Singing and the body: body-focused and concept-focused vocal instruction
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Beatrice Szczepek Reed
Abstract
The body is the singer’s musical instrument, and therefore it is impossible to teach singing without the instructor involving their own and the learner’s body in the process of instruction. The teacher’s challenge is to communicate physical skills but also artistic, musical and vocal concepts. The body is centrally involved in the performance of both; however, an analysis of vocal instruction shows that teachers differentiate between learning goals, or ‘learnables’, which they treat as primarily embodied (body-focused instruction) and learnables they treat as primarily conceptualised (concept-focused instruction). When teaching learnables as embodied skills, instructors foreground the body. They do so by referring to the body explicitly and using their own body for demonstrations. They also depict internal physical processes, manipulate the student’s body through touch, share the student’s embodied stance, make use of physical objects as tools for practicing skills and orient to the student’s body as visually assessable. In concept-focused instruction, teachers foreground mental engagement with concepts rather than the embodied aspects of their execution, even though embodied skills are required to perform the learnables in question. They do so by referencing concepts explicitly, demonstrating how the piece should be sung and physically depicting emotional states and musical concepts.
(1) RF 9.11–11.38
M: so (.) let’s work on your breath now uhm ts (−) so I see an
awful lot of- <<nodding> more effort> than you need
S: nods [<<nodding + voiceless> ok>
M: [to be using (.) cause uh so I think it’s y- y- I feel
like your whole body is is working awfully hard and when you
sus- when you sustain things .hh you’re using so much air that
you’re not able (.) to hold (.) the pitches out as long as you
should (.) you know .hh so tell me (.) just sh- tell me what
you do what’s your- first of all show me what your optimal (.)
inhale is
S: <<inhales and exhales>>
M: ok now inhale and hold it
S: <<inhales and holds breath>>
M: ok so you can do tons more come over here and sit down
M, S: <<walk to stage right>>
M: so (−) it’s just you know (−) this is listen I have tried
everything (.) uhm i- i- you know this is this part of .hh
singing is (.) is the is the area in which a lot of people have
different techniques so this is just what works for me so you
f- feel free to discard it
<<bending forward> .hh but if you bend over just a little bit
S: <<bends forward>>
M: try it again (−) round your back if you can (.) tha:t’s it
relax relax relax relax rela::::x now take a huge breath
<<inhales>>
S: <<inhales>>
M: feel that
S: uhu
M: ok (.) exhale
S: <<exhales>>
M: good (.) one more time
S: <<inhales>>
M: so there’s a lo::t of tension ok .hh so let’s go back to our
straw (−) ok (−) got a whole bag of them here <<hands S straw>>
take in a nice big breath .hh and feel this rib expansion
S: <<inhales through straw>>
M: isn’t that good
S: <<nodding> mhm>
M: it’s impressive .hh my preference is for your garden variety
macdonald’s straw
S, AUD: <<laughter>>
M: it’s just- you know just so you know the diameter is just a
little bit bigger than th- this this is a lot of work so come
on over here
S: <<gets up from chair>>
M: <<walking to piano> now stand up again>
<<reaches for straws>>
<<turning> I already have my straw>
<<walking stage right, picking up straw> and let’s do it again
(.) so let’s do a nice big breath>
S: <<puts straw to mouth>>
M: .hh ok first of all really relax your shoulders you’re tending
to kind of.hh <<squeezing arm gesture> use your arms> ugghh::
so much squeezing out those pitches right (.) so we don’t want
that at all we want to have a fabulous support system that that
allows us to sing on a cushion of air .hh with ea::se (.) no
pressure (.) ok so inhale
S: [<<inhales through straw, holding gaze>>
M: [<<inhales through straw, holding gaze>>
wow I just feel my ribcage go woosh one more time (.) feel that
S: <<inhales through straw>>
M: keep going
S: <<inhales through straw>>
M: ok now without the straw << inhales loudly>>
S: <<inhales loudly>>
M: ye::s (.) with the- this relaxed right ok so that’s where you
want to be (.) now also expand here <<inhales loudly>>
S: <<inhales loudly>>
M: ye- oh my god that’s a thing of beauty
(2) RJ 8.11–9.19
M: .hh one thing that Wolf does in the middle section folks (.)
and let’s look at that middle section can we a little bit
uh .hh om ba is this (.) it doesn’t put anything in the vocal
part but in the piano part it’s full of little (.) crescendos
decrescendos .hh and we got to make that <<swaying back and
forth>>
S: more
M: which you didn’t really have in the first page di- uh well yes
we- a little <<singing> (ne) mit lie::besgaben>
<<looking at music> .hh but here they come up uh nuh small .hh
smaller areas>
S: m[hm,
M: [<<looking at music> .hh subito pianos uh look at that one
<<singing> sehe ich der sonne>>
S: m
M: <<walks to stage left>>
<<walking> may I suggest can you play can you just>
<<turning + arms opening > try: [s:tuff::>
S: [m;
yeah
M: for me as it were
S: where (.) from
M: good shall we do the middle section
S: [( )
M: [<<walking towards S> i’d like you to try: to really .hh make>
(.) make her <<swaying, arms open> really <<nodding> off
balance>>
S: <<looking at M, nodding> ok.>
<<nods, turns to music>>
M: <<turning to P> because that’s what I see dum dum and if you
could play it> it’s the same it all comes from the piano bem
bem <<walking towards music>>
<<takes music off stand>>
<<holding sheet music> it’s it’s not just (−) bom bom bom bom
<<singing> was ich traure weiss ich> nicht .hh but what I see
on the page folks is (−) <<singing> was ich traure weiss> but
not weiss but weiss it goes back again <<singing> weiss ich
nicht> then there’s a long one
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© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Instructing embodied knowledge: multimodal approaches to interactive practices for knowledge constitution
- Singing and the body: body-focused and concept-focused vocal instruction
- In other gestures: Multimodal iteration in cello master classes
- Vocalizations in dance classes teach body knowledge
- Synchronization in demonstrations. Multimodal practices for instructing body knowledge
- Situating embodied action plans: pre-enacting and planning actions within knowledge communication in sports training
- Taking the trumpet up there: enactment of embodied high pitch in a multimodal body schema
- Monitoring and evaluating body knowledge: metaphors and metonymies of body position in children’s music instrument instruction
- Situating embodied instruction – proxemics and body knowledge
- The social construction of embodied experiences: two types of discoveries in the science centre
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Instructing embodied knowledge: multimodal approaches to interactive practices for knowledge constitution
- Singing and the body: body-focused and concept-focused vocal instruction
- In other gestures: Multimodal iteration in cello master classes
- Vocalizations in dance classes teach body knowledge
- Synchronization in demonstrations. Multimodal practices for instructing body knowledge
- Situating embodied action plans: pre-enacting and planning actions within knowledge communication in sports training
- Taking the trumpet up there: enactment of embodied high pitch in a multimodal body schema
- Monitoring and evaluating body knowledge: metaphors and metonymies of body position in children’s music instrument instruction
- Situating embodied instruction – proxemics and body knowledge
- The social construction of embodied experiences: two types of discoveries in the science centre
