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iSo TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE |
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2. The ear governs phonation and resonance. Therefore voice training is accomplished largely by means of ear training. [Evetts 166]
3. Everybody cannot sing well. But the fault lies more often "in defective musical perception" than in the condition of the vocal organs. [Aikin 4; also Mackenzie 364, p. 50]
4. Intensity of breath and tone are not increased by muscular pressure. They are "automatically controlled through the sense of hearing." [Proschowsky 458]
5. "The ear, then, is the chief guide for singing just as the eye is for painting." [Witherspoon 677, p. 27]
Two historical references are also included. According to Stock, Gar-cia's way of training the voice wTas through the ear, so as to keep the mind entirely off the muscles. [586] Klingstedt's more recent historical study of be! canto methods reports that the old Italian masters worked largely through the ear to establish the four main techniques of open throat, forward tone, vocal support and singing on the breath. Ear training was always the first step in training the singing voice and vocal responses were always correctly governed by correct hearing concepts, "as in violin playing." [320, p. 17 and p. 45]
Methods of Ear Training
psychological approach
Tonal imagery a prime factor. Tonal imagery, also called auditory vis-ualizaiionj may be defined as the reproduction in memory or imagination of the likeness of an actual auditory sensory experience, together with accompanying feelings. It is the preconception or mental expectation of sounds not actually present to the outer sense of hearing. (W) A1 typical point of view is expressed by Fergusson, namely, that "a vocal tone is the physical reaction to a mental concept/* Therefore, the more nearly a singer can conceive a perfect tone, the more closely will he approach the perfect muscular coordinations which produce it. [178] Although they vary in form, the 78 statements in this category all support the basic idea that "vocal tone has its beginning in thought/* [Austin-Ball 31, p. 15] For instance, Mursell and Glenn believe that, in order to be considered adequate, a system of ear training must make "constant provision for developing musical imagery/* Seashore stresses the importance of "musical imagining" as an attribute of the musical mind, and declares that the performer (vocalist) must have in his mind a clear-cut image of tone quality before he produces a sound. [510, p. 161] Waters holds that the voice can- |
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