Music Teachers National Association

Modern Voice Pedagogy

Author(s): Elizabeth Ann Benson
Source: American Music Teacher , June/July 2018, Vol. 67, No. 6 (June/July 2018), pp. 10-
13
Published by: Music Teachers National Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26502682

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 Modern Voice
Pedagogy
Functional Training For All Styles
D
ue to the rising number of
collegiate musical theater and
contemporary commercial
music (CCM) programs, there
is increasing demand for teachers of
singing to provide diverse and versatile
training beyond the classical aesthetic.
When the vocal techniques of classi-
cal and CCM singing are identified
in terms of function, there is much
in common. It is only in the appli-
cation of vocal technique to musical
repertoire that significant differences
occur, according to genre. Rather than
running independent tracks of vocal
study in classical, music theater and
commercial/popular singing, many
elements of voice training can be
Elizabeth Ann
Benson is an
assistant professor
and coordinator
of the BFA music
theatre program
Auburn University.
She holds a master
of music degree from New England
Conservatory, and a doctorate from
the City University of New York
Graduate Center.
10
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By Elizabeth Ann Benson
consolidated for improved efficiency
and camaraderie. Some elements of
vocal technique that may be trained
independently of musical style include
vibrato, posture and alignment, onsets,
agility and registration. This article
will argue in favor of shifting to func-
tional voice training as core technical
training to effectively serve classical,
musical theater and contemporary
commercial voice students within one
studio.
Musical theater singing includes a
multitude of musical sub-genres, from
legit musical theater to contempo-
rary hard rock. A study by Kathryn
Green et al. surveyed job postings
for entry-level musical theater singers
and found that market demand was
almost evenly divided between legit/
traditional singing (45 percent) and
contemporary/pop/rock (55 percent).1
In today’s musical theater industry,
versatility is employability. In addi-
tion to the nearly 140 university-level
musical theater programs established
since 1968,2 there are approximately
30 U.S. universities offering a degree
in commercial or popular music with
a singing emphasis or concentration.3
Popular music programs also include
a diverse number of singing styles
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including folk, rock, pop, heavy metal,
R&B and many more. These programs
need voice teachers who can provide
functional vocal technique so students
can safely and consistently produce the
broad spectrum of sounds required in
many different styles of music.
Vocal Technique
In 1975, Cornelius Reid encour-
aged voice pedagogues to distinguish
between “art” and “function,” where
art is “the use of skill and imagina-
tion in the production of things of
beauty,” and function is “the natural
action characteristic of a mechanical
or organic system.”4 A functional voice
will have a broad range of expression
and can therefore serve the music (art).
The technical skills required within
a given musical genre are determined
by the aesthetic context of the target
repertoire. Therefore, some aspects of
functional training may be universal.
For example, vibrato is commonly
used in jazz, opera, legit musical the-
ater, country music and many other
genres. Singers strive to achieve an aes-
thetically pleasing vibrato, which they
apply as much or as little as is called
for in their chosen musical genre.
Eventually, a singer applying vibrato
JUNE/JULY 2018

to an opera aria may choose to use vibrato more frequently
than a singer applying vibrato to a jazz standard. However,
the functional training to produce and control the vibrato
is not inherently linked to any style of music. Other skills,
such as body work, onsets, agility and registration may be
trained in the same fashion.
For a singer, the body is the instrument. Consistent pos-
ture, alignment, strength and endurance are important for
rock singers, musical theater singers and classical singers
alike. An increased sense of kinesthetic awareness of the body
allows a singer to monitor the efficiency of the entire instru-
ment. Supplemental study in Alexander Technique, The
Feldenkrais Method, body mapping, yoga and dance could
be simultaneously taught to many different kinds of singers
and performing artists. Excellent cardiovascular fitness would
be beneficial to all singers because of the physical endurance
necessary to engage the instrument (the body) for extended
periods of time in performance. Some rock singers must
train for endurance to meet the high physical demands of a
concert, which may be longer than 3 hours and include cho-
reography, guitar thrashing or crowd-surfing. Musical theater
singers must be able to execute a 4-minute dance break and
then return to sing the big finish without sounding out of
breath. Classical singers must be strong enough to move
gracefully across a raked stage, perhaps while wearing heavy
period costumes and a wig. The trend of the “fit opera star”
has gained popularity and opera houses are taking advan-
tage of its appeal. A reviewer for Opera News remarked, “It’s
almost more newsworthy when [baritone] Nathan Gunn
appears fully dressed in an opera production than when he
sings shirtless.”5 Often in performance, the body is under
extreme conditions, such as hot temperatures due to stage
lights, heavy costumes and limited opportunities for hydra-
tion. It takes training to deliver an optimal performance
under such conditions. All singers benefit from body work.
Just as pianists keep their pianos tuned, singers must main-
tain the condition of their instruments too.
The training of glottal, coordinated and aspirated onsets
is common to both classical and CCM voice training.
One must learn to adduct the vocal folds and phonate
using maximum efficiency without constriction. In classi-
cal music, the preferred default onset is coordinated, but
all types of onset are used in avant-garde music, such as
Luciano Berio’s Sequenza III or Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot
Lunaire. In both English and German classical singing
diction, glottal onsets are commonly used for emphasis. In
CCM, there is no default onset. Onsets are varied accord-
ing to the musical style and expressive choices of the artist.
Singer/songwriters often use the aspirate onset to express
vulnerability, but glottal and coordinated onsets are just
as common. In Regina Spektor’s “Us,” she uses the glottal
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Modern Voice Pedagogy
onset as a playful musical motive in the chorus (1:15, 2:18,
3:42): “It’s contagious, it’s contaigio-u-u-u-u-us.”6 The
development of onset technique is the same in all genres,
but the frequency of application varies according to musical
style.
Vocal agility and precise articulation are hallmarks of
good technique, in any style of music. Scales, turns, trills
and staccato exercises are included in standard classical
training to prepare for baroque runs and operatic cadenzas.
Example 1 shows a cadenza sung by Joan Sutherland in
measure 38 of “Prendi per me, sei libero” (L’Elisir d’Amore),
built from the F-major scale.
Example 1: Joan Sutherland’s Cadenza from “Prendi per me, sei libero”
(L’Elisir d’Amore) by Gaetano Donizetti.7
The CCM equivalent to an operatic cadenza is “riffing.”
In contrast to classical music, CCM riffs are often built
from modal scales, blues scale, major and minor pentatonic
scales and the minor hexatonic scale, which was found to be
used most frequently in pop music after the natural minor
and major scales.8 Tori Kelly’s cover of Michael Jackson’s
“Pretty Young Thing” contains a cadenza-length riff, built
from the D-flat-minor hexatonic scale: 1 – 2 – flat-3 – 4 – 5 –
flat-7.
Example 2: Tori Kelly’s Riff (from her cover of Michael Jackson’s “Pretty
Young Thing” by James Ingram and Quincy Jones)9
Both artists demonstrate the skill of vocal agility at its fin-
est, singing rapid pitches clearly and consistently, from the
top to the bottom of the range. The genre of music deter-
mines the standard tonality within which each singer builds
her showcase of vocal agility. The technique of moving the
voice quickly and cleanly can be trained within any tonality.
Many approaches to voice training encourage the devel-
opment of two registers in the singing voice. These have
several names: chest/head, modal/loft, or TA-dominant/
CT-dominant. If both registers are “equally balanced in
strength and coordination,”10 then singers can mix them
to yield an infinite number of sounds. The resulting sound
could be belting, floating, wailing and anything in between.
Classical music calls for coordination between the registers
so a change from one register to the other is inaudible.
CCM singers may preserve the ability to deliberately not
coordinate the registers, for yodel or break effects, which
may be desirable in certain musical styles or colors of emo-
tional expression. The late-lead singer of The Cranberries,
11
 Modern Voice Pedagogy
Dolores O’Riordan, uses a yodel effect
throughout the song “Zombie,” which
requires extra vowels to be added to
the lyric: “Zombie-e-e-e-oh” (1:55,
3:27).11
In training baritone, bass-baritone
and bass voices to sing classical rep-
ertoire, Richard Miller advocates for
exercises that focus on the transition
between “falsetto and full voice.”12
Miller acknowledges that falsetto is
not often used by the low-male voice
types in (classical) public performance,
yet he maintains that regular training
of the transition between registers
will “bring about ease of production,”
particularly at the top of the range.13
In CCM music, male singers often
showcase falsetto in public perfor-
mance. The use of both registers is
required and valuable in both CCM
and classical genres, and therefore,
the approach to training could be the
same. Karen Hall identifies the use of
register-dominance as the “defining
difference between female music the-
ater and classical singing,” explaining
“in the simplest terms,” that female
musical theater repertoire calls for
more chest register, and classical rep-
ertoire calls for more head register.14
A training regimen that targets the
understanding, development and coor-
dination of registers will provide access
to the entire range in a broad palette
of dramatic colors. The repertoire itself
determines which sounds are most
appropriate.
Supplemental Training For Singers
In addition to the elements of vocal
technique described above, courses in
acting and voice pedagogy are often
a part of a singer’s curriculum. These
subjects would benefit from collabora-
tive-teaching teams from varied stylis-
tic specializations.
All singers are dramatic vocal artists,
linked by the presence of text and
the drive to share compelling stories
with an audience. The accrediting
body for most music programs and
many musical theater programs is the
12
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National Association for Schools of
Music (NASM). NASM lists separate
essential competencies, experiences
and opportunities for musical theater
degrees and a degree in voice with an
opera emphasis. In musical theater
programs, they require “thorough”15
skills in acting, whereas opera pro-
grams only require “basic”16 skills in
acting. In 1990, musicologist Joseph
P. Swain dared us to define opera in
such a way that it includes The Magic
Flute, yet somehow excludes West Side
Story.17 Why should there be two dif-
ferent standards for acting when the
sub-genres are nearly impossible to dis-
tinguish from one another? According
to the artistic director of the Manhattan
School of Music Opera Theatre, Dona
D. Vaughn, acting training often is
marginalized in classical music con-
servatories and completely absent in
young-artist programs.18 Training
both musical theater and opera singers
(together) in a rigorous program of
acting methods would be more efficient
than running parallel courses in separate
programs while maintaining two differ-
ent standards in the same subject.
Commercial singers are also engag-
ing storytellers. Adele’s Live 2016 con-
cert tour featured a set list of 15 rock
ballads, many about her own expe-
riences with heartbreak. This could
have been very depressing. However,
between songs, she interacted with the
audience, improvising banter, telling
stories and cracking jokes to carefully
regulate the mood of the audience.19
A reviewer for the Evening Standard
explained, “She shifted constantly
from being a lightning rod for emo-
tion to a light entertainer.”20 Without
question, this was acting. Many uni-
versities already offer acting classes to
theater and musical theater majors;
opening those courses to include clas-
sical vocal performance and CCM
majors would be ideal. When students
from a variety of programs are mixed
together in an ensemble, they build
trust, and that trust allows for greater
inclusion and diversity.
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A course in voice pedagogy is often
included in an undergraduate classical
voice curriculum to provide knowledge
of vocal anatomy and physiology, as
well as pedagogical techniques. Some
institutions have the resources to offer
parallel voice pedagogy courses that
also include pedagogical skills required
for music theater and CCM musical
repertoires, but most do not. Offering
private lessons is an attractive job for
an emerging professional performer
due to the flexibility of being self-em-
ployed. However, outside of a large
city, an emerging teacher is not likely
to find voice students who are exclu-
sively interested in classical music. It
would be more beneficial for classical
undergraduates to learn how to pro-
vide functional training to apply in
a variety of musical styles. Classical
pedagogue Scott McCoy states that
the ability to teach “both classical and
CCM genres and techniques” is nec-
essary to meet the “expectations of the
real world.”21 If voice pedagogy cours-
es were open to all types of singing
students and elements of functional
technique were applied to a variety of
styles within the course, we could yield
an entire generation of teachers who
think of the voice in unified functional
terms.
Conclusion
The future of collegiate music
training is a more inclusive environ-
ment, one that ensures all styles of
music are equally worthy of study and
performance. In 2012, the National
Endowment for the Arts reported that
44 percent of adults who attended
a live music show, chose to attend a
live pop or rock music show. Only 5
percent chose to attend an opera.22 In
spite of a clear consumer preference
for CCM, the genre still struggles to
be treated equally within academia.
The Association for Popular Music
Education (APME) was founded
in 2010 to advocate for the pop-
ular music discipline because “it
stands as a vital part of our modern
JUNE/JULY 2018

lives.”23 Popular music both reflects
and responds to American culture.
In The Crisis of Classical Music in
America, Robert Freeman states that
it is “important” to understand that
“many Americans see classical music as
European…”24 The musical styles that
were born in the United States and
continue to evolve here are integral to
American identity, and should be rep-
resented as such within academia.
Rather than continuing to divide
schools of training by labeling them
as “classical” or “CCM” or “musical
theater,” singers of all genres of music
can train “functionally.” If stylistic
specialization is affiliated with reper-
toire, rather than with the voice itself,
there may be a shift toward inclusivity
among voice pedagogues and voice
programs. Supplemental courses can
be redesigned to meet the needs of
both CCM and classical singers simul-
taneously, in one ensemble, which
would eliminate course redundancies
and improve camaraderie. In the con-
cluding chapter of Teaching Singing in
the 21st Century, the editors “encour-
age unorthodoxy, welcome diversity
and embrace openness to create the
cultural and structural conditions
to kindle (or re-kindle) learning.”25
We can envision a time to come in
which the formal study of “music”
is redefined to embrace American-
born musics alongside their historical
European roots. This monumental
task will take time to manifest, but it
can start with functional voice train-
ing. g
Notes
1. Kathryn Green, Warren Freeman,
Matthew Edwards, and David Meyer,
“Trends in Musical Theatre Voice: An
Analysis of Audition Requirements for
Singers,” Journal of Voice 28 (2014):
324–27.
2. Wendy D. LeBorgne and Marci
Rosenberg, The Vocal Athlete (San
Diego: Plural, 2014), 225.
3. Jessica Baldwin, “Commercial
Voice Degrees, Diplomas, and
AMERICAN MUSIC TEACHER
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Certificates,” Commercial Voice
Resources Blog, accessed on May 19,
2017, http://www.commercial
voiceresources.com/commer-
cial-voice-programs-us.
4. Cornelius L. Reid, Voice: Psyche
and Soma (New York: Joseph Patelson
Music House, 1975), preface.
5. John von Rhein, “Dude. Put
Your Shirt on and Sing,” The Chicago
Tribune, August 17, 2007, http://arti-
cles.chicagotribune.com/2007-08-17/
entertainment/0708150717_1_
lyric-opera-nathan-gunn-baritone.
6. Regina Spektor, “Us,” from Soviet
Kitsch, recorded in 2004, Sire/Warner
Brothers, 2010, digital media file, orig-
inally released on August 17, 2004.
7. Dictated from Joan Sutherland
(Adina), “Prendi, per me sei libero”
from L’Elisir d’Amore, conducted by
Richard Bonynge, recorded in 1970,
Decca B0015T5INY, 2006, 2 compact
discs, originally released on January 1,
1971.
8. Kim Chandler, “Teaching
Popular Music Styles,” in Teaching
Singing in the 21st Century, edited by
Scott D. Harrison and Jessica O’Bryan
(Dordrecht: Springer, 2014), 45.
9. Dictated from Tori Kelly, unpub-
lished cover of Michael Jackson’s
“Pretty Young Thing” by James
Ingram and Quincy Jones, 2:23,
accessed on May 25, 2017, https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Xev6dgGxTyg.
10. Matthew Edwards, So You Want
to Sing Rock’N’Roll (Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 106.
11. The Cranberries (Dolores
O’Riordan), “Zombie,” on No Need
to Argue, recorded in 1994, Island
Records, 2002, digital media file, orig-
inally released on October 3, 1994.
12. Richard Miller, Securing
Baritone, Bass-Baritone, & Bass Voices
(New York: Oxford University Press,
2008), 107.
13. Ibid., 113.
14. Karen Hall, So You Want to
Sing Music Theater (Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 69.
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Modern Voice Pedagogy
15. National Association of Schools
of Music, NASM Handbook, 2016–17
(Reston, VA: National Association of
Schools of Music, 2016), appendix
I.B.5.A.3.C, 161.
16. Ibid., appendix I.B.4.C.4, 160.
17. Joseph P. Swain, The Broadway
Musical: A Critical and Musical Survey
(New York: Oxford University Press,
1990), 357.
18. Dona D. Vaughn, “Just Act
Natural,” Opera News, January 1,
2012.
19. Adele, Live 2016, concert
attended by the author, October 29,
2016, Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA.
20. David Smyth, “Adele, Tour
Review: Mesmerising Return from
one of the Greatest Voices and
Entertainers,” Evening Standard,
March 16, 2016, accessed May 19,
2017, http://www.standard.co.uk/
goingout/music/adele-tour-review-
mesmerising-return-from-one-of-
the-greatest-voices-and-entertainers-
a3204621.html.
21. Scott McCoy, “Why I don’t
teach belting,” Journal of Singing 70
(2013): 182.
22. National Endowment for the
Arts, A Decade of Arts Engagement:
Findings from the Survey of Public
Participation in the Arts, 2002–
2012 (Washington DC: National
Endowment for the Arts, 2015),
23–24.
23. “About APME,” The
Association for Popular Music
Education, accessed October 10, 2017,
http://www.popularmusiceducation.
org/.
24. Robert Freeman, The Crisis of
Classical Music in America: Lessons from
a Life in the Education of Musicians
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield,
2014), 77.
25. Scott D. Harrison and Jessica
O’Bryan, “Postlude: The Future
of Singing Pedagogy” in Teaching
Singing in the 21st Century, ed. Scott
D. Harrison and Jessica O’Bryan
(Dordrecht: Springer, 2014), 413.
AMT
13