Choosing Attention

Choosing Attention

Triumvirate of Attention, Memory, and Learning at the top of cognitive function.

Search for Memory

• Tasks we do/think of create response in the synapses, eventually creating links between neurons called "Neural trace"
• We don't know how the brain creates memories

Eric Kandel (Nobel Prize in 2000 for biological basis of memory)

• Learning is dependent on memory
• Science over memory spans multiple eras, which have resulted in multiple paradigm shifts regarding perception of memory science - ZEITGEIST

Short-term and Long-term memory are distinct and separate. 

• Short-term: biochemical changes in brain
• Long-term: Increases number of synapse connections

Kandel's work chronologically paralleled discoveries in:

• Neurogenesis (birth of new brain cells)
• Neuroplasticity (physiological change of brain as a result of experience, learning)

Attention exists as a process throughout the entire brain.

• Altering network - Pay attention!
• Orienting network - allows us to respond quickly without conscious effort 
• Executive attention - selects where to designate brain power

Sleep processes:

• synaptic pruning - weak synapses fade away, leaving strong ones only
• dreaming reinforces daytime short-term memory

Exercise processes:

• Increases size of hippocampus (memory-creating region of brain)
• ART (Attention Restoration Theory) suggests walking in nature is best to refresh attention.

Chiaroscuro - Optimal Resonance

Chiaroscuro and the Quest for the Optimal Resonance (turn volume all the way up...Logan's laptop cam wasn't working)

This was a pretty interesting article, as it references concepts we’ve been learning about during the term, and applies them to different techniques for finding the optimal resonance aka “chiaroscuro” or “bright-dark”. The term was coined by Italian voice teachers Mancini and Lamperti, where this “chiaroscuro” is the optimal resonance as a balance between light and dark timbres. This is a difficult task for voice teachers as perceptions for light and dark timbres and resonance differ from student to student, and each student’s voice is different. However, one relatively constant variable to “chiaroscuro” is the variable of fundamental frequency.

During balanced phonation, the vocal folds vibrate at a fundamental frequency that produces overtones (both light and dark). At this fundamental frequency measured in Hz, sound is at its loudest resonance. The tones produced at these frequencies are often on one side or the other on the scale of light and dark. A bright tone (which can be nice) often times dampens lower frequencies and darker qualities. The same can be said with a dark tone where brighter qualities are dampened and the sound loses a certain quality. When the tone is in the middle where both bright and dark tones and qualities are balanced, the phonated sound is the most resonant and balanced. The sound naturally becomes richer, fuller color, stronger, etc.

One way students search for “chiaroscuro” is by using “placement” terminology. The sound sounds to the singer as very resonant and intense because the articulators and resonators act as a vibrator for the sound and vibrate the singers’ head. The singer can “feel” the sound in their head and seems very intense. Of course, the way phonation and resonation occurs is what we’ve been studying all term i.e. breath, articulators, registration, etc.  but all this changes at different frequencies. For example, the embouchure changes when a singer sings a C5 and a C6. The resonators and the articulators need to change and readjust to achieve chiaroscuro.

There are a few new ways teachers are teaching/ visualizing chiaroscuro to students. One way is a very visual way where teachers use spectrographic technology to show resonant sound waves so students can test different resonances and have a visual cue to what “sound” is chiaroscuro. Another way is more aural. Teachers can have students sing the extremes of a dark tone and a bright tone, hear what the extremes sound like, and find a middle point where there is a balance between the two extremes. A third way (a really unusual way) is to physically move your articulators i.e. your jaw and “tune your mouth” until you can match pitch. Lastly, the final technique is “scurochiaro” which is “dark-bright” where instead of adjusting resonance from bright tones to dark, it is adjusting from dark to bright.

These methods are not a %100 guarantee to achieve “chiaroscuro” but they are possibilities and tools for teachers to help students find their balance. “Chiaroscuro” is a goal and these techniques are possible tools to achieve that goal of optimal resonance.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRN9KrzGcGs

Vocal Pedagogy for Aging Singers

Article Summary: “Vocal Pedagogy for Aging Singers”

Baritone, performer, and teacher Robert Edwin’s Article in the 68^th Volume of the Journal of Singing focused on pedagogy for older singers. Traditionally when one thinks of vocal student the age demographic does not extend past the age of forty (generously). Edwin’s article uses both examples from his own experiences but he goes in to the most detail by using his student Henry, a ninety year old currently performing singer, as a prime example.

Now, imagine the voice of a ninety year old baritone, what comes to mind probably sounds strained, or some failed legato line with a wide and sagging vibrato. However, more and more evidence is showing that singers may continue to sing, classically at least, well past their seventies; as we have seen with Placido Domingo.

Teaching older students may not be as different as we first anticipated either. Edwin states that “All singers need to continually address individual aspects of the singing system, the ‘itions’ . . . position, respiration, audiation, phonation, resonation, articulation, and emotion.” However there is one added for older singers and that is “expectation.”

Our bodies are our instruments and as the body ages, its ability to function at optimum efficiency changes. Aging affects accuracy, speed, endurance, stability, strength, coordination, breathing capacity, nerve and heart output—all of which effect one’s ability to sing. Edwin then goes through and explains his “itions” as they relate to aging singers.

Position & Respiration: Edwin uses extra physical reinforcement, lifting the arms above one’s head to open the ribcage. However he does not address the issue of posture as it pertains to wakening of the spine as some students of an older age may be unable to stand with good posture. Respiration is affected by breathing, both of which are made easier by healthy physical condition. Edwin claims that age is no excuse for inactivity. More so than younger singers, muscle tone will be limiting factor in how well older singers can perform.

Audiation & Phonation: Singers of all ages have audiation problems, it is good to change warm up patterns and not merely ascend by half steps in a predictable fashion in order to keep singers on their toes. The source of most pitch problems has more to do with vocal fold function that senses of aural feedback. As for phonation the question with older singers is how many of their phonations challenges are caused by deteriorating vocal fold function and how many are due to inconsistent practicing habits. Vibrato can widen from lack of practice which can be noticeable after 48 hours without practicing at any age!

Resonation: Resonators will only amplify sound the sound it receives. As is practiced with younger singers, try to get your older student to experiment with varying spaces like “wicked witch” vs. “Julia child”

Articulation: Older singers with dentures run in to similar problems with articulation as younger singers with braces. This problem can be alleviated by incorporating consonants into vocal warm ups to exercise the tongue, lips, jaw etc.

Emotion: The one area where older singers seem to have an inherent advantage with their wealth of life experiences.

Expectation: Students of the more seasoned by time must learn to adjust their expectations. They face many of the same challenges younger singers face, but they are moving away from their vocal peak, while younger singers are approaching it. For older singer the goal is to retain positive habits despite the challenges of aging; many younger singers, look forward to reaching vocal maturity as up to a point it yields their maximum potential.

To quote Angela Carlson, “everyone is old once, if you’re lucky you will get old too!”

Vocal Science and Vocal Art

The purpose of this article is to elaborate on the influence of science in vocal pedagogy and the mission to find a common ground between the two areas. The author Lynn Helding examines the somewhat large separation between the scientists’ extremely technical and data loaded presentations of the voice and those of musicians. Helding believes in the importance of finding a balance of physiology and musicality.                                                                                                                   

Voice scientists are no longer exclusively scientists who are untrained in singing and voice teachers are now more able, due to the accessibility of information, to competently understand both the scientific aspects of singing and how to communicate this information to students. Helding says that the “key to establishing a solid understanding between science and art is the recognition that the aspirations and goals of scientists, as compared to singing artists and the people who teach them, are fundamentally different,” but she focuses on the importance finding an understanding of both areas.                                                                                                                                                                        Vocal pedagogue Garyth Nair believes that pedagogues need to take advantage of the gains made in the voice research realm during the last 20 years. Odds are that a teacher’s self-improvement in science or any aspect of learning, ultimately benefits the student as well as the teacher. Some argue that science does not hold a valuable place in vocal pedagogy saying singing is only 20% physical and the rest relies on psychological control; however, Lynn argues that in the current voice pedagogy literature, science has much more to offer.

The Roots of American Pedagogy

This article is a review and summary of the teachings of Frederic Woodman Root (1846-1926), a well-known vocal pedagogue of his time and author of 18 books on vocal pedagogy. Singer and voice teacher David Grogan authored the article and provides musical examples and excerpts from some of Root’s books.

            Grogan gives a general overview of Root’s methods for teaching voice. Root begins with basic musicianship (learning the names of notes, keys, learning rhythms, etc.). He said he found no point in studying the voice if basic musicianship skills were not in place. Then Root emphasizes “The General Principle,” his slogan of choice in dealing with the coordination of singing. The General Principle states that in order to produce a good sound, the singer must combine the three basic elements of singing; breath control, tone quality, and free and natural action of the articulators. In the simultaneous combination of these elements, good singing occurs.

            The rest of the article goes into specifics about how Root would teach his students about breath control, vowels, registers, and so on. One interesting point from these sections is Root’s thought on vowel forms. Root taught that [i] [a] and [u] were gateways to understanding three different tone qualities: bright, radical, and sombre. Grogan provides singing exercises from Root’s books and explains how Root would have used them to help the singer.

Grogan concludes that although Root is nothing magical or new to vocal pedagogy, he is clear and succinct and that “vague generalizations (about vocal pedagogy) become clear instructions in Root’s books.”

   

Vibrato vs. Nonvibrato: The Solo Singer in the Collegiate Choral Ensemble

By Margaret Olson

This article addresses the biggest common misconception about singing in a collegiate choir: “straight tone”. There are many benefits to being a part of a collegiate choir for people pursuing solo voice, for instance, the voice major learns more about major composers and historical context as well as different musical styles. They have a better understanding of how to work with a conductor which can easily carry over into opera, oratorio, and other solo singing.

The biggest misconception when a classical voice major joins a choir is that they will need to sing without vibrato, or “straight tone”. This is just not true. While yes, it is important to learn to control ones vibrato to an extent, it is extremely unhealthy and not beneficial to completely eliminate it. The issue with vibrato in choral singing is not the vibrato itself, but the speed of the vibrato. Singers will need to learn to adjust their vibrato rate to compliment the musical style of choral singing, the other singers, and the preference of the conductor.

William Vennard explains the issue is people hearing two different pitches of the vibrato, neither of which is the desired pitch. This makes it difficult for multiple singers to match each other within a choir. When one singer's vibrato is going up, the others is going down, therefore they are not singing in unison.

The article then goes on to address how important it is for choral conductors and voice teachers to communicate. This is one of the only ways healthy vocal development can be assisted in both choir and private voice.

A kind of vibrato that many choral directors prefer is “stabilized vibrato”, where the pitch variation is limited to “a reasonable extent”. Also, an easy way to avoid situations in choral ensembles where singing with almost no vibrato is needed is to not sing the high voice parts such as tenor and soprano, these parts make vibrato seem more evident than the lower voice parts and singing in the middle tessitura also helps vocal development.

One of the reasons why some conductors try and justify vibratoless choir singing is that it is a “historical tradition” in the Renaissance and Baroque eras and sometimes in the 20^th century as well. Also, the venues that used to be used as performance halls (ie. Cathedrals) were unforgiving when it came to vibrato. However a straight tone can tire the voice much quicker than a free tone. It also is dangerous for young singers due to the unfinished development of the interarytenoid muscles and the still immature muscles that are crucial in the proper positioning of the larynx.

It is important to know your limitations as a young singer, especially when it comes to singing in a choir. Also, your voice teacher should always  be the main monitor of your technique, and if vibrato is lessening, it may be a sign that you are not singing correctly in choir. 

Learning Styles and the Voice Student

This article illustrates some of the different ways that students go through the learning process in relation to learning new music and suggestions for their teachers on how to help them along.

Swanson begins by describing three (fictitious) students in his private voice studio, each one with an amusing name that hints at their style of learning. The first student, Tsee En Luk, is clearly a visual learner, never going anywhere without a notebook and relying on diagrams and posters in order to understand what his teacher is trying to convey to him. The second student, Audra Torey, learns her repertoire by rote, taking advantage of her handy-dandy tape recorder. Unfortunately, this comes with a drawback in that if she hears a note wrong, she will remember the wrong note instead of the right one. The third student, Kenny Stetick, is fond of using his hands. He often uses hand gestures during his singing and is also proficient at the piano which he uses to play the accompaniments to his songs.

Clearly, these are somewhat exaggerated but they still point out the fact that every student has their own way of approaching a new piece. Some will dissect it on paper while others take it to the practice room.

Swanson goes on to extrapolate a little on methods of learning by referencing Dr. Anthony F. Gregorc’s Mind-Styles model. This model outlines four basic personality types found in adults. There’s concrete-sequential where the person hashes it out with whatever they’re working on in a sequential and step-by-step fashion. Abstract-sequential people will work on their problem with mental imagery and theories. Concrete-random people, like concrete-sequential people, focus on what’s in front of them but concrete-randoms work on whichever part they feel like working on with no necessary order. And finally, those with an abstract-random personality will work in their head and use their imagination but will be spontaneous about it.