Dear Wim Ritzerfeld and Vocalisters:
Thank you for the short review of Donald Miller's dissertation. I know he
has been active for many years in his research in the labs in the
Netherlands. I am anxious to read his dissertation myself.
All of his work supports the teaching methods devised by Berton Coffin who
stressed the need to match resonance with phonation produced sound. By
comparisons to Donald Miller's research Coffin's investigations are quite
fundamental. But Coffin, as a voice teacher who was also of a scientific
bent, was able to quickly intuit the effect proper tuning of vocal tract
would have on the resultant tone and ease of singing. His vowel charts
outline his concepts.
Each part of the outline you have given is similar to discussions I have had
with Coffin. Which phonated harmonic will be emphasized by the standing
waves in the vocal tract (Formants) becomes crucial to efficient singing
with good tone quality. And if one adds to this Titze's concept of the
"inertance" of the air and its acoustic/pneumatic load on the vocal folds
it becomes very obvious that the singer has great control over his
instrument.
In short, the first requirement of good singing is establishing an efficient
phonation and once that is achieved, the singer spends the rest of his/her
days discovering how the vocal tract can alter the phonated tone, both good
and bad. With proper vowel/resonance adjustments the effects of vocal fold
major adjustments (phonational registers) can be minimized or removed.
Regards
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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