15. Notes on Educational Psychology

Teaching and Learning4

The teaching of singing calls for a combination of theoretical analyses on the part of the teacher of how it should be done, and of directing the stu­dent in actual practice48 How successful the teacher will be in his analyses will be dependent upon his own actual experience in singing, correlated with basic significant facts on how the vocal mechanism works. It is hardly to be expected that he will be able to teach breathing for singing unless he is reasonably efficient in his own breathing techniques; or to teach range de­velopment unless he has been able to solve his own range problems; or to teach students the quality to sing, the diction to use, how to sing loudly and softly, and how to keep the voice in good condition, without actual personal experience in solving these problems. His ability as a teacher will be de­pendent on his ability to utilize what he has learned through past experience.

There will be exceptions to the above rule — teachers who will be suc­cessful with a limited background of experience and knowledge. This can be explained in part by the quality of the vocal material they have to teach. Many students are naturals, and respond to comparatively little teaching.

It is entirely possible that a teacher in his career as a singer may have had a limited number of personal problems to solve. In that case he will be meeting many problems first-hand without the benefit of past experiences. To make up for this deficiency he should take a comprehensive course in the teaching of singing, where a multitude of actual problems can be pre­sented by a great variety of student cases. Along with the other members of the class he should be required to take part in various procedures which illustrate different problems and how to solve them. In a comparatively short time he will have learned the answers to many problems which other­wise might have taken him months or years to solve.

As an alternative to participation in a class in the teaching of singing, the teacher is dependent upon his ability to listen creatively (see Chapter VII on psycho-physiological approach) and to solve problems not covered by his past experience as a singer or as a teacher. His ability to find answers to these problems will be dependent upon his insight into how the vocal mech­anism works. He should also have a reasonable ability to demonstrate what is correct or incorrect.

Although a teacher of singing should be able to demonstrate the correct solution of a problem, this is not always possible. This is particularly true of women teaching male singers with changed voices how to sing in the high voice mechanism. Many women teachers of singing state that they do not know how to teach men how to sing in the high voice, particularly the approach throughthe falsetto quality. There is in female voices no quality comparable to falsetto, which can be used for demonstration purposes, to afford at least a better understanding of how to change from the falsetto quality to what sounds like a continuation of the lower and middle voice qualities.

Teachers of singing should know not only what to teach to reach the goals,49 but also be able to recognize the quality of a good performance. This is not too difficult to judge in many respects. Good quality, clear diction, ease of production, convincing interpretative power, good breath control, fine music­ianship — these qualities are usually quite obvious. In order to understand what is going on technically, a teacher must literally be able to "see with his ears."   This involves knowing how the vocal mechanism works.

Guidance 50

The first principle of guidance is to make certain that a student has a clear understanding of the goals or objectives to be reached. The most im­portant goal in the study of singing is normal resonance quality. The whole dynamic process of correct vocal production is dependent on this quality; in other words, clear diction, agility, dynamic control, range development, breath support and control, interpretation and good vocal condition, are all dependent upon normal resonance quality. The ultimate goal is the vocal ability to sing the song literature for one's particular type of voice, musically and interpretatively.

Learning how to sing maybe said to be a modification of behavior through experiences in singing. The progress of a student in learning how to sing will be dependent upon how the teacher is able to direct him into meaningful experiences as a basis for learning. If left to himself the student seeks im­mediate progress, and usually tries the first method he stumbles on. Learn­ing how to sing correctly, however, is not just a matter of learning quickly. It involves co-ordinating and integrating the processes of respiration, phona-tion, articulation, and resonation into a particular pattern of vocal product­ion, all of which takes time. It is, in the final analysis, a matter of learning the act of singing as a whole, in contrast to learning to perfect each process through the use of limited exercises. It is possible, however, to establish deep breathing by the part method; to establish range techniques by vocalizing particular exercises; to establish an even scale of quality through nonsense syllables. Overemphasis however on any one process may upset a balanced co-ordination, and prevent getting the feel of singing as a whole process.

In his first lessons the student should be encouraged to explain his reas­ons for studying singing, and what he thinks his problems are. It is not ad­visable to tell him that he will have to begin over again, but rather to ex­plain that past experiences afford a basis for future progress. With this in mind, he should be trained to recognize his errors and successes, so that eventually he may be able to solve his own problems. Positive instruction is more effective than calling attention to his errors. Repeated failures dis­courage the learner and kill his interest. Success on the other hand estab­lishes a more favorable attitude toward learning. This can be brought about by the choice of the right song literature to fit the student's stage of develop­ment and his interest.

The fact that a student cannot hear himself as others hear him and there­fore cannot judge his singing objectively, makes it necessary for him to be guided by a teacher who is qualified to help him solve his vocal problems.

Too much guidance however cuts down on the student's personal responsi­bility and on his initiative.

Problem Solving8'

A problem in singing is a difficulty which prevents a student from reach­ing a definite goal. Tricks and inspiration may solve problems for the mo­ment, but they are not dependable techniques. Needless to say, the average student is not qualified by experience or by a basic knowledge of how the vocal mechanism works to solve his own problems. As stated before, he must depend upon a teacher to help, since he cannot judge his own singing objectively.

In the process of learning how to sing, a student should be taught how to solve new problems through their relationship to problems already solved. By relationship is meant the degree of resemblance of problems in different situations. For example, in the development of the high voice range in male changed voices, it is advisable to establish the covering or closing process through the practice of vocalization. The next step is to find high range patterns in songs that are similar to the vocalizing patterns, and apply what has been learned in the one to solving problems in the other. This is called transfer of training. How successful the student will be will depend upon his ability to utilize what he has already experienced.

Transfer of training is usually not automatic. It is dependent upon a deliberate attempt to solve new problems through past experience. There are occasions when the solution to a problem occurs automatically, without an understanding of how it happened. This is true of many problems in range development.

The thinking process of reorganizing and combining past experiences and significant facts and information in new ways to solve problems is called reasoning. It is characterized by understanding or insight, which enables the teacher or the student or both to understand or see into causes and re­sults.

Trial and Error54

Trial and error methods are necessary in almost every phase of train­ing the singing voice. After each trial, or series of trials, an appraisal should be made of the success of the response in relation to the goal. This process has been termed learning by "approximation and correction,"55 until a successful response has been established.

To establish an even scale of normal resonance quality may require only a limited number of trials. Usually it requires a great many to estab­lish an open tone or open vowel production as a basis for a flexible enuncia­tion of the vowel sounds. The tendency of most beginning students is to hold on to their speech habits and carry into their singing a combination of open and closed tone or vowel production. The ah vowel is usually sung open, the vowel sounds oh and oo are sung with the lips and mouth closed, muffling the sound, and the vowel sounds ee and ay, also with lips and mouth closed, tend to be nasal. What has been established through speech habits can only be corrected by establishing new habits in singing by repeated trials.

The development of the high voice range in male changed voices usually calls for many trials and corrections. The problem is to teach students how to establish and maintain a particular adjustment of the vocal cords called the high voice mechanism. This can be accomplished by holding on to the basic vowel tension in normal resonance quality, and making a change in resonance placement more to the mouth in the high voice. This brings about a change in the quality, in the vowel sound, or in the feeling or sensation of placement. The average student is usually reluctant to accept any one of these changes as being correct, since he believes that any changes that are so obvious to him will be particularly noticeable to the listeners.

The teacher now has an added problem of convincing the student that this is the correct approach, and that what is so obvious to him is not ob­vious to others. This usually can be proved by making a tape recording of the student's voice, which will show, if the transition is reasonably good, that the covering or closing process is very difficult to hear. This is also true when listening to records of outstanding male artists. The changes to the high voice mechanism are there, but difficult to hear unless the listener knows what to listen for.

Vocalization may be considered as a trial and error method to establish agility, loud and soft singing, deep breathing, breath support, and breath control.

Imagery56

Vocal imagery may be defined as an indirect approach through the imag­ination to a physiological or an acoustical result. Through its indirectness it tends to eliminate conscious action, and to co-ordinate the physical fac­tors involved. Its use should be based upon an understanding of the physio­logical and acoustical principles involved.

The use of panting as after running, sniffing the imaginery fragrance of a beautiful flower, sighing deeply and then inhaling deeply, are examples of imagery to establish deep breathing below the breastbone and above the waist line. This is where the greatest expansion of the chest cage or thoracic cavity is possible, and therefore the place to establish deep breathing.

Clearing the throat, grunting, crying, squealing, and calling "hey" are examples of imagery to establish indirectly the abdominal press — contrac­tion of the high abdominal musculature — as a basis of breath support.

Suggestions to put the tone forward to the teeth, to the tip of the nose, and to the back of the eyes - these are examples of imagery to establish forward-in-the-masque resonance, "nasal" resonance, or normal resonance quality, which make possible an open and a flexible throat (pharyngeal) po­sition and flexibility of the articulators.

Habit 57

Part of the process of teaching singing is to replace bad habits in vocal production with correct habits. This is a matter of repeating consciously controlled actions until they become patterned and conditioned into uncon­scious actions. Whereas bad habits are usually so definitely established that they seem to be correct naturally, correct habits under voluntary con­trol seem unnatural and incorrect until they are involuntary.

Techniques of deep breathing, breath support, and breath control should ultimately become unconscious or involuntary actions, as well as techniques of normal resonance quality, pharyngeal vowel production and registration. This makes it possible for a singer to devote himself entirely to the inter­pretation of the song material.
Even after a student has established a high degree of involuntary and un­conscious control, something may go wrong with his singing technique. It will then be necessary for him to change to a conscious or voluntary control to correct what is wrong. Since it is difficult for him to analyze what he cannot hear as others hear him, it is preferable to have a teacher who is qualified to listen to his singing objectively and diagnose his difficulty.

Imitation58

The fact that all individuals — male and female, child, adolescent, and adult — are from a vocal standpoint essentially all the same in part, unless defective, and tend to function vocally in the same way, makes imitation a part of the learning process in singing. How well individuals will sing with­out any formal training, assuming that they are possessed of average vocal talent, will depend upon their singing environment — at home, at school, and at church. A good singing environment will be reflected through imita­tion in good singing; a poor singing environment, in poor singing.

The error in imitation is in imitating results instead of causes; that is, a singer should imitate not the tone but how the tone is produced. He should sound like himself instead of an imitation of someone else. Although singers should have basically the same technique, they should have their own identity in normal resonance quality.

Practice59

The length of time that students should practice is dependent upon what they are trying to accomplish and upon their individual differences in age, learning and experience. In the beginning, practice should be limited until a clear idea is established in the student's mind of a definite goal or object­ive to be reached. Otherwise new errors in production may be established and old ones reinforced.

Daily or twice daily practice for short periods of time is preferable to long periods. Practice periods should be spaced so that a student does not overdo or lose interest. It is possible to practice softly at different times, or to practice mentally, imagining that one is actually singing.

What a student should practice should be set up by the teacher in the singing lessons. One of the practice tools used by many teachers is vocal­ization — exercising the singing voice on the vowel sounds. The exercises used should be reasonably easy, based primarily on scales, arpeggios, and chords, so that a student can learn to vocalize by himself. Many students, however, with no background in piano, find it difficult to accompany them­selves even in simple exercises. In such cases a student should work with an accompanist, or make use of practice aid records which have accompani­ments for vocalization and song study.

It is hardly to be expected that practice will perfect a student's singing, but it will go a long way towards establishing his singing technique if intelli­gently used.

Memorization 60

Memorization is a mental process involving the ability to retain and re­call song material that has been previously learned. This ability varies with individuals - some are quick studies; that is, they memorize easily. Some are said to have photographic memories; that is, they can look at a page of music and remember it. The average person is dependent on a process of overlearning through repetition, as a basis for recall.

The more meaningful the song material is to a student the easier he will memorize it. To be meaningful the song material should be the type of lit­erature that he enjoys singing, or which will reward him, if he sings it well, in a scholastic, a monetary, or a social way.

How long the student will be able to retain the material he has memorized will depend also on his understanding of the song material. This involves knowing the underlying mood or interpretative idea in a song, and in the case of foreign texts, the exact meaning of the words. In the case of a singing part or role, a thorough understanding of the character he has to portray in relation to other characters will aid in retention. Memorization without understanding shortens the time of retention and recall.

Memory

The ability of a student to remember what he has been taught technically will depend on how well he understands what he has been taught. What he understands he will retain longer. In contrast to this is learning without understanding, called rote learning. This type of learning is difficult to re­tain.

Whatever helps a student organize and integrate his knowledge of how to sing will eventually aid him in solving his own problems.

Emotion61

Emotion in singing may be defined as a state of mind used by a singer to emphasize the emotional content of a song. Among the more common emotions which a good interpreter can project in his singing are love, joy, happiness, fear, grief, and anger, all of which can be enhanced by facial and bodily expression.

It is always a question whether a singer should actually feel the emotion he is trying to portray in the interpretation of song material. The fact is that a singer must maintain control of his vocal production. In so doing he must simulate the emotion rather than give way to it completely. In other words he must keep his emotions from running away with his voice.

Effective emotional singing is dependent on the artistry of the singer, and artistry would seem to be an inborn talent which flowers with experience.

Terminology 62

By vocal terminology is meant the special words used in the teaching of singing. Although an acceptable book on terminology has been published, there is still considerable confusion as to the use of many terms. This is partly due to the difficulty of expressing in words the scheme or organiza­tion of the act of singing. In addition, many young teachers have not verbal­ized their way of singing as it was acquired, and most students have no under­standing of the teaching terminology.

The teacher has the problem of telling the student what is good or bad about his singing in such a way that the student will understand what he, the teacher, is talking about. This leads to the use of many terms that are high­ly psychological and misleading.

For example, nasal resonance is one of the accepted terms for describ­ing the basic quality that should be sung to get the best results. Yet "nasal" resonance is not actually nasal as compared with nasality, where the breath passes through the nose. Both Bartholomew1' and Russell2'claim that in good singing there is no resonance above the level of the mouth, except on the nasals. The term "nasal" resonance maybe said to describe what is only an illusion of being nasal.

Head voice and chest voice are also psychological terms used to describe particular vocal qualities, which are thought by many teachers and students to be the result of head resonance and chest resonance. Actually the head and chest are not true resonators but sympathetic resonators, and the vib­rations which are felt in the head and chest are not resonance but the result of bone conduction of sound from the vocal cords. What is thought to be actual resonance is in reality only an illusion of resonance.

Another term used in the teaching of singing is relaxation, which is usually thought of as a condition of complete muscle inaction. Actually re­laxation is a relative condition which is neither too tight nor too loose, and which is described as tonus, a condition of partial contraction which is al­ways maintained. When the dynamic processes involved in vocal production are properly co-ordinated there is an illusion created which is interpreted as relaxation. Actually this illusion is a condition of flexibility or freedom from too much tension. There are occasions when the suggestion to relax may eliminate conflicting tensions, or loosen up performers who are "tied up in knots."

Generally speaking, relaxation is a misleading term, as is much of the terminology used in singing based on illusion, unless the true basis of the terms used are understood.

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