Holding workshops at voice conference in Prague!

Hello Singers!

We still haven't told you about the exciting trip to Prague we made recently, but here it comes! The Pan-European Voice Conference (PEVOC) is a big conference for voice professionals from all over the world and is arranged every other year. This year it was held in beautiful Prague and the two of us attended as both participants and presenting workshops.

The subject of Annika's workshop was Complete Vocal Technique - Effective and healthy practice methods for singers - and combined the learning and training methods from CVT as well as from the field of Psychology (especially Sports Psychology). Ville presented on Artistry (- What is it and how to teach it?) and his workshop also included a group assignment and a collective discussion of the subject.

We were delighted that our workshops and themes attracted such interest and audience and inspired many interesting discussions and new acquaintances.

Annika's workshop at PEVOC about CVT and Sports Psychology

The program of the conference was full of interesting subjects and presentations. Apart from keynote lectures there were about six different subjects overlapping all the time so it was often hard to decide where to go and what to listen to. Some highlights for us were Ingo Titze's keynote, Cathrine Sadolin and Julian McGlashan's CVT related presentations and research on high soprano flageolet made in the Freiburg Musicians Institute medicine lab.

The wonderful thing about these conferences is that it brings together people who share the same passion for human voice even if they come from very different backgrounds. So singing teachers, voice doctors, and all different kind of scientists gather and share their ideas. We believe that it is essential to alter yourself to new thoughts and points of view, especially those contradicting with your own thinking. These collisions will produce new, improved thinking.

Ville's workshop about Artistry - what is it and how to teach it

The schedule was tight but thankfully there were also evening activities arranged (like dinners :) )so we got the chance to get acquainted with other participants.

Next Pevoc will be arranged in Florence, Italy in 2015. We're already looking forward to it!

Ville & Annika

Finish participants gather for a group photo.
(Ville in the top row!)

Annika holding a CVT workshop at Pevoc.
People gather along the walls as the seats are full. 

Voice Researcher Johan Sundberg with Annika & Ville. 

Ville with Camilla and Cathrine from CVI

Annika with Cathrine and Kristoffer from CVI

Technology and teaching singing | Vol. 3

Hello singers!

This post is about spectrogram and spectrum analysis. You can use whichever software. There are some differencies in how they visualise the sound. SpectrumView is an iOS app that works with both iPhone and iPad. There are others for iOS but I haven't found a one I would like to use better yet.

SpectrumView

I find myself using SpectrumView surprisingly often, especially on iPad. This is basically a combined Spectrogram and spectrum analyzer app. It shows the partials and how powerful they are. So, what can we see from the spectrum? It would be lovely to see which vocal mode or sound quality we are using but it's not possible, at least not yet. However, looking at the first partials we can usually see if we are using neutral mode because then the first partial is usually the loudest one. In metallic modes the second partial is usually the loudest.

Kids often love to use all kinds of new software. With one very talented young singer we used this software to keep the air out of the voice. First we checked how it looks when there is air and concluded that the lines should be clearer. He had the program on his own iPod so he kept on practicing with it and seemed to love it. We also worked a bit with vibrato. You can see it quite clearly in the spectrum because the pitch is modulating in laryngeal vibrato. There are better programs for that but SpectrumView is very fast to start and so easy to use.

Another quite specific use I've been working with is creaking. When there is creaking in the voice you can see quite clearly that there are two tones with their own overtones (our ears might not be able to spot it so clearly because of how our brain works in analysing the sound). So, this can help separating creaking from distortion. In distortion there shouldn't be two clear tones but a "messier" overtones because of the noise the ventricular folds create. Of course, you can use creaking together with distortion if you want to.

I also use SpectrumView to demonstrate how the acoustics of the vocal tract influence the sound. You don't really need to understand all about the science and the research and still get a very clear visual representation of why the sound changes when we alter the shape of the vocal tract.


Let me know if you have more ways of using spectrograms and spectrum analysers!

Ville

Researching, relaxing and raving in Copenhagen

IMPROVING CVT... FOR EVERYONE'S SAKE

One product of all the discussing and experimenting we have done together are some new theories we have developed about vocal technique. After trying out our theories in numerous ways the past few years we finally decided to present them to Cathrine Sadolin at CVI. 

Thankfully she is a very openminded and curious person who constantly wants to develop her methods. The point of view she presents is that it is a great asset that there are different approches to voice pedagogy but that there shouldn't be different "camps". There is no point in debating about the credibility of techniques that are helpful for some people, as they are obviously working and have an important place in voice pedagody. Instead of conflicting about which method is the best, all singers and teachers should come together as a community and share knowledge and exchange experiences. That is the vision she has for CVI in Copenhagen and that is becoming more true for each day. Any knowledge or experience that can improve the pedagogy should naturally be utilized. And so CVT is always developing.

Ville and Annika at CVI, Copenhagen

This is one of several things about Cathrine's way of working that attracted us to CVI from the very start. So when we came with our ideas Cathrine was all ears. Earlier this fall we traveled to CVI and had a good day together with Cathrine describing, demonstrating and trying out our theory. Some of this has now already been integrated in some updates of CVT that was presented at the teachers seminar in November 2012 and is also being further researched already.

Annika, Camilla, Cathrine and Julian in deep thoughts..

Cathrine has an ongoing cooperation with the ENT doctor Julian McGlashan whom she has done several studies together with. You can view some of their results at Youtube.

Now they are making a new study together covering the four vocal modes and their nuances and we were invited to take part. Not only are we thrilled about having this honor, we also use our trips to Copenhagen as a chance to work together as we do live far apart. 

SERIOUS AND SILLY ABILITIES

Electroglottogram ready and tightly
strapped around the neck..

We arrived in Copenhagen on Thursday to check in to the hotel, made a quick visit to CVI and spent the rest of the day working and finally just relaxing.

Friday morning we had an hour each with the study team that analysed a long list of sounds we made by using several methods simultaneously; stroboscopy, fiberscope, electroglottogram...

It was really interesting to see what was happening and to compare it to our theories. Without revealing anything until the results have been analyzed we can say so much that much of what we thought seemed to be correct! We are so excited about this and can't wait to tell you more, but will hold our horses :).

Ville with Julian's stroboscope in action and Cathrine deeply engaged in the drama. 

Now one may think that the two of us do nothing else but working, analyzing and being dead serious.. But that is not completely the truth :)

After being very focused on the research and summing it up with discussions over coffee, tea and dinner with friends.. we actually spent the rest of the night having fun at a …karaoke bar!

We might want to add that our many singing performances there had very little to do with analysing vocal techinque but still very much to do with having fun :)

SINGSTAR TRICKS!

Obviously we didn't wake up early the next day.. but still managed to get ourselves together to do some work also Saturday. We then spent the evening with good friends over dinner and playing Singstar till the morning :) Again we put away our Teachers' hats as Singstar is really a game having very little to do with singing despite the name of it… and we had so much fun. Look at the photo of Ville below and you'll get the picture :)

For those of you who would like to have tricks for winning Singstar BTW… we can reveal some :) To have a chance at this game you actually need to put aside most things you learned about singing since it will probably give you bad points in this case..!

We have discovered the following tricks:

- Sing ahead in time (a lot!)

- Don't use the lyrics, just go "ah, uh, oh, bla bla.. "

- Sing legato (forget the rhythm and slide from note to note)

- Change octave if you wish

- Actually, even whistle instead if you want to!

:) Good luck!

Sunday we were obviously exhausted and after a long weekend of work and hard fun.. it was time to go home again for a few days off to build up energy to work again. 

All in all it was a terrific trip with happy memories, some new inspiring plans and a lot of exciting results from the research to look forward too. We need to be patient though. The results of the study will probably not be ready until about a year from now..  But we won't wait that long to visit Copenhagen again however. The next time will probably be in March when the next update seminar for Authorized CVT Teachers takes place at Complete Vocal Institute. We are excited to see what adventures this lovely city holds for us then.

- Annika & Ville

Copenhagen in a Christmas gown

Best Teahouse in Copenhagen http://singtehus.dk/