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Revisiting the Balancing Act Model of Singing

2022; Routledge; Volume: 79; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.53830/gash9375

2769-4046

Robert Edwin,

Music Technology and Sound Studies

Revisiting the Balancing Act Model of Singing Robert Edwin (bio) SINGING A CAPPELLA TO ZYDECO Ask any of your students to stand in the middle of your studio. Then ask them how they did that. More than likely, they'll tell you they looked at the walls on all sides to calculate the middle. Welcome to a revisit of The Balancing Act Model of singing. First introduced in "The Bach to Rock Connection" iteration of this column in January 1999, the Model is a useful way for singers to find balance in their voice and performance technique by exploring its extremes. The extremes are identified as hyper (too much), and hypo (too little), while balanced (just right) is defined by the vast middle ground between the two extremes. In the almost a quarter century since I presented The BAM, much has changed in voice pedagogy, especially in our community's embrace of genrespecific training. Happily, the old phrase, "If you learn to sing classically, you can sing anything," may be in its death throes, replaced by a fact-based mantra, "Exercise the whole body and voice and then target genre-specific singing techniques." More colloquially, as my colleague and friend Jeannette LoVetri puts it, "One size does not fit all." Therefore, the balanced (just right) aspect of the Model may lean toward hyper or hypo, depending upon the style of singing. The Model can be used systematically to encompass the entire process of singing, or randomly to demonstrate a particular pedagogic point. Throughout the process, both teacher and student must be aware that, although all aspects of singing can be isolated and addressed for instruction, they are interdependent activities during the act of singing. Each affects the other. Let's first isolate the element called posture or body alignment. Have students overelevate the sternum and rib cage, pull back the shoulders, tense the back, and pull in the chin. This "too much" (hyper) position resembles the "come to attention" posture of the military. "Too little" (hypo) body alignment, by contrast, requires students to collapse the sternum and rib cage, roll the shoulders forward, and lower the head. Finally, have them try to find a "just right" (balanced) posture, usually initiated by putting their arms fully over their heads. Repeat the hyper, hypo, and balanced exercise until students can competently demonstrate all three general positions. It's helpful if teachers model this as well as all of the other exercises so that students get a clear idea of what they're supposed to do. It also gives teachers "street cred" with students because they're practicing what they preach. Next, experiment with breathing. Hyper breathing can be modeled by raising the shoulders, drawing air in using the neck and upper chest, and tensing [End Page 69] the throat to create audible noise on inhalation. Hypo breathing, on the other hand, requires students to take a very shallow breath by barely drawing any air into the lungs. This underenergized breath cannot provide a sufficient quantity of air and breath pressure for most styles of speaking or singing, unless, of course, a character is required to do that in a play or music theater role. Balanced breathing is the breath management process (often called appoggio) that coordinates the activities of the inspiratory and expiratory muscles. We know that most students need to spend a considerable amount of time to achieve balanced breathing. The Balancing Act Model can identify the direction students need to go and not go. Breathing naturally leads to phonation. Hyper phonation is often pressed phonation, a "too much" closure of the vocal folds and depressed larynx demonstrated by the iron throated Jim Henson through his Kermit the Frog character. Also, both Bachers and rockers can be guilty of oversinging by asking their vocal folds to do "too much," exceeding their limitations. Hypo phonation, by contrast, is breathy phonation caused by an insufficient closure of the vocal folds. After their Jim Henson impersonation, have your students inhabit Marilyn Monroe as she sings, "Happy Birthday" to the president. If your students ask, "Who are Jim Henson and Marilyn Monroe?," send them to YouTube and tell them a very old singing...