Gillyanne writes:
Jenevora started off with a session on anatomy and physiology, pointing out key aspects of vocal function in the voice from infancy to adulthood. One thing that I took away from the course was that our voice is changing throughout our lives, rather than being a fixed entity. So the vocal mechanism of a baby is adapted for suckling and screaming, while a dramatic soprano in her adult forties can expect optimum voice use for around a decade, due to muscular, aerodynamic and skeletal strength at that time of her life.

Highlights of the day included some excellent audio examples of boys' voices during the five stages of change identified by researcher John Cooksey. Jenevora stressed the importance of using the fundamental frequency of boys' speaking voices (rather than their singing voice) to assess the stage of change. Do not be fooled by the singing range, particularly in boy choristers! She was able to demonstrate the testing procedure recommended by Cooksey (getting boys to count backwards from 20 to 1) with a young Stagecoach singer, Hayden Stevens. Before long, the whole group was quietly humming along with Jenevora's audio examples, to find the average pitch heard in the speaking voice, which gives the fundamental frequency of speaking pitch. Jenevora also emphasised that, when going through voice change, exercises and songs should be pitched at the lower end of the range, covering the lowest sung pitch, even if boys are still capable of singing higher.

In adolescent girls we can expect breathy voice due to 'mutational chink'. This happens because the muscles between the arytenoids (interarytenoids) may develop more slowly than the arytenoid cartilages themselves. However, this doesn't mean that breathy voice cannot be worked on, which Jenevora demonstrated during the masterclass session, using gentle glottal onsets, twang and energised whining in the upper range. Another key difference in adolescent female voice is that the cross-over point between lower ('chest') and upper ('head') registers is smaller in pitch range than in adult voices. So there is less 'middle register'. This might explain why adolescent girls who want to sing musical theatre and popular music styles are often apt to 'chest' quite high in their range. This will lead the vocal fold muscle (thyro-arytenoid) to be quite developed and its antagonist (cricothyroid), which elongates and thins the vocal folds for high pitches, to be under-developed. This can be corrected with appropriate exercises, including moaning and whining on lower pitches, and then gradually raising the pitch.

There were many questions during the day about whether or not singing 'technique' can be taught to children and adolescents. Jenevora's position is that much can be done within the context of suitable repertoire. Even young singers can benefit from learning the co-ordinated action of abdominal breathing and a well-balanced stance. I noticed that, like me, Jenevora uses the speaking voice as a 'way in' to clear tone and connected singing. So, whooping, energised pitch-gliding and calling out on 'yeah-yeah' can help young singers lose their inhibitions about singing 'properly' and help them connect with the natural and powerful sound that they probably use everyday in the playground.

Something that particularly pleased me about the day was the open-mindedness of Jenevora's approach. Although her work as a researcher is mainly with choristers, she is equally happy working with popular, world music and musical theatre sounds. As her final slide in the presentation reminded us:

• The rules of healthy voice use apply to all ages;

• Children can sing in any style or range that is possible within this;

• All voices have limitations of pitch, loudness, breath sustain and voice quality.

Our thanks to Hayden Stevens, Deborah Marx, Connie Nash and Imogen Faris for their valuable contribution to the day as course demonstrators.

Look out for Jenevora's contribution to The Singer magazine this month and for new resources on The Developing Voice on the Vocal Process website.

 

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