One aspect of vocal performances that any audience mem-ber can easily assess—regardless of their music educa-tion background—is tone. With that, and because it is on the UIL Concert and Sightreading rubric, tone is one of

those things choir directors often talk about.We know the tone we want from our students, and we usually

know how to make it ourselves. Yet it often is so difficult to effec-tively explain it to our students. How do we describe a desired timbre, a vibrant tone, an interior physical sensation that requires the most minute adjustment? Often the best way to teach proper vocal technique is not to describe it, but to show it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then vocal modeling during a choral rehearsal is worth a million.

Vocal Modeling in the Choral ClassroomVocal sounds or noises are often the best model and are usually

faster and more effective to deliver than the director singing in their finished, mature tone. Use normal, recognizable sounds, or even silly sounds that students will be able to quickly mimic and that require the same physical set as beautiful, healthy singing. Some examples:

• Speaking through a singing set. Relax your lips and jaw, flatten and groove your tongue, making certain it is relaxed and forward, touching your teeth. Open your throat for a neutral laryngeal position, and then speak. It sounds

somewhat “yawny” and inarticulate, or “mush mouth.” However, this is not about how it sounds, but about how it feels. Try giving an entire set of instructions in this voice and watch your students begin to empathize with your relaxed jaw and open throat while they listen. You can actually see them relaxing their lips and jaws while you model! I tell my students, “This is me speaking in my singing voice. It sounds funny, right? So does singing in your speaking voice!”

• Use silly character voices from television, movies, and video games. Princesses, heroes, and even animal sidekicks can be good examples of vocal sounds you either want or don’t want. Most of us have used Mighty Mouse as an example of tongue tension. I like to use Janice, Chandler’s annoying girlfriend on Friends, as an example of extreme forward resonance for belt technique.

• For modeling the correct space in a [u] vowel, with the right balance of forward and pharyngeal space, try the sound of an owl, or a ghost.

• Any kind of noise, really, can work. For example, I like to use the sound of electronic beeping to model the relaxed forwardness of [i].

By using these techniques, you are modeling what the student should feel, not how the student should sound. When you make sounds that are not completely sung sounds, you avoid the stu-dents’ preconceived notions about what singing should feel like,

Vocal Modeling for the Opposite Genderby Cynthia Douglas

35Southwestern Musician | September 2016

the students more readily empathize with your vocal set, and they are better able to change their own vocal set. Modeling is fast and very effective. When we model a sound for our students, we are show-ing them pages of vocal pedagogy in an instant. This can, however, pose a chal-lenge when our students are the opposite gender of their teacher. Males and females approach some aspects of singing differ-ently, in particular in the area of reso-nance. The sensations we feel are differ-ent, and the sound we produce is different in timbre.

Guiding Male and Female VoicesFemale choir directors might find that

their young male singers have a sound that is too dark or “woofy,” because they natu-rally model their sound after their female teacher. Male directors might find that their young female singers have a sound that is too bright and “edgy,” because they naturally model their sound after their male teacher.

The basics of proper support, vibra-tion and onset, and articulation are all the same for both genders, and can be taught using the same teaching strategies.

However, because of the different pitch ranges that we sing, and the differences in our bodies, teaching proper resonance to opposite gender students is not always the same. The basics of resonance for male and female are in some ways the same, but are also subtly and essentially different.

Basics that are the same:

• Relaxed to slightly lowered laryngeal position.

• Flat, grooved, relaxed tongue, with the tip of the tongue resting behind the bottom teeth.

• Relaxed and dropped jaw.

Basics that are required for each, but are slightly refined and specific to gender:

• Pharyngeal space (lifted soft pal-ate) is necessary in both. However, females place their sound more directly toward this space as they move through their middle and upper range, resulting in a warm tone that is easy to unify across the section and minimizes edginess. Males place their sound more forward, even encourag-ing “edginess” (or “bite”) to brighten a naturally dark sound.

Vocal Modeling for MalesFemale teachers modeling for male

students should emphasize forwardness, especially in the lower and middle to upper-middle ranges. It is not ideal for a female to model for changed-voice males in her chest voice, at pitch with the men. A female singing in her chest voice feels like she is singing low. She may even put tension in her modeling in order to make her own voice sound manlier. There is no need for the director to try to sound exactly like her male students should sound. Remember, we want to model how the sound feels. Don’t be afraid to use words like “edgy” or “snarly.” Some other tricks include:

• Show your teeth.

• Bright eyes, lifted apples of cheeks, “Disney kid face.”

• Shout “Hey!”

• A princely “Aha!”

• Humming—universal for bringing tone more forward.

Vocal Modeling for FemalesMale teachers modeling for female

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36 Southwestern Musician | September 2016

students should emphasize warmth and roundness of tone, especially in the mid-dle and upper-middle ranges. It is not ideal for a male to model for females in his falsetto. Falsetto is unique to the male voice and feels nothing like any sound that females are capable of producing. Females’ middle ranges are more call-like, employing more pharyngeal space to create warmth, increasingly so as pitch raises. As girls approach their upper break, less and less mouth or chest resonance is employed. This is a big difference from the guys. While a guy’s high D should be quite forward, and have “edge,” this isn’t a good word to describe a female’s desired high D. These are some of the strategies employed by my colleague and friend Nicholas Likos when he models for his female students:

• Speak in an over-covered set.

• Emphasize lifted soft palate.

• Emphasize relaxed set (mush mouth).

• For high register: over-covered mod-eling in a lower octave.

• Hand motions such as a cupped “softball hand,” with one’s wrist next to or above one’s head.

The Daily Warm-up: The Daily Voice Lesson

The daily warm-up is the perfect time to give fundamental instruction on proper vocal technique and to assess and refine the ensemble’s tone. For vocal instruction, warm-ups should be:

• Simple, so that the students can truly focus on the objective and can actively listen and assess.

• Repetitive, so that the student can work on their form, in much the same way golfers or tennis players do.

• Easily altered with very simple vowel or interval modifications to fight “autopilot.”

• Based on primary vowels, incorpo-rating voiced or unvoiced consonants depending on objective.

• A mix of legato, marcato, and staccato articulations, and a mix of ascending and descending patterns.

• Designed to provide the singer an opportunity to practice a variety of vowels in a variety of vocal registers, negotiating breaks smoothly.

• Girls and guys together in a mixed ensemble, all with the same instruc-tion from the same director. It is important that they learn to balance timbres in unison singing. If the girls need gender-specific tone instruction, the director can simply tell the guys not to listen, and vice versa.

• Fast-paced, with the vocal instruction occurring in quick spurts and noises as the exercise continues. Most of the instruction is through modeling only, without any spoken instruction at all.

• In short, nothing special or particu-larly cute. There is no magic warm-up that makes singers sound better. Any warm-up is far more effective when coupled with a clear objective and careful assessment of the result-ing ensemble sound. Good warm-ups are routine, but they are definitely not rote.

A Few Words About VowelsVowels carry the tone; therefore,

beautiful vowels are beautiful tone. Communicating a desired tone to the opposite gender can be easier when one is

very specific about vowels, using all of the IPA symbols available to us. Using more closed vowels can bring the tone forward. For more warmth in upper ranges, vowel modification is a big part of creating proper resonant space for both guys and girls. As pitch raises, vowels can be modi-fied by being formed more in the pharynx than the mouth, and tend to modify to a more open version, more uh-like. A good way to put the concept into words for your students: “Shape uh, think ah,” or, “Put a little uh in that vowel.”

Scales Every Day!Scale singing engages actuation, vibra-

tion, articulation, and resonance on a vari-ety of vowels, employing a variety of con-sonants, and on a pitch set that guarantees a register shift for every singer—plus, it includes sightreading vocabulary. What’s not to love? Singing scales well is a skill not to be underestimated.

Vocal modeling in rehearsal does take some guts. However, your students are more likely to be brave enough to take a risk and make a change if they see that you, too, are unafraid to use your voice. We should all be like brass players and percussionists. They will make any sound on their instrument, any time, and in front of anyone! Be brave. Imagine what the sound you want from your students must feel like. Try to make yourself feel it. Show them what it looks like and feels like, in any way you can except by sing-ing, and your students will find success in manipulating their instruments in much the same way. 0

Cynthia Douglas is the head choral direc-tor at Cypress Ranch HS in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. This article is based on a presentation with significant contri-butions by Nicholas Likos, head choral director at Cy-Fair HS.

Vocal modeling in rehearsal does take some guts. However, your students are more likely to be brave enough to take a risk and make a change if they see that you, too, are unafraid to use your voice.

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37Southwestern Musician | September 2016