Interview with Janice Chapman, Author
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"Singing and Teaching Singing: A Holistic Approach to Classical Voice"Plural Publishing (San Diego, Oxford, Brisbane)ISBN 1-59756-015-4www.pluralpublishing.comBeck: Good morning Janice. It is a pleasure to meet you.Chapman: Good morning Doug.Beck: Janice, before we speak about the book, I was hoping
"Singing and Teaching Singing: A Holistic Approach to Classical Voice"Plural Publishing (San Diego, Oxford, Brisbane)
ISBN 1-59756-015-4
www.pluralpublishing.com
Beck: Good morning Janice. It is a pleasure to meet you.
Chapman: Good morning Doug.
Beck: Janice, before we speak about the book, I was hoping you could give us a summary of your background?
Chapman: I was born and educated in Australia and sang from a very early age. By the time I completed my musical studies at the University of Adelaide I went to London with the help of scholarships and prizes, to the Royal College of Music, and the London Opera Centre. There, I won the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award and commenced my career as a principal soprano at Sadler's Wells Opera. During the next 3 decades I sang at major opera houses in the UK including the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the English National Opera, all the regional companies and in Europe. I commenced teaching while still an active opera singer.
Beck: I know you've had an outstanding career specifically related to voice and singing and you have received accolades from around the world. Would you tell me a little about your presentations, papers, master-classes and related activities?
Chapman: As a singer I was often confronted by the "mysterious" art of singing as taught by the teachers at the time. When I became aware there was a craft and science (albeit rather new) underpinning the art of singing I became fascinated and eager to learn. This 'education' took years and led me to seek understanding of the voice on a different level. The multidisciplinary movement in voice was already established in the U.S.A. but not in the U.K. I became one of the pioneers, helping to establish the Voice Research Society and then the British Voice Association, which flourishes today. Interaction with other disciplines, especially Speech Language Therapists (SLTs) enhanced our learning. After a while I was able to contribute papers and presentations at meetings such as the Voice Foundation (Philadelphia), the Canadian Voice Care Foundation, Care of the Professional Voice, and other meetings and in Europe and Australia. I was appointed Assoc. of the University of Sydney and undertook a number of research projects in collaboration with the National Voice Centre of Australia. Recently, I went to Buckingham Palace in London, where Her Majesty the Queen awarded me the Medal of the Order of Australia "for service to music as an operatic singer and teacher of voice and as a contributor to research into human sound production and vocal health". Currently, I teach many professional singers, am on the vocal staff of both the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, London, and consultancy clients include The BBC Symphony Chorus, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the London Symphony Chorus.
Beck: Thank you. You've had an amazing career and incredible experiences. I wonder if you could explain the three pillars which comprise your approach to teaching voice? Lets start with a general description of the three factors?
Chapman: I describe my teaching as "holistic, physiological and incremental".
Beck: Please tell me more about the holistic aspect?
Chapman: Singing involves the whole person in all his/her complexity. Personality, body, mind, spirit, emotions; everything contributes to voice. Fully integrated singers are able to express clearly the musical, emotional and dramatic intentions of the composer, and at the same time their voices tell the world something about the singers themselves.
Beck: Very good. Would you address the physiologic aspect?
Chapman: Through my own continuing education in vocal physiology via multidisciplinary education, I found my teaching changing. It was clearly advantageous for me to understand vocal physiology and function myself and to test everything through my own vocal laboratory (i.e. my voice). Video-laryngo-stroboscopy, respiratory equipment for research into breathing and support, and discussions with colleagues from the other disciplines proved invaluable. So, the short answer to this question would be: My teaching style is based on "how the machinery works."
Beck: And finally, please tell me how all of this ties together through incremental teaching?
Chapman: I was fascinated by "how singers learn" and developed an incremental approach through many years of experience. Every student's learning capacity is unique to them and as a teacher I try to find the best way for each one. However the guiding principle is always to give them only what is digestible at that particular time, and in an order which is logical and sustainable. I have developed a teaching model which consists of core components and satellite components. The core components are crucial and come first incrementally (they are primal sound, postural alignment and breathing and support). Once these are working well, the satellite components (phonation and the speaking voice, resonance, articulation and performance/artistry) can be more easily addressed. There are, of course, always exceptions.
Beck: Can you offer a case or two, to demonstrate the method of analysis, treatment and outcomes, based on the Chapman method?
Chapman: Susan came for a consultation. She was a young professional soprano aged 31 with 5 years experience with minor and regional opera companies and also sang concerts from time to time. She had been experiencing intermittent hoarseness and vocal fatigue and was, as she said, "pushing a stone uphill" when she sang. I asked her to sing an aria and noticed that she was using pressed phonation with audible false fold interaction (white noise present in the sound). Her range seemed limited and her dynamic range also restricted.
She was tall and thin and appeared to breathe clavicularly. As she sang her posture changed with her belly protruding towards the end of each phrase and the upper rib/sternal area collapsing. Her tongue pulled back and down and was damping her sound through much of her range. I diagnosed inappropriate breathing and support strategies contributing to vocal fold malfunctions and resonance and articulatory compromise. I commenced teaching her Accent Method breathing (described in my book), where the abdominal wall is loosened to allow the inhalation to be diaphragmatic. At the same time I began changing her awareness of her posture by modeling and the use of mirrors. When new breathing and posture patterns were well established, I introduced her to her support muscles (the exhalatory abdominal muscles) which she was able to engage naturally at the start of phonation. This had the effect of immediately reducing vocal fold hypervalving. I also used some Estill model strategies to further encourage the retraction of the false folds. Her tongue root had become heavily engaged as a result of the reversed abdominal breathing she had been using. I use specific dynamic exercises for this problem and she was able to free the tongue after only 3 weeks. Other resonance and articulatory interventions followed. The results were that her voice became much bigger, the tone free, clean and beautiful and the top range increased by 7 semi-tones. As her tongue root disengaged from phonatory tasks, her diction improved radically. The whole process took about a year and during this time she had to juggle thinking technically during performances with all the other demands. However, the end-product was ultimately her vocal technique became "servant to the master" which was her performing artistry.
Beck: In your book, I noticed the term "primal sound." Would you explain that for me?
Chapman: Primal sound: the Oxford Shorter Dictionary defines primal as "belonging to the first age or earliest stage: original, primitive, primeval." Babies, primates and other mammals make primal sound. The importance of primal sound in the singer is that it helps awaken the connections between the emotional motor system and the voice. It contains the "human expression" in sound which truly communicates emotions and ideas to the outside world. In the singer it becomes the unifying factor which makes singing feel both easy and potent.
Beck: Of course, speech language pathologists address voice issues too, but singers have extraordinary vocal requirements which go beyond speech. Would you please address postural alignment, as it relates to the voice and singing?
Chapman: To start with, the larynx is housed in a "moveable feast" of muscular attachments. The whole body contributes to vocal efficiency, which is desirable for singers especially those trying to be heard unamplified across a symphony orchestra. Posture affects function (breathing, support, phonation and in particular resonance) and cannot be underestimated.
Beck: Please tell me a little about breathing and support as elements which facilitate maximal voice ability?
Chapman: Here lies the crux of my vocal pedagogy. Breathing and support are part of the emotional motor system's "hard-wired" pattern of activity. What keeps us alive while we are asleep and what is recruited when we make primal sound, is the lynch pin of training for singing. Any instructions from teachers about breathing and support should be based on the way the brain/body works in nature and should not be imposed by means of the "left brain" approach, such as "take a big breath," or "flare your ribs and hold," or "raise the whole chest" etc. Any form of over-breathing will inhibit the natural voice. The "Accent method" of Svend Smith is most valuable for corrections of inappropriate breathing behaviors in singers, in my opinion.
Beck: Of course, resonance is the key to vocal quality. Would you please briefly review the primary resonators for the voice?
Chapman: Resonance is thought of as the "sexy" end of vocal pedagogy. Singers have a major problem in that there is a large aural mismatch between what they hear and the actual sounds they are making. Also very tiny adjustments can have very large effects on resonance. The resonators are listed below:
- the chest (more a sensation trap than a real resonator),
- the tracheal tree (also limited as a resonator due to its hard walls and tubular shape),
- the larynx (a chamber which can be adjusted in terms of shape, size and opening; the closed quotient of the vocal folds contributes to resonance as does the use of the ary-epiglottic sphincter or "twanger" which can enhance the high frequency sound signals and is a contributor to the "singers' formant"),
- the pharynx (the most important resonator due to its flexibility of size in terms of both horizontal and vertical dimensions, overall shape, tensions of its walls, sizes/shapes of its openings to the mouth, nose and larynx)
- the oral cavity (shapes vocal tone and works in cooperation with the pharynx to produce resonance and articulation). I think that the oral cavity is secondary to the pharynx in producing resonance, but polishes and modifies the resonance already created within the laryngo-pharynx,
- the nasal cavities (except for nasalized consonants produced by lowering the velum and opening the nasal port), the nasal cavities are not actually contributing greatly to resonance. Singers do experience vibratory feedback in the nasal cavities but they should be thought of as a sensation monitor rather than an actual resonator,
- the sinuses (in some vocal pedagogies the sinuses are wrongly described as resonators. They are sensation traps and can be used by singers as feedback but do not resonate).
Chapman: In my book, Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) Ron Morris has written about the articulators and their influence on voice quality. This chapter breaks new ground and is a result of the multidisciplinary approach at work. I can give just one example: the singer who has overcome a childhood lisp by using the tongue blade for some of the consonants will often bring the jaw forward in order to sing those particular consonants. This can have the effect of reducing the resonance on the following vowel. Once recognised the tongue can be re-educated and the tip strengthened with exercises.
Beck: Janice, lastly, would you please tell me about the "H-factor"?
Chapman: Marilyn McCarthy has contributed two chapters to my book, one is titled "The H-factor - Working Holistically Within the Teaching and Learning Partnership." She has brought her enormous experience as a singer, an educator, an academic and as an expert in facilitating change, to the highly complex field of singing and teaching singing. I believe she has made a significant contribution to the field of voice in all its aspects, and she is also my sister, which is a great joy and source of pride.
Beck: Thanks so much, Janice. I believe your book is a valuable asset for speech language pathologists (SLPs) working with professional singers, announcers, and others who depend on their voice for professional purposes and presentations. I wish you continued success, and thanks so much for your time.
Chapman: I have thoroughly enjoyed the interview. Thank you Doug.
"Singing and Teaching Singing: A Holistic Approach to Classical Voice"
Plural Publishing (San Diego, Oxford, Brisbane)
ISBN 1-59756-015-4
www.pluralpublishing.com