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.”