7. The Psycho-Physiological Approach

Man is a psycho-physiological being*8 endowed with the potential power to think, to speak, and to act. Correlated with his power to think is the ability to reflect through expressive movements, inner patterns of perception and feeling. In other words, what the individual thinks, or is led to think, results in certain body movements and actions. This might be termed the power of mind over body action. The advocates of several schools of singing follow this theory as the basis of their teaching.

Singing is a psycho-physiological-acoustical phenomenon, a result of the motor co-ordination of the dynamic processes of respiration, phonation, articulation, and resonation. What is conceived in the mind in terms of qual­ity, pitch, duration, and loudness is produced by the co-ordinated action of the dynamic processes. Judgment on how successful this co-ordination has been is dependent first on the "vocal ear" of the teacher, who must train the "vocal ear" of the student, so that he knows what to listen for.

A listener's judgment on how well an individual sings is dependent on what he hears, and how he reacts to this sympathetically. The average listen­er is not concerned with the mechanics of vocal production. What impresses him is whether what he hears pleases him and sounds effortless. His reaction to good singing should be that the singer is singing in a free and relaxed way.

Critical judgments on how well an individual sings are dependent on more than whether the singing is pleasant or unpleasant. Critical judgments should be based not only on a "good ear" for music, but also on a "good vocal ear". A "good ear11 is generally thought to be a talent with which we are born, and tests have been devised to determine an individuals talent or musi­cal aptitude. These tests involve pitch discrimination, musical memory, time values, loudness or intensity, rhythm patterns, and quality or timbre. A low score cannot be accepted as conclusive evidence that an individual does not have a "good ear" and is lacking in musical aptitude. The tests can, however, show a decided deficiency, particularly in pitch discrimination. It was Seashore's opinion that once an individual's pitch discrimination was aroused, there could be no further development in this ability.

Whereas a "good musical ear" is generally recognized as a natural gift, a "good vocal ear" is a development of this natural talent. It is dependent first on a knowledge and appreciation of what good singing is; second, on actual experience in singing, both in study and performance; and third, on a gift for analysis based on cause and result. The last requires not only a knowledge of the vocal mechanism, but also an appreciation of the problems involved to get it to function properly.

In order to make critical judgments, a teacher of singing must be able to distinguish between different qualities and their bases. He should be able to recognize and solve problems in diction, in range, in breath support, and in breath control.

A technique useful to the teacher in his critical analyses is "creative" listening. This approach is dependent on the ability of the teacher to re­create in his own vocal mechanism the same physical reactions set up by the performer in his singing. This is a form of empathy or imitation. If the teacher is successful in his imitation, it should help him get the "feel" of what the student is doing, correctly as well as incorrectly.

Once the teacher has analyzed, through deduction, what he considers to be the error in production, his work becomes a matter of induction. This involves the changing of one or more of the processes — resonation, arti­culation, registration, or respiration — to obtain a more desirable co-or­dination. It does not hold that an error in the production of one process upsets the correct or possibly correct production of the other processes.

The teacher must be constantly on the alert to know what the student is thinking, consciously or unconsciously, so that a correction can be made of any idea that is holding up the student's progress. For example, in the de­velopment of range, he maybe trying to keep the vowel sound from modifying, or the quality from changing, or the so-called placement of the tone from changing. He may expect perfection in the beginning, when he is learning a new way of singing, which takes time to establish. He may be trying to pre­vent what he thinks is nasality, when actually his natural quality is basically in "nasal" resonance. He may be too precise in his diction, thereby setting up too much constriction in the oral cavity. He maybe holding back his breath support because he believes that he is forcing his voice. He may be trying to keep every tone forward in one place in order to keep his throat relaxed.

It is necessary for a teacher not only to be aware of what a student is thinking, but also to guide him in his thinking. He must not overburden him with too much explanation on how the mechanism works, or try to accomplish too much atone time. The student is apt to become confused and end up with a case of vocal indigestion. The best illustration of this is the story of the student who, when asked what her former teacher thought of her voice, said: "He says I have vowel trouble, that my voice is consonated."

The teaching approach must be, for the most part, an indirect or mental approach through the use of the imagination. The reason for this is that the vocal mechanism is so complicated in its co-ordination, and so complex in its musculature, that a direct approach, except in rare cases, is impossible. The teacher needs to know, however, the physiological processes involved. This affords him a basis for analyzing errors in production, and a basis for working out ways and means of correcting these errors. This is the psycho-physiological approach.

For example, the problem of teaching a student to breathe deeply can be approached by having the student pant as after running, fast at first, taking in short breaths, and then panting slower, taking in longer breaths. This locates the process of deep breathing below the breastbone and above the waistline, where the greatest expansion of the thoracic or chest cage is possible.

The problem of how to support his singing tone can be approached by having the student place one hand on his mid-section and clear his throat, or call "hey." In either case there is a contraction of the abdominal muscles, establishing what is called the abdominal press, which decreases the size of the abdominal cavity. The result is a pressure flow of the breath, which is called breath support.

How to increase the range of the singing voice brings up the problem of registration, which is a part of phonation. The range of the singing voice divides itself naturally into a low, a middle, and a high register, which are the result of changes in vocal cord adjustment, in turn indicated by changes in resonance quality. The problem is to teach the student how to make the changes from one register to another, without the changes in quality being too obvious. Since the action of the vocal cords is below the level of con­sciousness, an acoustical approach must be made. An imitation of yodeling, the changing from the middle to the high voice, is an indirect approach. In changed male voices the use of falsetto, sung softly, reflecting undampened vocal cords, then changing to pharynx falsetto, reflecting dampened vocal cords, is another indirect approach. Humming n or ng with the mouth open in the high voice, and then changing to a vowel sound, preferably ay, oh, or ah, is another indirect approach to a change to the high voice mechanism.

The solution of the problem of how to teach a student to sing in his normal quality is dependent first on building up in the student's mind a conception of what normal quality sounds like. The hearing of models of good singing, including records of voices similar to that of the student; the singing of three contrasting qualities such as "the singer's in his nose" (nasality); "the singer's in the well" (muffled) and "the singer's in the bell" (normal) - these are indirect techniques. Calling "hey" in a loud voice to bring about a balanced co-ordination of the dynamic processes of respiration, phonation, articula­tion, and resonation, is another indirect approach to establishing normal quality.

The psycho-physiological approach to the development of the singing voice is a matter of training the vocal mechanism to respond to the dictates of the mind.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...