Karen wrote:
> So I must say, I am very grateful to Teacher #1 for having spent so much > time informing me about these things - because I doubt I'd be making > nearly as much progress with Teacher #2 without this firm grounding.
I have some considerations about that:
1. Most teachers ( and that seems to be true worldwide, according to complaints and comments on this list ) are clueless about what exactly happens on the inside. Therefore, they may not be saying anything about that for the very obvious reason that they don't know what to say.
2. As has been said, singing teachers with successful methods have existed since a long time before vocal science appeared, so they shouldn't owe anything to it. However, isn't their rate of success due to natural selection of students? isn't it the same success 'shamans' had when they beat people to rid them of 'bad spirits'? Placebo effect cures, but effective medication cures at a higher rate.
3. Many teachers advocate using nasal vowels in order to reach for higher pitches, since they believe that sending air to the sinus cavities PRODUCE higher pitches and more overtones. According to what I've read in scientific books, and also here, mask resonance is only simpathetic: it doesn't produce higher pitches ( thus, the questioning of the placement concept by most of the scientifically informed teachers I've read- Lloyd and SLSers included ), but is a resonating consequence of them. Could we decide between two theories without knowing what does really happen on the inside?
4. An anecdote: one of my former teachers used to say that head voice was the result of sending air to the higher resonating cavities. At the same time, she used to say that we should lift our soft palate to open up resonating space for the sound, mostly for higher pitches. As I had already read a lot about singing ( thanks to this list ), I asked her: But how can I send air to the those cavities and, AT THE SAME TIME, block it? She had a mental block... and I never got the answer. Once again ( I've mentioned this cat before ), only Schroedenger's cat would be able to follow her instructions!
bye,
Caio Rossi
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