Archive for November, 2009
A review of Dr Scott McCoy’s recent Melbourne Masterclass by Jenny Caire
‘An Inside View’ Dr Scott McCoy
Melbourne Girls’ Grammar Sunday 25 October 2009
Scott McCoy is Professor of Voice and Pedagogy, Director of the Presser Music Center Voice
Laboratory, and Director of Graduate Studies at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.
He is the current President of NATS, ANATS’ counterpart in the United States. Dr McCoy’s
multimedia voice science and pedagogy textbook, Your Voice: An Inside View, is used
extensively by universities and colleges in the United States.
This workshop provided a wonderful opportunity to catch up with other ANATS
members, particularly those who had come from interstate – Marilyn Smith from
Tasmania, Rowena Cowley our new National President from NSW and Liz
Pascoe from WA. This workshop was well attended – almost 40 participants and
the venue was excellent
Dr Scott McCoy proved to be an engaging speaker with an appealing sense of
humour. Early in the day he convincingly asserted that the uvula is responsible
for vibrato, thus demonstrating that a so-called ‘expert’ can spout incorrect
information that is likely to be believed by listeners! (We, of course, all knew the
statement to be false … didn’t we!)
Dr McCoy’s first 2 hour session, ‘Establishing a Fact-Based Pedagogy’ discussed
the important contribution of both Art & Science in Voice Teaching – they are not
incompatible, as each informs and complements the other. I did feel, however,
that he could have made his point in much less time without a detailed excursion
into car mechanics. (Full points, though to our Vice-President Carole who was
correctly able to identify a piston -maybe she moonlights as a mechanic…)
Dr McCoy encouraged us not to abandon time honoured methods such as
metaphor/imagery and to have a foundation of reality to undergird what we do
with our students. He emphasised the importance of talking to students in a
language they can individually relate to, while remaining grounded in reality.
Discussion on learning and skills acquisition identified analytic vs kinaesthetic
learners and the importance of tailoring our instructions to the needs of our
students. Dr McCoy made the point that 2 – 4 repetitions of an exercise at
different pitch levels is more effective than many repetitions of the same exercise
at different pitches. The process of mastering a skill is more successful when the
tasks are varied and students learn more when they are ‘told’ less. It is good to
be reminded of this – as teachers we may eagerly ‘impart’ information which may
be more successfully learned if our students are encouraged to discover it for
themselves.
Dr McCoy’s examples and discussions of acoustics and spectrograms provided a
basic introduction for those who are unclear in this area. His use of different
shaped tubes and also hand signals were a helpful way to develop understanding
of this complex subject. In such a group with a wide range of knowledge it is
difficult to know where to pitch information but I am sure that we all felt
challenged to develop our understanding in this area.
The amazing capabilities of some of the software he presented were very
interesting and there were several brave souls among us who were prepared to
demonstrate! Dr McCoy played recordings of Pavarotti and Domingo singing the
same excerpt and it was most enlightening to observe the acoustic display on the
spectrogram. Despite the fact that the Phonetogram (voice range profile) and
Linear Predictive Coding (estimating formant frequencies and intensities) are
probably not going to be utilised in the studios of most teachers, it was interesting
to see their capabilities.
Voice Science is still in its infancy and there are various ways of describing voice
qualities and registers within the profession. Awareness of chest/head
resonance is a way of defining registers used by many voice teachers. There are
also bio-mechanical characteristics which can be used to identify voice quality
and I find these are more useful in my own singing and teaching.
Dr McCoy stated that we cannot voluntarily engage the Cricothyroid (CT) muscle.
While independent CT action may not be possible as muscles rarely work in
isolation, voice science is in agreement that CT is responsible for lengthening
and thinning the vocal folds in pitch raising. This is accomplished through thyroid
cartilage tilting, which is facilitated by CT contraction. It is possible to have a
kinaesthetic awareness of the thyroid cartilage tilting and therefore to voluntarily
engage CT – and it is also observable on endoscopy when the anterior aspect of
the vocal folds is seen to lengthen and stretch.
I assume that we are all aware of vocal health issues as listed below, but it
doesn’t hurt to be reminded…
Dr McCoy’s 12 steps for Vocal Health are, in a nutshell:
1. Maintain good speaking habits
2. Sing well with healthy technique
3. Moderation – rest if vocally tired
4. Hydration
5. Rest
6. Good hygiene
7. Avoid unnecessary drug use and know the consequences (including
alcohol, caffeine, antihistamines etc)
8. Stay physically fit
9. Practise safe sex (STDs especially unprotected oral sex can affect the
larynx)
10. Wear your seat belt – it protects your larynx from the steering wheel in a
crash
11.Don’t sing if your voice is impaired by a cold/flu etc
12.Know a good ENT
Dr Mc Coy complimented Australian teachers on how up-to-date and interested
he has found his audiences to be. It was gratifying to be reminded that the
‘tyranny of distance’ doesn’t stop Australian teachers from keeping up with the
latest developments in voice research and pedagogy. We are indeed fortunate to
have some highly knowledgeable and qualified voice scientists and teachers in
this country.
I would encourage ANATS members to support all professional development
offered by our chapter and to spread the word to colleagues in order to continue
the information sharing and knowledge building that occurs at such events.
Many thanks to the hard working Victorian Committee, Robyn Cooper-Bugg, and
President Wendy Todd for their organisation of this workshop.