The Vocal Athlete, Third Edition

by Wendy D. LeBorgne, Marci Daniels Rosenberg

The Vocal Athlete and the companion book The Vocal Application and Technique for the Hybrid Singer are written and designed to bridge the gap between the art of contemporary commercial music (CCM) singing and the science behind voice production in this ever-growing popular vocal style. This book is a must have for the speech pathologist, singing voice specialist, and vocal pedagogue. Heavily referenced, this text is ripe with current research on singing science as it relates to the CCM voice. In addition to general singing science, The Vocal Athlete is the first book of its kind to address the unique vocal and physiologic demands of commercial singing from a sound scientific and pedagogical standpoint. Historical review of classical vocal pedagogy is interwoven and transitioned to current pedagogy of CCM. Anyone who trains singers will gain insight into the current research and trends regarding the commercial music artist. Specifically, promotion and maintenance vocal wellness unique to the high demands of the CCM artist are provided for career longevity. Readers are provided additional resources on the multidisciplinary roles relative to managing vocal injury for this high risk group of singers. The Vocal Athlete distinguishes itself from other pedagogy texts by incorporating current peer reviewed literature in the area of CCM and its studio application. Also unique to this text are chapters on body alignment, traditional and holistic medicine, the lifecycle of the voice, and the physiology of belting. The companion book The Vocal Application and Technique for the Hybrid Singer is a practical array of vocal exercises and techniques described by experienced CCM vocal pedagogues. This book comes with a CD of the singing exercises to further enhance understanding of techniques and skills used in training these singers. These books are invaluable tools for anyone who uses or trains the singing voice.

Genres: Music, Teaching

528 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2014

Reviews

[Emajekral · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desperately in need of a detailed edit. The information is useful overall, but the history and physiology sections in section one suffers from excursions into pseudoscience (chapter 2) and the author seemingly being out of her depth in the mathematics of resonance and vocal acoustics (chapter 5).

Many interesting things in section 2, especially chapters 8 through 10 on vocal health and lifespan.

I wish there were more of the practical advice for instructors that appears in the concluding chapters.

The references and additional reading suggestions in each section are probably the best part, though sadly I will have to return my copy and have no desire to reproduce the lists.

(To do: actually get scoped to see if I am developing nodules, buy a TC Helicon or similar for my home live stream music studio, implement random varied exercises as part of home and lesson practice)

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and comprehensive look at the mechanics of voice and implications for both habilitation and rehabilitation and management of medical and practical use of voice. It is what it advertises and relevant to both voice teachers and voice specialist SLPs. Ultimately I’d hoped to learn more new information from it but there was some good information I didn’t already know and most of the review was welcome. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to increase their knowledge of the vocal mechanism and how to care for it across life cycles and events. There are some dense scientific chapters but this book is organized such that if there is a topic that isn’t your interest, you can mostly skip it without worrying that you will be missing necessary information for understanding other chapters.

[Matthew Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

An encyclopedic reference book of exercises for specific trouble areas.

The most useful part to me at the moment is Naz Edwards's "Acting Through Song: Discovering Connections to Express Ourselves Clearly as Artists." Despite sounding obvious and high-level, having a process to go through for connecting to the lyrics is a useful practice to go through. If nothing else, it forces you to walk through the lyrics repeatedly.