Interactions between voice clinics and singing teachers: a report on the British Voice Association questionnaire to voice clinics in the UK

The Role of Observation and Mentorship in Voice Pedagogy Training

BACKGROUND

Voice teachers are seeking increasing amounts of pedagogical instructions in the form of observerships, coursework, and clinical experiences. Yet to date there has been no formalized attempt to categorize or set guidelines for these educational experiences.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to investigate (a) the number of hours of observations required or electively completed during pedagogical training (voice lessons, masterclasses) and clinical observations; (b) the number of hours of mentorship (critical observation of a student by a mentor) during pedagogical training; and (c) differences in the training backgrounds of voice teachers based on the level of training, position, and genre.

METHODS

We distributed a survey to 700 voice teachers (102 respondents) of various levels from private to university and across age range of students. The surveys contained questions about the role of observation in the teacher's training. We ran descriptive analysis and examined whether the proportion of participants with ≥10 observation and mentorship hours was different for classical versus the other musical genres.

RESULTS

The number of respondents actively observing and being observed during their training was low. Most observations occurred within the classical and musical theater singing styles. Mentored critical observations of students were lower across genres than student observations, with the majority of respondents (67-92%) reporting no hours in genres other than classical. For all genres except classical, there was a larger percentage of respondents who reported teaching the genre than who reported receiving pedagogical training in the genre. Reported clinical voice observation hours were low (28.4% with ≥10 hours), and few respondents had >0 hours of operating room observation experience (11.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

There is wide disparity across genres in the number of hours of observation and critical mentoring, and voice teachers' genre of instruction does not frequently match with the genre of pedagogical instruction they have received. More research is needed to determine the significance of this mismatch and whether increased hours of observation and mentoring would benefit voice instruction.

Perfil vocal de regentes de coral do estado de São Paulo

OBJETIVO: traçar o perfil vocal de regentes de corais do Estado de São Paulo. MÉTODOS: participaram deste estudo 150 regentes de corais do Estado de São Paulo. A coleta foi feita individualmente pelo mesmo avaliador, nos locais de trabalho dos entrevistados, através de questionário fechado. RESULTADOS: os regentes tem em média 8,4 anos de exercício da profissão, regem 1 coral e já fizeram de 1 a 5 anos de aula de canto. Ensaiam os naipes em separado, cantam junto com os naipes, fazem aquecimento e não fazem desaquecimento vocal. Para a afinação do coral, usam piano e/ou a própria voz. A maior parte considera a voz falada igual a cantada e ambas eficientes, há concordância no que se refere ao dom e a técnica como componentes necessários a uma boa voz cantada. Com os anos de exercício de regência, a tessitura vocal está mais ampla, a qualidade mais estável, a passagem mais controlada e a intensidade no pianíssimo e no fortíssimo permaneceram inalteradas. As queixas vocais mais apontadas foram: pigarro, rouquidão, garganta seca, acúmulo de secreção na garganta, cansaço após fala, cansaço após canto e tensão na garganta. A maior parte dos regentes apresenta até 3 sintomas vocais, não fumam, não bebem, não costumam gritar, não pigarreiam, falam muito e comem tarde da noite. CONCLUSÃO: houve associação de sintomas vocais com piora e/ou restrição de diversos parâmetros específicos da voz cantada. O parâmetro que mais se alterou frente aos sintomas vocais foi a qualidade vocal.