Balancing voice science and art – Rethinking vocal pedagogy
Dr Gillyanne Kayes explores the new relationship between voice science and the art of vocal pedagogy in Part 6 of her Keynote speech for AOTOS
“We are called upon to have science-informed pedagogy. Now you may be surprised to hear some of the things I’m about to say, knowing my background. Once upon a time, even into the first decade of this century it seemed to be all about the scientific understanding of voice. THIS was the need to know. More and more layers continue to be added as scientific understanding of voice increases. And it can be scary and we can get overwhelmed.
But as this slide implies it’s not the whole story…
Let’s leave room for the unknown, for the undiscovered, for the magic, and really work as trainers, not walking away from the understanding of the cartilage and the muscle and the gristle, but making sure that we bring the other stuff in. If A&P is your bag, it’s my bag, we love it, it’s what we’re known for, remember, reverse engineer into the practical, into the practice. However nerdy we are, it is good to remember that knowing HOW is more important than knowing THAT. I think we feel under a lot of pressure, I must do this course, I must do that course, I must know that.
I set up a Round Table at PEVoC 2022 called, slightly challengingly, Voice Science – do we need it? Surprisingly, a group of hardline voice scientists and researcher pedagogues and teachers agreed to take part in the Round Table, They weren’t put off by the title at all. And an absolute key takehome from the scientists was that we pedagogues, teachers, leaders, need to understand the context and limitations of research findings.
Science does not give us ‘the truth’.
It can inform us and change our thinking, but even so, what’s needed is the knowing how. Otherwise it’s not going to serve us
And I must say I was very happy that there was also a call from all parties in the Round Table discussion for greater cross-fertilisation between the scientific and singing communities. And as Nathalie Henrich Bernardoni says: “We all must acknowledge the point of view, the experiences, and the language of others.” Because we know sometimes that scientific language actually, it kind of blinds us, we don’t understand what it means, and it stops us communicating.”
Gillyanne’s Further Reflections
I’m very pleased to say there’s a write-up of this Round Table which is co-authored with my colleague Dr Irene Barlett who was on the panel, and it’ll be in the Journal of Singing September-October edition. Again, do check it out because I think it’s very readable, and if you’re a little bit frightened about the voice science dialogue in relation to voice science-informed pedagogy, go and have a read.”
The title to search for in the Journal of Singing is Gillyanne Kayes; Irene Bartlett “Singing Voice Teaching and Voice Science – where is the meeting point?” Journal of Singing Vol, 81 n 1, Sept.?Oct. 2024; *forthcoming.
You can also watch the opening of my PEVoC Round Table on Voice Science – do we need it?
Do you think that voice science tells us the truth about singing? What limitations might voice science have?
In what ways do you integrate voice science and physiological knowledge into your practical teaching?
Do you think there is a difference between knowing “that” (the intellectual facts) and knowing “how” (the practical steps)?
Click here for part 5 of Gillyanne’s AOTOS Keynote – Different learning styles – supporting neurodiverse students in voice training
Click here for part 7 of Gillyanne’s AOTOS Keynote – Beyond the Master-Apprentice Model: Empowering teachers AND singers
Find out how our Teacher Accreditation programme can work for you
Or join the Vocal Process Learning Lounge with over 600 voice training resources, including Best Practice Update – a CPD-Accredited set of 39 short videos on the practical application of voice science on tone onsets/offsets, registers, pitch centres, comfort zones and resonance.
