The Kid & the Singing Teacher: Child Voice Training and Pedagogy
2009; Routledge; Volume: 65; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2769-4046
Autores Tópico(s)Diverse Musicological Studies
ResumoThe Kid & The Singing Teacher: Child Voice Training and Pedagogy. Barbara Wilson Arboleda, Robert Edwin, presenters. (VoiceWize; 2:38) This DVD set is a bold attempt at demystifying one of most intimidating and controversial facets of voice pedagogy-teaching young children. Many voice teachers find this to be intimidating and forbidding terrain, and Robert Edwin and Barbara Wilson Arboleda, able hosts of this video, seem to be fully aware of this. That sensitivity richly informs how this project is constructed and presented and helps make it a potentially rich resource for anyone who wants to develop his or her skills as a teacher of young singers. The first disk opens with a skit of sorts in which a young girl is seen going from door to door in search of a voice teacher, only to be turned away time after time by teachers who tell her that they can't help her or that she needs to return when she's older. In every case, she is turned away gently and kindly, but that does not make it any less disappointing for youngster. It is only when she reaches studio of Robert Edwin that she finally receives a word of welcome and encouragement and this intriguing journey begins for her, and for all of us as well. Incidentally, Edwin is familiar to JOS readers who have appreciated his regular contributions in department Popular Song and Music Theater. The balance of first disk is devoted to seven basic tenets of voice pedagogy which apply to adults and children alike. Edwin refers affectionately to these as the -tions: position, respiration, audiation, phonation, resonation, articulation, and emotion. Edwin briefly introduces each, after which Ms. Arboleda, a voice teacher and voice therapist, offers more detailed explanation, with particular emphasis on physiology related to each. After that, we see each tenet applied by Edwin as he works with a variety of young students in a plethora of different exercises. Some of these exercises seem more like games, which is not to say that they don't yield results. They are especially effective at making these youngsters more relaxed and receptive to whatever might be next. Tellingly, young girl featured in opening skit-the forlorn waif in search of a voice teacher-is wearing a microphone headset, which is our first clear clue that this video is firmly planted in realm of contemporary commercial music rather than classical. That is evident in everything from background music to choice of singer images that occasionally appear onstage. More substantially, this concern with CCM is evident in time and care taken with two of most critical concerns in such singing: belting and microphone technique. The second disk begins with a conversation between Ms. Arboleda and a young student named Amanda, who has had nodules on her vocal folds. We also hear from two ENT specialists who worked with her and assisted her on road to recovery. It is a thorough explanation of what nodules are, what causes them, and most effective way to treat them. We're even given a rather graphic view at what vocal folds so injured actually look like. It is important and appropriate that such a discussion is included here, and one appreciates how thorough a discussion it proves to be. Arboleda concludes discussion with important reminder that young singers are unlikely to be sensitive to subtle changes in their own singing or to different sensations in their throats; consequently, she believes (quite rightly) that teacher of a young singer bears more responsibility to be vigilant about these kinds of problems. After that, we see a succession of what are billed as mini-lessons between Edwin and two different students. These lessons have a distinctively unscripted quality to them, giving us what seems to be a candid peek into what occurs in Edwin studio on a regular basis. For instance, we're allowed to see those occasional moments when Edwin asks for something from one of his young singers and they might momentarily misunderstand what he wants. …
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