongue, then taking the tube away-this acts somewhat like a "buzz aid" for a brass player)
4. Integrating learning styles: Imagery and its relationship to movement:
There are several ways I have found to show students how to express physically what they are feeling with the sound. Interestingly, physical manifestations of vocal sensation are also extremely telling for the pedagogue: for instance, a student who is releasing breath support too early in a phrase will generally physicalize their sound to reflect this. In other words, this technique is extremely helpful in determining where the student’s habits are interfering with optimal vocal production. Many students who are visually oriented also find it extremely helpful to draw images of the many aspects of singing technique. They can either draw diagrams of what they are feeling, make cartoons of ideas that come to them while singing or experiment with different visual images to enhance their sensation. I have found these methods to be extremely successful in cases where students have a difficult time understanding central concepts like appoggio or vowel placement. Particularly the lifting of the velum, so important to finding the vocal formant, is often elusive. When students can find a visual image for this (I have used the idea of a floating parachute, a sliding door opening, a manta ray swimming, all accompanied by physical gestures), it often stimulates the necessary physical response. The exercises which follow are an addendum to ideas previously demonstrated and are intended to serve as a springboard for further discovery:- Physicalization of the sound (wave motions with hands, circular motion of breath and sound, leaning against piano and sliding along the lid with hands)
- Physicalization of the breath (intake and exhale) (using downward motion to "press" the breath down, raising arms to indicate inhale)
- Feeling the Appoggio: Sustaining the breath (snowplow, hand on piano)
- Legato (paintbrush)
- Passaggio (suction, back drawer, "attic space", "tip your hat")
- "Drawing" an image of the sound/breath/support mechanism/placement