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What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body
How well do you know your body? Well, the here's how and what's what of your vocal instrument -- your entire body -- not just the larynx, are contained succinctly, clearly, and simply in this practical book. What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body gives singers, their teachers, and coaches a Body Mapping teaching readers how to embody anatomy and physiology to help them discover and correct their misconceptions about the way their bodies are built and the way they function. In doing so, it provides maps with detailed descriptions of the structures and movement used in breathing, phonation, resonance, articulation and gesture illuminated with numerous illustrations and supported by many exploratory exercises.
The three authors Malde, Allen, and Zeller are licensed Andover Educators teaching the exciting and beneficial What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body. Barbara Conable, who created the course and Andover Educators, provides an Introduction to the book, and author Malde provides How to Use this Book. As experienced voice teachers and licensed Andover Educators, the three authors offer a wealth of information in this book. Chapters Body Mapping, Kinesthesia and Inclusive Awareness, The Core of the Body and the Six Places of Balance, the Singer's Breath, Creating a Singing Sound, Resonating the Voice, Singing as Mapping the Structures of Articulation, and Physical Expression for Singers. The two appendix What To Do about Performance Anxiety, by Barbara Conable, and The Scientific Basis of Body Mapping, by T. Richard Nichols.
The three authors Malde, Allen, and Zeller are licensed Andover Educators teaching the exciting and beneficial What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body. Barbara Conable, who created the course and Andover Educators, provides an Introduction to the book, and author Malde provides How to Use this Book. As experienced voice teachers and licensed Andover Educators, the three authors offer a wealth of information in this book. Chapters Body Mapping, Kinesthesia and Inclusive Awareness, The Core of the Body and the Six Places of Balance, the Singer's Breath, Creating a Singing Sound, Resonating the Voice, Singing as Mapping the Structures of Articulation, and Physical Expression for Singers. The two appendix What To Do about Performance Anxiety, by Barbara Conable, and The Scientific Basis of Body Mapping, by T. Richard Nichols.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
218 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2008
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199 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 8, 2017
I had this book for some time before having the opportunity to read it. The concepts addressed were already familiar to me, but I'm always interested in learning more ways of helping students and therapy patients understand the information.
What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body, is organized around the concept of "body mapping" and "inclusive awareness". That is the ability of the singer to understand both anatomically and kinesthetically the true balances and movements of the body. In doing so, the authors postulate that the singer is better able to perceive an efficient and balanced position for voicing.
An interesting example I used just last week is the description of the way in which many people map themselves as having two jaws, rather than just one lower mandible. I hadn't thought about the way in which a person trying to open both a lower and a mythical "upper" jaw would result in neck and jaw thrusting, but there it was when I was looking for it. Rather than giving my typical cue regarding allowing the neck to remain long, I provided information about the concept of one jaw versus two and suggested he try again, incorporating that idea. The minute he organized himself physically in that way, his alignment was beautiful and the previous perceived strain was gone.
I was impressed with the accuracy of the information provided, having been disappointed more times than I can count by books claiming to teach singers the "real" physiology of singing. The one piece of the book I was disappointed with was the description of the vocal folds themselves, which they likened to a muscular system, but the actual vibratory properties of the vocal folds are mediated by the superficial lamina propria, which is much more complex than the surface "membrane" described. I reached out to the publisher about this, as I know that there are newer editions of this book. A representative emailed me back to point out a few new phrases. One included the following: "The lamina propria is a flexible layer of membrane that is between the conus elasticus
and the epithelium membranes". I still maintain that the lamina propria is not a membrane itself and this description is misleading in terms of its function in voicing.
Despite this flaw, I still have to give this book a high rating for overall accuracy and usefulness in terms of describing some of the ways in which students and patients are hampered by their mismapping of their bodies.
What Every Singer Needs to Know About the Body, is organized around the concept of "body mapping" and "inclusive awareness". That is the ability of the singer to understand both anatomically and kinesthetically the true balances and movements of the body. In doing so, the authors postulate that the singer is better able to perceive an efficient and balanced position for voicing.
An interesting example I used just last week is the description of the way in which many people map themselves as having two jaws, rather than just one lower mandible. I hadn't thought about the way in which a person trying to open both a lower and a mythical "upper" jaw would result in neck and jaw thrusting, but there it was when I was looking for it. Rather than giving my typical cue regarding allowing the neck to remain long, I provided information about the concept of one jaw versus two and suggested he try again, incorporating that idea. The minute he organized himself physically in that way, his alignment was beautiful and the previous perceived strain was gone.
I was impressed with the accuracy of the information provided, having been disappointed more times than I can count by books claiming to teach singers the "real" physiology of singing. The one piece of the book I was disappointed with was the description of the vocal folds themselves, which they likened to a muscular system, but the actual vibratory properties of the vocal folds are mediated by the superficial lamina propria, which is much more complex than the surface "membrane" described. I reached out to the publisher about this, as I know that there are newer editions of this book. A representative emailed me back to point out a few new phrases. One included the following: "The lamina propria is a flexible layer of membrane that is between the conus elasticus
and the epithelium membranes". I still maintain that the lamina propria is not a membrane itself and this description is misleading in terms of its function in voicing.
Despite this flaw, I still have to give this book a high rating for overall accuracy and usefulness in terms of describing some of the ways in which students and patients are hampered by their mismapping of their bodies.
March 19, 2009
Should be required reading for all voice teachers.
March 15, 2018
Useful information and exercises, more detailed anatomy of the vocal cords and surrounding structures than I'd seen before
June 1, 2021
Some murky/outdated terminology in the section on registration, but overall an amazing resource.
July 25, 2010
Great book! Every singer should read this.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews