The Head Voice and Other Problems Practical Talks on Singing

by David Alva Clippinger

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Music

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 2010

Reviews

[Celestarius · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gist of this book is kind of "forget science and just think your way to a good tone", which is an interesting contrast to the last voice book I read, How to Sing by Lilli Lehmann. This is a very appealing idea and one I think there IS a lot of truth to, but you also still have to know HOW to coordinate things to make the sounds you want to produce. Yes, it's mostly a mental process and the main goal is learning how to remove tension so the sound can be released freely... but there's still a huge gap between hearing the sound in your head and then replicating it.

There's also a bit of philosophizing about what makes art, which was interesting aside from a (thankfully brief) racist tangent essentially asserting that only Westerners are sophisticated enough to make true art and everyone else is just kind of banging around to make noises.

There are a few exercises included which I haven't tried yet. Overall, I found it an interesting critical take on vocal pedagogy circa 1917 and a good perspective to keep in mind, even if it's mostly not immediately practically useful.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clippinger's instruction is quite good, I think completely in line with everything I've learned. Plus he's kind of funny - particularly when expressing his disdain for "instructors" who don't know anything about singing :-)

[Christopher Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first became acquainted with this book after seeing the author quoted in a wiki article on head voice. Boy, was I glad I found this small book.

Mr Clippinger addresses a critical issue--one that I can identify with. That is, why do singers--especially low-voiced males, fail to attain head voice? I have noticed in choirs that most males have not developed the head voice. As my choir director agrees, that's one reason why there are so few tenors in many community choirs. However, this need not be the case, as the author points out.

Clippinger notes that males singing head voice is the #1 most difficult aspect of vocal training. In classical days, years were spent training the voice, but in modern times, we want a quick short cut--a huge mistake. The author emphasizes that this skill must be attained in a very slow, easy fashion--with absolutely no strain whatsoever. He provides several exercises to do just that.

I found this book to be very inspirational and helpful. I can personally vouch for the exercises that the author includes.

[Duckpondwithoutducks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unlike many other singing textbooks that focus on the technical and physiological aspects of singing, this author emphasizes the mental aspect - of hearing first in your head what you want and then producing that sound.

[David Cain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable and strangely useless exploration of the voice - beauty is truth so stop thinking.