So You Want to Sing Rock 'N' Roll: A Guide for Professionals
2015; Routledge; Volume: 71; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2769-4046
Autores Tópico(s)Musicians’ Health and Performance
ResumoEdwards, Matthew. So You Want to Sing Rock 'n' Roll: A Guide for Professionals. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. [A Project of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.] Paper, xvii, 273 pp., $35.00. ISBN 978-1-4422-3193-1 www.rowman.comSo You Want to Sing: A Guide for Professionals is a series of books produced under the auspices of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and is comprised of volumes devoted to a particular genre. The first, So You Want to Sing Music Theater, by Karen Hall, was published in 2014 (reviewed in JOS 71, no. 2 [November/December 2014]: 254-256). The second volume, So You Want to Sing Rock V Roll, is authored by Matthew Edwards. Edwards, who teaches rock, pop, country, and rhythm and blues style to music theater majors at Shenandoah Conservatory, offers advice to singers who want to pursue a professional career in the rock genre.The author begins with an overview of the history of rock music. Although this summary is not extensive, it touches upon the styles, technology, and people who influenced the development of the genre. A synopsis of each decade since the 1950s includes historic milestones and important artists.There is also an overview of voice science and health; Edwards invited guest authors to contribute chapters on these topics. Scott McCoy, author of Your Voice: An Inside View (Delaware, OH: Inside View Press, 2012), offers a concise primer on the anatomy and acoustics of the singing voice. Readers familiar with the inaugural volume in this series will recognize the essay from So You Want to Sing Music Theater. In Vocal Health and the Rock Singer, speech language pathologist Wendy DeLeo LeBorgne emphasizes the importance of general well-being before addressing specific health issues. LeBorgne is realistic: Not everything a rock singer does is 'vocally healthy,' sometimes because the emotional expression may be so intense it results in collision forces that are extreme. The risk of injury can be minimized, she writes, by cross training the instrument (singing at varying intensities, ranges, and with different resonance options), and by maintaining good and overall health.At the heart of the volume are three chapters devoted to rock voice pedagogy. The first, Let Me Hear You Scream, presents directives for the rock singer, including warm-ups for the body, the basics of breathing, and exercises that are demonstrated on a correlated website. The information is wide-ranging and detailed; Edwards offers explanations of phonation, timbre, registration, mixing, and belting. There are exercises for onsets, raising and lowering the soft palate, and articulating vowels and consonants, as well as advice in identifying and releasing tension in the constrictor muscles. Directions for vocal stunts (such as breathy singing and fry) are given, with the caveat that most of the sounds require amplification, and a reminder that if anything hurts, it is wrong. The chapter closes with a brief discussion about the use of dynamics to shape the energy in a song.Another important aspect of rock pedagogy appears in the chapter entitled Blue Suede Shoes: Singing with Style. Edwards explains how to develop a unique interpretation by using different tone colors, and varying the melody and rhythm. He identifies the scales used in pop music, such as blues and pentatonic scales, and covers the gamut of options available to singers, including bends, turns, scoops, dips, licks, fall-offs, and runs. The author also lists selected subgenres, such as punk, heavy metal, and emo (to name only a few), and suggests recorded examples that typify each style.In rock singing, audio equipment plays a central role. At very least, the aspiring rock singer must be comfortable using a microphone; current technology also includes voice enhancement tools such as AutoTune and digital voice processors. …
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