Singing and the body: body-focused and concept-focused vocal instruction

The body is the singer’s musical instrument, and therefore it is impossible to teach singing without the instructor involving their own and the learner’s body in the process of instruction. The teacher’s challenge is to communicate physical skills but also artistic, musical and vocal concepts. The body is centrally involved in the performance of both; however, an analysis of vocal instruction shows that teachers differentiate between learning goals, or ‘learnables’, which they treat as primarily embodied (body-focused instruction) and learnables they treat as primarily conceptualised (concept-focused instruction). When teaching learnables as embodied skills, instructors foreground the body. They do so by referring to the body explicitly and using their own body for demonstrations. They also depict internal physical processes, manipulate the student’s body through touch, share the student’s embodied stance, make use of physical objects as tools for practicing skills and orient to the student’s body as visually assessable. In concept-focused instruction, teachers foreground mental engagement with concepts rather than the embodied aspects of their execution, even though embodied skills are required to perform the learnables in question. They do so by referencing concepts explicitly, demonstrating how the piece should be sung and physically depicting emotional states and musical concepts.

The New Franco-Italian School of Singing

The nineteenth-century web of teachers, singers, and teacher-singers suggests that coloratura can be examined from the perspective of treatises produced by vocal pedagogues. In addition to vocal instruction, the treatises provide clues as to interpretation, by recommending and describing vocal articulations and styles corresponding to melodic styles and role characterizations. This chapter examines pedagogical treatises in conjunction with musical scores and the careers of individual singers, attempting to trace ideas of coloratura articulation and florid-lyrical expression. The Paris Conservatoire endorsed certain teacher-singer lineages and sought to merge French and Italian traditions into a new school of singing led by three pedagogues: Laure Cinti-Damoreau, Gilbert-Louis Duprez, and Manuel Garcia II. The study reveals a bifurcation between singing styles that carries over from vocal pedagogy to the operatic stage. This division between agile, florid singing and declamatory, sustained singing heralded our modern, more familiar vocal categories, such as the coloratura soprano.

Evidence for Teaching in an Australian Songbird

Song in oscine birds (as in human speech and song) relies upon the rare capacity of vocal learning. Transmission can be vertical, horizontal, or oblique. As a rule, memorization and production by a naïve bird are not simultaneous: the long-term storage of song phrases precedes their first vocal rehearsal by months. While a wealth of detail regarding songbird enculturation has been uncovered by focusing on the apprentice, whether observational learning can fully account for the ontogeny of birdsong, or whether there could also be an element of active teaching involved, has remained an open question. Given the paucity of knowledge on animal cultures, I argue for the utility of an inclusive definition of teaching that encourages data be collected across a wide range of taxa. Borrowing insights from musicology, I introduce the Australian pied butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis) into the debate surrounding mechanisms of cultural transmission. I probe the relevance and utility of mentalistic, culture-based, and functionalist approaches to teaching in this species. Sonographic analysis of birdsong recordings and observational data (including photographs) of pied butcherbird behavior at one field site provide evidence that I assess based on criteria laid down by Caro and Hauser, along with later refinements to their functionalist definition. The candidate case of teaching reviewed here adds to a limited but growing body of reports supporting the notion that teaching may be more widespread than is currently realized. Nonetheless, I describe the challenges of confirming that learning has occurred in songbird pupils, given the delay between vocal instruction and production, as well as the low status accorded to anecdote and other observational evidence commonly mustered in instances of purported teaching. As a corrective, I press for an emphasis on biodiversity that will guide the study of teaching beyond human accounts and intractable discipline-specific burdens of proof.

Singing and vocal instruction in primary schools: an analysis from six case studies in Spain

This is an analysis of how specialist music teachers sing and teach how to sing, based on data collected from six case studies carried out in Spanish primary schools. The study aimed at understanding classroom singing practices, and in particular the provision or absence of vocal instruction in relation with teachers’ singing models. The findings support claims for thorough vocal training in the preparation of music teachers to enable them to face the challenges of the profession. Also suggested is the need to provide them with a coherent theoretical framework about the teaching and learning of singing.

Vocal Music and Pedagogy of Chinese, African, and Indian Genres

China, Africa, and India have long vocal traditions dating back hundreds and even thousands of years. Supporting the vocal music of these countries and continents are pedagogical systems which are as much a part of the unique musical and cultural heritage of each location as the vocal music they serve. In many African countries and in China, the languages are tonal languages, each of which has wielded a strong influence upon the character of the country’s vocal music. This chapter examines the vocal music and vocal instruction of each country/continent, and also provides a description of current trends in vocal pedagogy. In particular, the influence of Western society and technology are discussed. Some countries, such as China, have undertaken government-led programs to preserve and promote earlier forms of music-making, while others have adapted to technological advancements by using new means to teach older traditions.

The Young Singer

Development of the singing voice is especially important for the young. Those who learn to sing early reap a lifetime of benefits, which, in addition to developing aesthetic awareness, include personal, social, and educational outcomes. Singing is a skill that requires disciplined study if the singer is to develop his/her potential. While vocal music teachers agree that children can and should learn to sing, some have considered it inappropriate to teach singing to children via formal instruction. Fortunately, this opinion is changing. The authors agree that structured singing is a learned behavior and formal vocal instruction is appropriate for most young people. This article presents specific information for developing child and adolescent singers.