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Vocal Process Reports...
Guildhall School
of Music & Drama report
Penelope Mackay,
singing tutor at the GSMD and the RAM, spent several months with
Jeremy Fisher exploring the Estill Model using a computer voice
analysis programme. Her report on the event, sponsored by GSMD and
the RAM, was published on the GSMD website this year. Here are a few
excerpts:
“I’d been teaching
Estill Voice Craft to a greater or lesser extent (and whether or not
my pupils were aware of it!) for the past ten years, and was sure I
knew exactly what I was doing. However, when it came down to working
with the microphone and computer print-outs, I discovered that my
innate aesthetic impulse would make me interfere with the isolating
procedures. I got extremely irritated with this and began to
question the validity of the whole exercise – after all, who wants
to hear these isolated, unaesthetic, not to say frequently ugly
sounds – and even if I can do them, what does it prove with regard
to my teaching? Having completed the tests months later (as I had to
find time in my busy teaching schedule to journey to South London
and work with Jo Estill’s first UK Primary Licensee Jeremy Fisher,
who had the voice-print software and the expertise to guide me
through the tests) I came to the following conclusions:
"The discipline of
producing voice prints was worth it as it made me refine my
knowledge of what exactly was happening physically when producing
various sounds.
"I was chastened to
discover how often my perceptions were faulty. I became aware of how
much we monitor the aesthetic and modify the vocal output without
realising it."
"it is possible to
isolate individual functions, and then combine them consciously for
various aural results. A teacher who can do this is more likely to
be able to hear what the student is doing."
"The immediate
feed-back of the voice print, which produces an aural recording as
well as computer print-outs enables the singer to analyse their
sound and sharpens their perceptions as they follow the trace. It is
particularly good for monitoring excess breath, vibrato, onsets, and
vowel articulation."
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