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3o |
TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE |
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According to Mursell and Glenn, 'Voice building, or better, voice discovery, should not aim at mechanical precision, but flexible control dictated by musical conceptions." [413, p. 299] Singing more directly engages those psychological functions upon which our perception of musical experience depends than is true of any artificial instrument. [Mursell 411, p. 224] "It is not a certain muscular activity that produces a certain tone, ... it is a certain mental conception of a tone that produces a certain muscular activity." [Smith 567; Sacerdote 481] This is especially true of the perception and control of musical pitch. [Dunkley 151, Preface] (See also Chapters III and V.) Opinions in this area are summarized in the following representative statements:
1. The consideration of musical talent is a primary psychological factor in voice culture. [Shaw 541]
2. Mental discipline is "a vitally important element in training the voice." [Wilcox 666]
3. The best and most successful teachers train the mind rather than the voice; the ear rather than the physical mechanism. [Hill 272, p. 54]
4. Voice production is a neuromuscular response that is psychologically controlled. [Gescheidt 200, p. 38]
5. "Voices are under orders from headquarters—the human brain." [McLean 386]
6. ""Thought is the only power by which to control a vocal organ. ... What follows should be devoid of all bodily sensation." [Ibid.]
7. The voice does not tire if simply asked to follow the mind. What is called voice-fatigue is really voice-rebellion. Great singers may become exhausted mentally, but never voice-tired. [Hill 272, p. 52]
8. "Singing is as much a matter of psychology as of tone." Lawrence Tibbett [614]
9. "Voice belongs to mind." [Lawrence 335, p. 3]
10. Vocal controls are all mental, not physical. [Henderson 240, p. 79; Earhart 152, p. 8]
11. We can sing as beautiful a tone as we can think. [Nicoll and Dennis 426, p. 8]
12. Sustaining a tone is the result of audibly sustaining the thought underlying it. [Davies 127, p. 129]
13. "The mind sings, not the voice." [Kirkpatrick 317]
14. The brain, the heart the whole body sings, projecting tones which the singer's mind first conceives. fFrieda Hempel 239; La Forest 326, p. 179] |
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