Reddit Reddit reviews The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults: A Manual for Teachers of Singing and for Choir Directors

We found 3 Reddit comments about The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults: A Manual for Teachers of Singing and for Choir Directors. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults: A Manual for Teachers of Singing and for Choir Directors
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3 Reddit comments about The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults: A Manual for Teachers of Singing and for Choir Directors:

u/keakealani · 7 pointsr/singing

Yeah... I really don't condone self-teaching for many reasons, but obviously you don't want to hear that right now, so this is just a bit of a disclaimer.

Personally, I think if you're going to study on your own, it's really worth it to get a good background in the "bookwork" elements of singing, like vocal anatomy and pedagogy, as well as language work.

On that end, I would recommend books like Doscher's The Functional Unity of the Singing Voice, McKinney's The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults, Miller's The Structure of Singing, and McCoy's Your Voice: An Inside View. These are really not easy reads, per se, but they should give you a really good foundation in understanding what's going on physically, and being aware of potential problems in vocal health and hygiene, which is arguably the biggest reason to study with a teacher. (In other words, a good understanding of the physical vocal structure can help prevent unknowingly contorting it in an unhealthy way).

I would also strongly recommend some study in language, diction, and text. Even for non-classical singers, it's worth it to know about how diction and articulation works. Diction for Singers, A Handbook of Diction for Singers, and International Phonetic Alphabet for Singers would be a good start. (And in general, a working understanding of IPA is crucial).

You can also work on text analysis - I'm not really a poetry/text specialist so I can't recommend any specific books, but I'm sure there are many out there.

Marchesi's Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method is another resource to look into, as it contains many exercises designed for technical practice - I liken it to the Hanon exercises commonly found in piano curricula. However, I will definitely warn that these exercises can be easily done incorrectly and can lead to the development of very bad habits, so please proceed with caution and be aware that there are many ways to execute the exercises, some of which are not healthy.

In addition, I would recommend a broad study in music theory, music history, and ear training. [Musictheory.net](http://www.musictheory.net] and Teoria.com are well-respected websites that offer lessons and exercises to learn beginner to intermediate level music theory concepts. Good-ear.com is another website I often recommend that focuses more on ear training. I would also recommend checking out the sidebar and FAQs over at /r/musictheory for more details.

In addition to these websites, some books worth mentioning include Berkowitz's A New Approach to Sight Singing, Music for Analysis, Caplin's Classical Form, Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music, Grout's A History of Western Music, and Schoenberg's Structural Functions of Harmony. While of course you don't need to have a doctorate in music theory to begin singing, I think it can only be helpful to have a really broad basis of understanding in various parts of music, as they directly affect your ability to read, understand, and interpret music.

Anyway, that should give you a pretty decent start. Please feel free to post if you have any additional questions.

u/AdlerAugen · 7 pointsr/singing

While I am not a primary vocalist, I happen to have a few excellent resources at my disposal: a textbook from a vocal pedagogy class I took a while back and a book on the list of recommended books for that class. The first is Barbara M. Doscher's The Functional Unity of the Singing Voice. I would highly recommend it for its very in-depth look at MANY aspects of singing, and how technically minded it is. It brings up various points of view on mechanisms from vocalists, and prior pedagogues, and compares them with more recent scientific study and great detail on anatomy used in singing. The second is James C. McKinney;s The Diaganosis & Correction of Vocal Faults.

I'm mainly going to talk about head voice and falsetto as it relates to men, though some of the anatomical information present will apply to women as well. Please pick up a copy of one or both of these books if you want to study this topic further, maybe ask your vocal instructor to assist you in learning a bit more about what they both contain.

>The male head voice is a blending of heavy and light mechanisms to attain a voix mixte, but it has a very different color and projection from that of the female middle voice.

^(Doscher 183)

Earlier in the text, Ms. Doscher talks about heavy and light mechanisms based on laryngeal function, which according to her source (Vennard, William. Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic, 4th ed. New York: Carl Fischer, 1967.), can overlap by about an octave in usage.
Heavy mechanisms:

  • utilize thickened vocal cords
  • have a wide amplitude (large range of possible volumes or dynamics)
  • exhibit firm glottal closure
  • are rich in partials (SEE THIS for information on partials)
  • utilize an active vocalis.

    In contrast, Light mechanisms:

  • utilize thinned vocal cords
  • have a narrower amplitude
  • utilize brief and/or incomplete glottal closure
  • have fewer partials
  • utilizes an active crico-thyroid

    ^(Doscher 174)

    >[still referring to male head voice] The intensity or amplitude of vibration and the multitude of overtones in the sound wave are regulated by a firm glottal closure, the longer length of time the glottis is closed, and the high air pressure used. In laryngeal appearance, this blended head voice resembles the chest register more than it does the falsetto.

    ^(Doscher 184-185)

    And on the topic of falsetto:

    >According to Hirano, the major breathing and phonatory characteristics of the falsetto are:

    > * relaxed vocalis muscle
  • stretched crico-thyroids
  • incomplete closure along the total length of the vocal ligaments
  • great increase of air flow
  • great decrease of air pressure

    >Although falsetto behavior formerly was thought to be solely the result of the damping of the vocal folds (as in a violin string), some authorities now think extreme longitudinal tension of the folds creates the effect of damping. [...] Because of all these factors, the glottal closure time is short and often incomplete, the amplitude of the folds is narrow, and there are very few upper partials in the sound wave. There is greater breath flow than in either the male chest or full head registers.

    ^(Doscher 185-186)

    Now on to Mckinney on Falsetto, contrasting against the "modal voice," which he calls the normal register for speaking and singing. This puts falsetto in a much shorter and easier to digest way (or if you'd rather: TL;DR)
    >The falsetto register lies above the modal voice register and overlaps it. The characteristic sound of falsetto is inherently breathy and flute-like, with few overtones present. This is due to the type of vibratory pattern set up by the vocal cords. As has been previously stated, the frequency of vibration is determined by the length, tension, and mass of the vocal cords. As pitch rises in the modal register, the cords are lengthened by the action of the cricothyroid muscles, tension is increased by the resistance which the vocalis muscles (the internal thyroarytenoids) offer to the pull of the cricothyroids, and mass is decreased as the edges of the vocal cords become thinner. The key factor is that the whole vocal cord is involved in the vibratory pattern of the modal register; this is not the case in falsetto.

    ^(McKinney 99)

    So that's what's different between Male head voice and falsetto.


    EDITS: a ton of formatting issues. It's readable now.
u/Snarm · 6 pointsr/MusicEd

You don't need any degree to teach voice privately on your own. If you want to teach at a community college or a university as adjunct applied voice faculty, you'll likely need a master's in vocal performance.

Didn't you take vocal pedagogy and methods classes as a voice major? If not, consider looking to a local university to enroll in some units from the Communication Sciences and Disorders specialty of their Speech Therapy department. Failing that, you can take some classes in Alexander Technique and do your own reading (I highly recommend The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults).