We had a workshop yesterday, and one of the participants commented on how they had once been told by a singing teacher to “put the sound in *THIS* cavity” accompanied with a finger pointing to somewhere in the head. The main reason he brought this up was because of how unclear and confusing that language was, so I thought it was worth talking about descriptive vs prescriptive teaching.
Descriptive Singing Instructions
If you’ve ever had a singing lesson, or looked online for singing videos, there’s no way you’ll have escaped the weirdness of such instructions. “Put it in the masque”, “make it brighter”, “the sound should open downwards not outwards”, “sing from the diaphragm”, “don’t sing from the throat”, “gain strength from your knees”, and other such gems. At least one of these statements I’d even agree with, in the sense that I also feel this when I sing, so they’re not “wrong” per se, they’re just not helpful.
The problem with all of these instructions is that they are descriptive in nature. They are actually descriptive statements (rather than instructions), typically issued by a practitioner who can already do what they are trying to teach someone, and they are describing how it feels to them when they do the thing in question. Here’s the rub: if you can’t already do the thing in question, how does that help you?
Such descriptions don’t tell me what to do, it just tells me what it should feel like… if I were able to do it in the first place. How do I even begin to replicate that mechanism and accompanying sensation? On top of that, we all feel things differently, would describe them differently, and even if two people felt the same sensation the same way, how would we ever verify that they feel things the same? I’m a voice coach and I’m already confused how that would help.
A description of a destination doesn’t get us there. We need actual instructions. We need a map to get to our destination, complete with discrete step-by-step instructions. This is where prescriptive teaching comes in.
Prescriptive Singing Teaching
This kind of teaching involves giving someone explicit instructions that are understandable, and followable. For example, sing ‘mum’ on these pitches of this scale. The word ‘mum’ is easily understood (or whatever consonant/vowel combination has been picked, or other sound, etc), and the pitches can be confirmed as correct/incorrect with a piano. It’s not up for debate, and therefore the very opposite of vague. The exact nuance of the sound can be picked over, certainly, but that can be done via the instructor doing A/B demonstration or giving further refinement instructions.
As such, every tool I design in lessons to improve someone’s voice is made to be a tool that is easily understood, and easily self-checkable – e.g. “Did that sound like ‘mum’, and were those pitches correct?” One might have to record oneself and listen back, but this approach takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out the intangibles of singing. There is absolutely more to good singing than just the right word on pitch, and the quality matters hugely, but this will get us very much in the right ballpark.
Conclusion: The exercises should do the heavy lifting for you
The point of all of this is that the tools we prescribe should do the heavy lifting. It should take the guesswork out of the labour. When teachers or singers distribute vague descriptions of things (which are not instructions, but statements masquerading as instructions), it confuses things. Worse than that, it perpetuates a mystique surrounding good singing. What tends to happen is that the singer either can’t do what the teacher asks, in which case it’s the singers fault for not understanding, or the singer figures it out by sheer luck, and the teacher takes the credit for their vague instructions, when it was a miracle the student got to a better sound in the first place. In no other realm of education would this vagueness be acceptable, and so I’m surprised we aren’t more scathing of it in the world of singing.
It’s important to note, as someone gets better, they may well relate to some/many of such statements. Like I said at the start, they are not “wrong” or incorrect as descriptions, just as instructions. As a starting point or a route to get to where you want to be, that’s where I would say they are wrong/incorrect. Prescriptive teaching with the right tool for the right job will get you there, without even needing to have a huge knowledge of voice, and without forcing a particular sound out of yourself.
Learn More: Related Articles
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