ANATS VIC Chapter

‘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.