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Guide of the Voice Teacher to Vocal Health for Voice Students: Preventing, Detecting, and Addressing Symptoms.

Milo, Sarah Khatcherian
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1399019362

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Musical Arts, Ohio State University, Music.
A survey of the literature addressing the training and vocal health of singers leads to pedagogic writings on singing and the voice as an instrument, instructions on vocal hygiene, writings on how to address vocal faults, and recently published works addressing the rehabilitation and care of the disordered singing voice. With the understanding that singing is a highly athletic and artistic form of vocalization that is prone to injury, there is a gradual but nonetheless noteworthy focus on the vocal health needs of singers, and an increasing awareness to educate singing students in the basics of vocal hygiene so as to preserve a healthy voice. This same population is faced with many lifestyle changes, together with often-stressful academic programs, competitions and auditions that increase their need for a healthy voice, while also creating conditions that may lead to vocal attrition. The first chapter inquires as to the documented vocal health and knowledge of students, together with an understanding of the most common voice complaints and disorders in the singer-student population. Chapter two addresses the principles of phonation and vocalization. It is followed by vocal hygiene and healthful practice recommendations in the third chapter, with the fourth chapter focusing on a suggested intake procedure for incoming students. Methods of assessing vocal health throughout students’ careers as singers will be discussed. The fifth chapter concludes by devising a plan to address various voice symptoms. While an anomaly in vocal function may be more easily noticeable by the experienced singer, it is more challenging to differentiate a symptom of a voice disorder from a manifestation of faulty technique in voice students. Among many functions, college voice teachers have the primary responsibility of instilling in their students an understanding of proper vocal function, coordinating optimal uses of the systems of respiration, phonation, resonance and articulation to produce a healthy singing voice. Such a complicated interplay leads to different learning curves depending on individual characteristics. During this process, “undesirable” sounds or habits may manifest themselves, while a teacher’s focus might be on another aspect of technique. Differentiating between vocal faults and vocal disorders, and preventing the former from developing into the latter becomes a necessary responsibility of the teacher. The fifth chapter of this document offers a guide to address such instances. The goal of this document is to provide voice professors with the information necessary to better understand the vocal health challenges university voice students face, assess incoming singers, provide them with preventative vocal health information, and devise a plan for recognizing and addressing areas of concern to their healthy vocal development. The forms contained within this document can be used as an aid for teachers to assess their students at the onset of study, and periodically throughout each student’s instruction. They will also be useful in navigating vocal symptoms so as to more efficiently detect and address possible voice disorders of students enrolled in programs geared to the training of the classical voice in American Universities.
John Rice (Advisor)
Scott McCoy (Committee Member)
Michael Trudeau (Committee Member)
102 p.
Music; Performing Arts
Voice symptoms; singing health; teaching singing; voice disorder prevention

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Milo, S. K. (2014). Guide of the Voice Teacher to Vocal Health for Voice Students: Preventing, Detecting, and Addressing Symptoms. [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1399019362

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Milo, Sarah. Guide of the Voice Teacher to Vocal Health for Voice Students: Preventing, Detecting, and Addressing Symptoms. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1399019362.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Milo, Sarah. "Guide of the Voice Teacher to Vocal Health for Voice Students: Preventing, Detecting, and Addressing Symptoms." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1399019362

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1399019362
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© 2014, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Guide of the Voice Teacher to Vocal Health for Voice Students: Preventing, Detecting, and Addressing Symptoms. by Sarah Khatcherian Milo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.