On Studying Singing

Sergius Kagen

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780486206226
• eBook ISBN: 9780486173207
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

"Logical, clear, convincing, and, in my modest judgment, dead right." — Virgil Thomson, New York Herald Tribune
"I recommend this volume highly." — Maggie Teyte, Saturday Review
"One of the most sensible books on the subject of vocal art." — Felix Borowski, Chicago Sun-Times
This book is an invaluable guide for the student, parent, teacher, coach, or any person connected with vocalism. It is not intended to teach the student how to sing since no book could possibly do this. Its main purpose is to help him find a way to study singing intelligently.
The author, who is a member of the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music and a prominent musician with a vast experience of teaching singers, explains in this book clearly and logically just what a student can and cannot expect from singing lessons. He also discusses in detail the various subsidiary studies necessary to the singer, such as the study of musical notation and theory, ear training, languages, and other allied subjects.
Particularly useful and interesting is the section dealing with various methods employed in teaching vocal technique. In this section, Mr. Kagen debunks the so-called "scientific methods" of voice teaching and the concept of "building voices" — follies which have often led to an enormous waste of money, time, and effort.

IV. The Study of Vocal Technic

Any discussion of vocal technic (voice placement or tone production as it is often called) is doomed, at some point or other, to become controversial. A spirit of partisanship seems to be evoked by such discussions most of the time. Apparently it cannot be banished by any known method of dealing with the subject.

It is not my aim to instruct the reader in vocal technic. A staggering number of volumes written for just such purpose already exists. I do not see the need for adding still another to this list. The purpose of this chapter then is to discuss some fundamental premises upon which an approach to the study of vocal technic could rest.

The aim of vocal technic, as of all musical performance technics, is to enable the singer to produce at will and with reasonable ease, sounds of specified pitch, duration, quality, volume, color, etc. Any intelligent approach toward the achievement of this aim must rest on a clear understanding of the nature and limitation of the instrument as well as on a clear understanding of the nature and limitations of the procedures available for teaching the attainment of control of this instrument.

It is my sincere belief that, should these two major premises be sufficiently explored, the student would gain enough insight into the subject to become able to form an approach to the study of vocal technic which would fit his individual needs.

As discussed before, the factor primarily responsible for the production of any specified sound by a normal human voice is the conception of a clear mental image of this sound. The formation of this mental image compels our sound-producing mechanism to adjust itself in a most minute and delicate manner; it sets in motion a most complex series of muscular contractions balanced to a most remarkable degree of precision which results in an approximation of the imagined sound. The control of this factor (the conception of sound image) rests primarily upon the degree of precision with which an individual can imagine sounds at will. The natural ability to imagine sounds of definite pitch at will has already been discussed. In its lowest form, this ability enables one to imagine sounds of definite duration, pitch, vowel and volume. In its highest form, this ability enables one to imagine sound in its full complexity. Quality, intensity, timbre, resonance, inflection and every other characteristic of musical sound produced in conjunction with speech sound by a human voice must be imagined before any worthwhile attempt can be made to produce it successfully.

Insofar as speech is concerned, the formation of a sound image and its reproduction in an adult reaches a state of such automatism that the meaning of a word becomes synonymous with its sound. Thus the sound becomes an automatic expression of the meaning. The same automatism, if attained by a singer, will form his most valuable attribute as an artist. To attain such automatism, in which the meaning of the word, the sound of the word and the musical sound form a simultaneous and instantaneous single image, is the higher goal of a singer's technic.

The ability to imagine sound is of equally paramount importance where every conceivable sound which can be produced by a human voice is concerned. The possession of this ability, insofar as speech is concerned, makes it possible for the same actor to change the color, inflection, quality and volume of his voice. It enables him to change the accent and rhythm of his speech so that one night his words will sound as he imagines the speech of Romeo should sound, and the next night approximate his image of the speech of a New York taxi driver. It makes it possible for those possessing a very keen ear for speech sounds to imitate the speech peculiarities, inflections and accents of innumerable individuals. Also, it makes it possible for those who have a very keen ear for sounds produced by animals and birds somehow to approximate these sounds. Finally, it makes it possible for those who have a very keen ear for musical sounds to reproduce the sounds they imagine in conjunction with speech sounds, or to sing.

The possession of such an ability is not, however, synonymous with the possession of a voice which would allow the approximation of any imagined sound. A limited or inferior voice, as well as one of superior or extraordinary nature, is the result of a most complex combination of physical and mental factors which, for all practical purposes, could be considered accidental. The limitations of each individual's voice cannot be discounted. Imagining a sound out of the range of one's voice or beyond its maximum volume will not, of course, result in the approximation of this sound. Imagining a sound of a quality which the individual voice is incapable of reproducing due to its structure, cannot be expected to result in an approximation of this quality.

It seems to me that no approach to the study of vocal technic can ignore the principle that the major portion of the control a singer possesses over his voice rests on his ability to imagine in its full complexity the sound which he wishes to produce—that is, in its pitch, vowel, duration, quality, volume, resonance, timbre, inflection, color, etc. If the characteristics of a sound the singer wishes to produce are unclear in his own mind, little if anything can be done to compel him to produce successfully a sound possessing such characteristics. This remains true even if his vocal apparatus should be of a structure which theoretically could allow him to produce such a sound at will; for the muscles primarily responsible for the production of a sound—namely, the vocal cords—are, for all practical purposes, uncontrollable as such insofar as direct volition is concerned. Although not classified as involuntary muscles (like the heart or the intestines,) neither are they classified as voluntary muscles (such as the biceps).

We do not possess the faculty of compelling our vocal cords to flex in any precise manner without first having conceived an image of the sound we wish to produce. This is a fact of cardinal importance, a fact which has an enormous bearing upon any approach toward the study of vocal technic.

Certain parts of our complex sound-producing apparatus can be controlled, as such, to a greater or lesser degree. These include the tongue, the lips and the muscles of the jaw as well as a great number of other sets of muscles distributed in various parts of the body and involved to some degree in the production of a sound. However, the primary sound-producing muscles, the vocal cords, which are responsible for the pitch of a sound and for much of its quality, can be only controlled by indirect action. This indirect action depends entirely upon the singer's ability to imagine or hear mentally, the sound that he wishes to produce.

The functioning of most other muscles that form or are indirectly related to our sound-producing apparatus is often semiautomatic and invariably is influenced by the image of sound we conceive mentally. It is also affected by the concurrent activity of all the other sets of muscles employed in producing a sound. None of such muscles or sets of muscles operates independently of each other while a sound is being produced, for neither of them alone is capable of emitting a vowel sound of a definite pitch, quality, volume or color.

It seems obvious, therefore, that the most precise knowledge of the muscular contractions involved in the production of some specified sound cannot be expected to make a singer produce this sound accurately, since the accurate mental image of the desired sound is the factor primarily responsible for compelling these muscles to act. The most minutely accurate knowledge of all the muscular activities involved in the production of a middle C on vowel “a”, for instance, cannot enable one to compel directly his muscles to contract in so precise a manner as to insure even an approximation of this specified sound unless one conceives a mental image of this sound or, at the very least, of its pitch and vowel.

The student of singing should bear in mind that his sound producing mechanism invariably acts as a complex unit. He must remember that the exact balancing of the multitude of muscular activities responsible for the emission of any specified sound cannot be successfully achieved by direct muscular effort. The conception of an image of the sound can, however, successfully coordinate, unify and direct these complex muscular contractions.

Much too often, one encounters a total disregard of this principle among students trying to attain control over their vocal apparatus. Too many of them seem to reason in some such fashion as this: No specified sound can be produced unless a series of certain muscular contractions takes place. The approach to the study of vocal technic should, in accordance with this premise, rest primarily on analyzing these muscular contractions. Armed with such knowledge, one is supposed to be able to reproduce these muscular contractions at will. The reproduction of these muscular contractions will, according to this reasoning, result in the approximation of a desired sound. Accordingly, such series of muscular contractions are considered to be the sole cause of the desired sound.

Such reasoning confuses the cause with the effect. This type of mistake in reasoning is very frequently encountered. Effect (in this case muscular activity) is often mistaken for the cause (in this case conception of the sound image) and the attempt to gain control over the effect is then considered to be equal to the attempt to gain control over the cause. Singing in this manner, a student can lose most of his natural coordination. He will become self-conscious; he will forget what it means to allow himself to make music naturally; and the more talented he is, the more chance there will be for him to develop innumerable mental blocks which may, in the end, prevent him from singing altogether.

A student with a poor natural ear, a poor natural voice and no imagination can, of course, be taught how to force himself into squeaking a semblance of a high C, for instance (which he may not have been able to do before) if he is shown precisely how to open his mouth, in what manner to hold his tongue, in what fashion to flex his abdominal muscles and so on. The result, of course, will be utterly unsatisfactory insofar as singing goes, but it may enable him to produce a semblance of a high C A student of some talent, however, if taught to employ the same mechanical devices while singing a high C, stands to gain nothing by forcing himself to act as an untalented singer does, and may, in the process of learning how to sing in this fashion, do permanent damage to his whole way of singing and his attitude toward the act of singing. In the end, he may, and often does, learn to sing no better than the ungifted student.

Under such training he learns how not to develop his gift (whatever this gift may be) and not to rely upon any natural aptitude he may have for singing. Before long, unless he happens to be a most exceptionally gifted and strong individual, he may, because of disuse and abuse of his natural basic coordination, lose it altogether.

The old complaint of parents and friends that “Jenny or Peggy or Tommy used to sound much better until he or she went to New York or Chicago or Los Angeles and began to study singing” is, unfortunately, all too often justified, but, just as unfortunately, nothing much is ever done about it. Jenny or Peggy or Tommy simply insist that the “old way” of singing was “all wrong” but that the new way, even though it makes them sound like sputtering steam whistles, is “correct”, and that they simply did not quite get the hang of it as yet, and need to study more “vocal technic,” meaning, of course, more mechanical devices designed to teach one how to control consciously and directly the muscles of one's sound-producing apparatus.

A student who becomes convinced that vocal technic is purely a matter of direct gymnastic muscular control, and that such vocal technic equals singing, is often willing to admit that his present way of singing may be unsatisfactory. But it seems very difficult for such a student to realize that his vocal inefficiency is primarily due to his general conception of what vocal technic is, and to his general attitude toward the act of singing. It seems difficult for him to perceive that exchanging one system of direct muscular control for another such system (which he is often willing to do) will not essentially alleviate his plight. It may possibly increase it. It is extremely difficult for him to understand that his inefficiency is due not to the type of gymnastic muscular control he tries to employ in his singing, but to the fact that such direct gymnastic muscular control is being employed at all.

Many a gifted student in search of some hypothetical type of direct muscular control which he calls “vocal technic,” and which he hopes will finally release him and allow him to sing freely and efficiently, goes from one voice specialist to another and changes his vocal technic with each new teacher. Such a student does not seem to consider the possibility that no type of direct muscular control can make him sing as he wishes to sing, and as perhaps he could sing, unless the mental and musical factors governing the operation of his muscles are allowed to play the extraordinarily important part in his singing, a part to which such factors are rightfully entitled.

I do not wish to imply that a student of singing cannot and should not learn how to gain direct control over certain voluntary muscles involved in singing if such control seems necessary. However, the often-encountered overemphasis on direct muscular control among vocal students is almost invariably responsible for the increase of tension in their singing. This acquired tension sometimes reaches a stage where the singer becomes muscle-bound and is unable to sing as well and as easily as he did before he began to study seriously, and to concern himself with the position of the larynx or the back of his tongue, his uvula or his diaphragm. It is not surprising then that those studentts who become most muscle-bound are those most concerned with their muscular activities and least conscious of the function of the mental sound image, which, under normal circumstances, would tend to direct and coordinate their muscular activities. They must, of necessity, neglect to concentrate on the sound image while their attention is riveted to the minute muscular details of their singing.

I would venture to say that the acquisition of direct control even over voluntary muscles may be resorted to only when the natural coordination between the student's ear and his voice seems insufficient to insure the approximation of the desired sound. This, of course, presupposes that the student knows or has been taught to know what precisely a desired sound may be and that he can actually imagine this sound clearly. Before this has been tried and found wanting, the preoccupation with direct muscular control can only result in disturbing whatever natural coordination the student has between his ear and his voice.

To sum up: The primary control a singer possesses over his instrument is not muscular but mental. It rests on a natural ability to imagine musical and speech sounds precisely, as well as on the natural coordination between the singer's ear and his voice. This ability, this supplementary coordination, and a vocal apparatus of a structure which enables the singer to reproduce the sounds he imagines are characteristics which cannot be acquired by study for any practical professional purposes. If such characteristics are present, however, they can be developed. Any intelligent approach toward the acquisition of an efficient vocal technic must take this into account. The acquisition of direct conscious control over certain muscles involved in producing sounds can be considered only as a supplementary, secondary aim in the study of vocal technic. It is often considered as the primary aim of vocal technic and substituted for the mental control of one's vocal apparatus by means of forming a sound image. An attempt to acquire such muscular control in a gymnastic, mechanical fashion usually disturbs the natural coordination between a student's voice and his ear. In other words, it makes his singing less efficient.

An insufficient realization of the extraordinarily important part which the formation of a thoroughly accurate mental sound image plays in one's singing is often responsible for a number of the so-called “technical difficulties” among students of singing. Many, if not most, of such vocal ills plaguing a young singer are very often due to the inefficient musical, verbal and phonetic preparation of the pieces he attempts to sing. In other words, only few of them mentally know well enough the music, the poem and the vowel and consonant sounds of the song they attempt to sing before they actually begin to sing it. Unless a student is taught to be extremely precise in learning to imagine the sound of the musical and phonetic content of his songs before he begins to sing them, he usually forms the very poor habit of learning his songs by singing them before he knows them well enough to hear them mentally. Such a procedure is likely to impede the coordination between his ear and his voice or, to make him employ this coordination in a most minimal, haphazard and inefficient manner.

This insecurity in pitch, rhythm and phonetics is often responsible for a total inefficiency in vocalization among young singers. Also, this insecurity is often primarily responsible for the extraordinary tension of their vocal apparatus. A student who attempts to compel his vocal apparatus to produce pitches, rhythms and speech sounds of which he is not too sure must remember that his vocal apparatus will invariably become extremely tense in protest against such abuse. This tense, constricted sensation is only aggravated if the cause of this insecurity is not removed. Even the most specific advice on how to relax certain muscles and flex others while singing cannot then perceptibly lessen such tension.

Learning the notes and the words of a song is equivalent to making oneself hear them mentally. Attempting to do so while singing almost invariably tends to establish a peculiarly unnatural coordinatory pattern in one's singing. One's inner ear (or the ability to imagine sounds) is used hardly at all and never for any considerable length of time. One's vocal apparatus is thus left without proper mental guidance. This is especially noticeable in difficult passages where utmost concentration on pitch, vowel, quality, intensity and volume of a series of sounds is demanded in order to provide the needed guidance to the voice and ease the physical tension. It matters little if the student has, by that time, learned the tune and the words, or has even managed somehow to memorize them in this unnatural fashion. Doing so he has also managed to memorize a whole series of tense and uncomfortable sensations caused by the initially insecure knowledge of his piece. The music, the words and these tense and uncomfortable sensations become in this fashion welded into a unified pattern which he now calls singing.

Under such circumstances, the student begins to accept the sensation of tenseness as a sort of natural ill. Many believe that this tension cannot be corrected without years of study of the vocal mechanics and of gymnastic exercises especially designed to counteract it. Yet they seem to forget that the more conscious the student becomes of this tenseness and of the various corrective exercises, “trick” and “technics” designed to correct it, the less attention he begins to pay to the musical and verbal components of his work. His attention is then riveted to his body and not to the combined image of music and words before him. In this way he adds self-consciousness to the tension initially caused by the failure to form a sufficiently clear and secure mental image of what he is supposed to sing. This self-consciousness, in its turn, makes him even more tense. More mechanical devices designed to correct this self-consciousness are then employed with equally poor results until the student, as it so often unfortunately happens, cannot any longer produce a sound without enormous physical difficulty.

At this po...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Half Title
• I The Musical Ear and the Natural Voice
• II The Study of General Musicianship
• III The Study of the Verbal Contents in Vocal Music
• IV The Study of Vocal Technic
• V The Vocal Student and the Teaching of Vocal Technic
• VI The Study of Repertoire
• VII The Incompetent Professional and the Competent Amateur