Seminar in Vocal Pedagogy

Coordination

"A knowledge of the various processes involved in singing is like a disjoined skeleton until their interrelation is understood. An organism is greater than the sum of all its parts, and no analytical study discovers the whole truth until it leads to synthesis" (Vennard, 191, emphasis mine).

Vennard begins this final chapter with emphasis on the capacity of the teacher as a diagnostician. He must understand more than just the requisite "parts;" he must also know why they work and how they are governed from a neurological standpoint. If the voice is being produced in the most scientifically stable way possible, normal vibrato will occur.

He cites Carl Seashore for a definition of vibrato:

A good vibrato is a pulsation of pitch, usually accompanied with synchronous pulsations of loudness and timbre, of such extent and rate as to give a pleasing flexibility, tenderness, and richness to the tone" (193).

Vibrato is the result of the intermittent supply of nerve energy to the musculature of the voice, specifically in the cricothyroids. It is a fluctuation in pitch (by at least a semi-tone), intensity (speed), and timbre (the component that often provides "richness," "resonance," or "overtones"). Each vibrato "cycle" is normally produced about 6 times per second; that is, its typical duration is about .16 seconds (193).

Tremolo, or unusually fast vibrato, Vennard says is a result of "muscular coordination...out of balance" that can be corrected, but not overnight. Its frequency is a result of the normal frequencies of nerve impulses. Due to the nature of neurological activity, the pulsation occurs normally anywhere from 5 to 10 cycles per second, as dictated by the cerebral cortex. This is at a relaxed, confident state; elation or other nervousness will increase the speed, probably too fast. This exaggerated character is caused by overloading, either by reaching for too high a pitch with the wrong technique, or too much volume (or even a combination). Correction of this problem can be addressed with descending portamento exercises, but Vennard cautions that results will not be rapid (194-196).

It has been mentioned that nervousness and elation can cause inordinately high vibrato rates. If this is typical, something is wrong. Occasional rises in passion during singing, however, is not, and corresponding increases in vibrato rate are acceptable. The key issue is patience on the part of the teacher. An inhibited or phlegmatic student can be made aware as to his absence of vibrato, but it does nothing to relax the uptight singer with his tremolo to badger him about it.

Musical control of the vibrato is ideally set to some "even" fraction of the beat, especially useful for singing rapid scales or for measuring dotted rhythms. Use of rapid scales may be helpful, but Vennard prefers slower ones so that attention can be paid to quality of tone one the relatively slow notes, something that is difficult if not impossible to do in fast scale singing. In addition, Vennard maintains that there may be a correlation between pitch direction and speed of the vibrato (197-198).

"The trill is an exaggerated vibrato" between two distinct pitches some second apart, produced "by a very loose and swift oscillation of the larynx" (emphasis mine). Vennard says that tremolo is easy, but a convincing trill is another story. The trill may exceed the speed of the normal vibrato, depending, of course, on the normal speed of the vibrato, and two factors cause the ear to distinguish the two: the slow trill, in which normal vibrato can be detected on each tone; and the fast trill, or "shake," which will exceed and shroud the regular vibrato. The latter is a function of the framing pitches "simulating" the one that is meant to be heard (199-203).

Straight tone, or tone without vibrato, is the result of "phlegmatic" voice. It is indicative of devitalized and inhibited vocal product, and not in fact a quality of speaking tone (which is inflected). It always spreads the tone; there is no "best singing possible, only without vibrato."

The singer who has no vibrato does not free his larynx enough so that subtleties of tone can sound, and at the same time does not supply enough breath pressure. The tone is likely to be weak. It is almost impossible to sing loudly without vibrato. The tone will never acquire the "2800" overtone sound, and the laryngeal adjustment is probably static, indicating a rigid, mechanical tone. It is unacceptable for the serious soloist (204-205).

Many choir directors forbid vibrato in the voices of the singers, insisting that they damage the blend. Vennard agrees that someone with a "noticeable tremolo" is no fit if they cannot be rehabilitated, but his preference is for an ensemble that can sing a full, vibrant tone, neither of which is possible to the straight-tone choir. He blames the microphone and the faltering of musical education in school (from supplying good indoctrination of musical technique to some holistic "musical experience"). Referred to by some as "a capella tone," the straight tone is "free" of the bounding pitches of the vibrato that define the actual pitch, and since choir directors were preoccupied with the fact of these pitches, came to the questionable concluseion that "intonation was impossible except with straight tone." This is not even tolerated in symphonies (205-207).

Prior to a few pages that summarize each of his chapters, Vennard leaves a wise section he has entitled "The Hemispheres of Coordination," but really are a philosophy of study vocal technique. He acknowledges that many teachers have as many ideas as to how the voice ought to work, and the student can respond in one of three ways: he can become a fanatic for one style, insisting that everyone outside his school of thought is a heretic; he can become a cynical "technique-hopper" who does not really learn anything more than a few tricks which he will foist on his own students, whether he understands them or not: or he will recognize "that truth is greater than any of us" and must not be assumed to be bottled up in any one person or technical perspective. He argues that contradictory ideas can be useful for coming to a more complete understanding of a given technique, and that the singer's responsibility is to develop the savvy to know what is useful to be taken from this method or that.

Miller points out that, all along, we have been talking about physical processes in psychological terms. If this is the case, why study the science?

The answer is obvious: when we understand the function of the mechanism, we can train ourselves to associate emotional and creative experiences with sensation that results from specific kinds of physical coordination. That which functions well functions freely (198).

To Miller, understanding the technical aspects of vocal production is the basis for confidence in one's vocal product, and ignorance to the specifics of the process will produce a fear that the willfully ignorant singer should expect.

Many of the issues Vennard has addressed, Miller also deals with, but (as usual) from a different perspective. He agrees with--perhaps even surpasses--Vennard's antagonism to vibrato flaws: "There is a direct correlation between clean onset, efficiently managed breath, and a vibrant tone. A too-slow or too-rapid vibrato rate is an indication of unhealthy function" (196). Additionally, producing vibrato is not a matter of bouncing the larynx; it is a matter of allowing neurological processes to "activate the cricothyroid muscles, and...involves a relaxant principle in laryngeal action" (185). He also is in line with Vennard on what factors apply to proper vibrato: pitch, intensity, and timbre, based on the same quote from Seashore.

Miller also places great stock in using the vibrato as a diagnostic tool for qualifying timbre. A good vibrato keeps the pitch variant modest, allowing the ear to appreciate the average rather than the extremities of the waveform. It is also the indication of vibrancy in the voice, without which legato singing is not possible.

Vennard is not so bold in his opinion on the active observation of one's own vibrato, but Miller is. He argues that the singer is "almost always aware of the presence of an undesirable wobble or a tremolo, and is looking for any assistance in the elimination of either" (186). Tremolo is an indication of hyperfunction in the subglottic pressure exerting too much intensity "for the normal responses of the larynx" (191). On the contrary, it must be a relaxing agent, not given easily to some conscious physical motion, but a natural neurological process.

Miller differs with Vennard's judgment that the vibrato rate should be in such control that pulsations should "come out even" within a bar, even speeding up or slowing down, if necessary.

[This] theory of synchronizing oscillatory patterns with written note changes is passed on the false assumption that the presence of vibrato in the human voice is perceived by the listener as off-pitch singing; our own perceptions prove that not to be the case, because the ear does not register pitch fluctuations of vibrato as pitch alternation but as part of vocal timbre (194, emphasis mine).

While understanding and consciousness of the vibrato effect on the larynx is that it is a more or less passive thing, involving no "marked laryngeal movements," the trill is a physical oscillation of the larynx. Miller feels that the trill is an indication of vocal freedom, and insists on its presence for the accomplished voice (195).

The straight-tone onset is yet another topic in which Miller is more adamant than Vennard. Such an onset that is followed by vibrato indicates that the voice was not free until the vibrato started. It may have usefulness in some cultures, but for the most part is sentimental and will spread. The fault lies in a lack of awareness of vibrancy in the tone and, by extension, "the nature of one's vocal quality." Getting the vibrato started may be a simple matter of developing it in the spoken voice, as if imitating a revival preacher. He discourages imagery that involves picturing "some oscillating object" like a bouncing ball; this draws attention to a pitch fluctuation rather than to a quality of timbre, possibly producing the external epigastric vibrato. It is also dangerous to associate it with thoracic musculature, which will probably start the torso to shaking and creating a wobble instead of a well-supported appoggio (188-191).

The slow vibrato, or oscillation, Miller stipulates is the result of "slackness of the vocal folds due to insufficient resistance to airflow." Vennard used the term "phlegmatic," but the meaning is the same: support is lacking. The sense of appoggio will produce a natural vibrato; there is no reason to allow the voice to be weighed down simply for shortage of support (186-187).

Nothing provides expressive and interesting singing like messa di voce; "vocal coloration and dynamic level are inseparable." This provides the foundation for uniformity of tone character for both lout and soft singing, and employs lower, more efficient airflow rates at soft singing, when it is easiest to let the voice go slack and admit breath into the tone. Thus, the balanced onset "is essential at all dynamic levels" (171-172). It is not correct to produce and audible "entering wedge" (which Vennard mentions but does not permit to be heard) that must be "driven" as the voice crescendos. This suggests a sudden, conscious increase in breath pressure. What is desired is "a sense of gradual energization within constant stability of timbre...as the dynamic level rises." Additionally, using messa di voce to proceed from chest to head voice defeats its purpose. It is for unifying the voice throughout the whole range, but not between registers. Miller insists that exercises of messa di voce ought to wait until the "fundamentals of vocal technique" are "well in hand;" this, however, ignores the fact that Salvatore Marchesi's very first exercise is meant to develop it (174-175).

Finally, Miller addresses the quality of dynamic levels, which he believes pertain more to quality and mood than some fixed volume. This is an important issue to communicate to the young singer, who will naturally want to try to tackle all the impressive dramatic pieces the more mature voice can handle. Attempts to sing such literature at written levels, especially German Lied, "will serve only to compound existing problems in the young voice, and to produce new ones" (176-177)

Miller insists on discerning what the proper dynamic levels are for each voice type, but to be aware--and fair--to what the voice type really is; that is, don't treat a small voice as if it were a large one, or vice versa. Some teachers actually think there is no such thing as dramatic voices, and aside from Lieder or oratorio singers, everyone else is "pushing." In the young voice this is often not so much the case as "that they have not learned how to apply physical energy while remaining loose and free." Careful use of messa di voce exercises and wisely chosen literature are the most effective tools for developing dynamic control in the singing voice (177-181).