The pedagogy of singing
TEACHING THE VOICE
A piece of singing advice that names no muscle, no bone and no movement leaves the singer alone with the problem. Here is what Adeline Toniutti’s method puts in its place.
THE PROBLEM
Does this instruction name an anatomical cause?
Generic slogans designed to win followers, or miracle formulas promising you will sing like the star of your dreams? Such announcements draw us in instantly, and we feel personally concerned. So let us look at the teaching that follows, and at the actual advice we are given once we have made contact with the person publishing that kind of promise.
In the various teachings of singing, the directions given by teachers are often not explicit about their nature. Do they speak of a real anatomical cause? Are they an image meant to convey a sensation? Is that sensation the one the singer should feel, or the one the listeners should hear? It is our responsibility to define the contours of our pedagogical discourse, for greater effectiveness and greater safety.
Adeline Toniutti puts this question to teachers before she puts it to students.
She is aiming at what circulates today on social media: “sing louder”, “stop clenching your jaw”, “release your emotion”. Generic phrases, she says, with no anatomical definition and no scientific content, which attract people through a kind of sensationalism.
Sensationalism, then, to win followers or clients who, lost in the face of their own vocal trouble, recognise themselves in the generic phrase. “I have no high notes”, “I am not loud enough”, “my jaw is tight”: these problems can be observed without any training at all, in a bathroom or in front of a phone camera. The public’s self-diagnosis is often right. The question begins afterwards. What content is offered behind the phrase? What is the real solution?
Teachers often bring tips; with our team, we bring a science.
FOUR PHRASES YOU HEAR EVERYWHERE
Behind every slogan, a real technical problem
The four phrases Adeline Toniutti quotes point to real difficulties. Each one has an anatomical answer, and that answer rarely fits into a command.
“Sing louder”
The instruction asks for a result without giving the means, and the only means the body finds on its own is shouting. The volume of a sung voice comes from costal and abdominal support, from the opening of the resonance cavities and from twang, not from laryngeal effort. The detail of the gesture is set out on singing louder without pushing.
“Stop clenching your jaw”
The expression covers four different faults: the mandible too far forward, the mandible too far back, the condyle too closed and the condyle too slack. Only one of those four is a true clench. The other three produce the same feeling of a blocked sound for opposite reasons, and the advice “relax” then makes the problem worse instead of lifting it. The four cases are distinguished on the page on jaw tension.
“Release your emotion”
No emotion produces a sound. Between the emotion and the note there is a nerve and a muscle: emotion changes muscle tone, breathing and posture, and it is those changes that we hear. A singer asked to release their emotion is given an instruction they have no direct hold on. Neurosurgeon Gilles Zah-Bi sets out the real pathway on the page about what emotion really does to the voice.
“I have no high notes”
A high note achieved reliably rests on laryngeal tilt, costal pressure and active exhalation, in a precise order. A singer who “has no high notes” almost always has one link of that chain missing, and it can be identified in a lesson. The four key points and their exercises are on the method for singing a high note.
In all four cases, the slogan names the symptom and stops there. Pedagogy begins when you name the cause.
THE PROMISE
Singing like a star in three clicks
The other family of promises is more direct: in two or three lessons, you will sing like a star. Be wary of anyone promising you a miracle formula. Nobody can promise a singer they will sing like Céline Dion or Lady Gaga in three clicks or five coaching sessions. What can be done in five sessions is to correct one precise gesture and make it available to them.
Great singers such as Céline Dion never push their voice, and sing more quietly than people think.
That sentence says a great deal about the promise. What audiences hear as extraordinary power is first of all an economy of means, built over years. It cannot be picked up in five sessions, and it cannot be picked up by forcing either.
Anatomie du Chant describes what the teacher does instead, from the very first lesson. The singer first performs, uninterrupted, a piece they are comfortable with. The teacher assesses what needs work, asks about their history, sets the objectives, and then, Adeline Toniutti writes, “depending on those objectives, a progression curve will be traced, along with its milestones”.
A curve and milestones, then, rather than a number of sessions promised in advance. The book is explicit about why: some singers progress very fast, others take time to absorb certain anatomo-physiological constants that serve the voice. No general rule is possible, because it depends on each person’s singularity.
THE METHOD
Observation comes before advice
The coach must adjust to the singer’s state of energy and mind. The watchwords are observation and generosity.
The chapter written for coaches starts there, not with technique. The lesson opens on an exchange, and that exchange comes down to three questions.
START OF THE LESSON
The three questions from the book
- How was your week?
- How is the voice?
- What piece do you want to sing today?
Anatomie du Chant justifies those three questions in one sentence: “we work with a singular being arriving in a singular situation, and knowing its contours matters”. Depending on the answers, the lesson changes. With a professional going through a hard time, the teacher may work at reassuring them and lifting their energy; with another, the demands will be raised.
At the very first lesson, the teacher changes nothing before having listened. The singer runs a song of their own choosing from beginning to end, and only then comes a training programme suited to their singularity.
The same principle governs the five pivot points: “The pivot point is applied starting from each person’s singularity and from their initial state, and its application must transform according to how that state evolves through vocal work.” An instruction that is right in January can be wrong in March, for the same student, because the instrument has changed in the meantime.
FIVE LANDMARKS
A checklist, not a recipe
The five pivot points form an anatomo-physiological checklist, built with 26 specialists of the voice and the body: ENT surgeons, phoniatricians, speech therapists and physiotherapists. They are worked in this order, because each one conditions the next.
- 1 Adopt a posture that optimises the vocal gestureThe point that runs through the whole sung performance, and the one most often neglected.
- 2 Trigger the right laryngeal movementThe cornerstone of the inner choreography, which conditions the final result.
- 3 Activate the abdominal muscles and master exhalationExhalation is the singing itself: it carries the sound and it sustains it.
- 4 Understand how to act on your resonatorsThe cavities that give the sound its colour and projection, once the larynx is free.
- 5 Perfect your articulation of vowels and consonantsThe last point, and the last one taught: it presupposes the other four.
These are landmarks, technical or gestural, not orders. The book also sets the teaching order: the teacher raises posture, laryngeal movements and abdominal support before speaking about the sensation of vowels.
Everything is a matter of choreography: the choreography of your body and the choreography of your thought, of your imagination.
In the case of a vocal fold lesion or a physical singularity, the pivot points are adapted, or even modified, with the help of a professional. A method that changes for nobody is not a method, it is a protocol.
BUILDING PROGRESS
The curve, and what you say to the student
Anatomie du Chant devotes a box to feedback, and rates it very highly: a crucial moment, which on its own can tip the lesson one way or the other. Two facts come into play, the book recalls: the brain does not hear negation, and the tone used carries as much as the words.
Hence the diagram the book gives to coaches. Progress is always built by leaning on the positives, attaching the remarks to a positive base, and pointing at the objective.
The sentence that accompanies the diagram is the most useful rule in the whole chapter: “Progress will not exist if it has no positive anchor and an objective.” The dosage follows the level. With a beginner, the teacher gives one key point only, the one judged most important, and allows time to absorb it without cutting the pleasure of singing. With a professional, several can be given, with the expectation that the next attempt will contain them all.
To a singer who needs reassurance, I will say “begin”. To someone who needs pushing, or whose energy needs waking, I will say “attack the sound”.
IN PRACTICE
Four questions to ask of any vocal instruction
A student does not need to be an anatomist to judge what they are being taught. Four questions are enough, and they can be asked during the lesson.
QUESTION 1
Which part of the body is named?
Good advice points to a structure you can locate: the condyle, the floating ribs, the soft palate, the tongue, the rectus abdominis. If the instruction names nothing, ask what should move, and where. The answer always exists.
QUESTION 2
Can I check it with my hands?
Many landmarks can be felt. You place your thumbs either side of the mandible to feel the tongue, cross your arms over the floating ribs to feel the ribcage, put your fingers in front of the ear canal to feel the joint. A gesture that can be verified is a gesture that can be taught.
QUESTION 3
Does the instruction change from one person to another?
Ask your teacher why they are giving you this one and not another. An instruction chosen after observation can be justified in a sentence. An instruction given to a whole class, and to every follower of an account, cannot be justified, because it was never chosen.
QUESTION 4
What do I do if it hurts?
A teacher who teaches seriously has an answer ready, and it starts with “you tell me straight away”. Laryngeal pain during an exercise signals a parameter of the vocal gesture that needs changing, never an effort to be held.
RESPONSIBILITIES
What the teacher checks, what the student reports
The safety of a singing lesson rests on two commitments, and Anatomie du Chant states them together.
It is the responsibility of the vocal coach or singing teacher to verify that the technique being taught respects the vocal apparatus and respects anatomophysiological rules, but it is the student’s duty to report any problem.
A lesson continued with a sore throat can cause a lesion within 24 hours. If the voice is still abnormal 24 hours after a lesson, a parameter went wrong during that lesson. The signs to watch for are few and easy to recognise.
The four signs of dysphonia:
- a reduction in the intensity of the voice;
- a reduction in the range of the voice, the ambitus;
- a change in the timbre of the voice;
- difficulty speaking or singing, the vocal folds vibrating with difficulty.
A lesion requires 48 to 72 hours of vocal rest at minimum. Without improvement after that, an ENT consultation is required, and self-medication is to be avoided, cortisone in particular. The warning signs and recovery are detailed on the page about vocal fatigue. Teachers who want to work on this pedagogy with Adeline Toniutti will find her in the teacher training programme.
CALYP
Learn singing with a method that justifies itself
The five pivot points, the coaches’ roadmap and the anatomical plates that go with them are gathered in Anatomie du Chant. For work in lessons, the CALYP team teaches in Paris, in Geneva and by video call.
GO FURTHER
Related pages
Frequently asked questions
How do you recognise good singing advice?
Good advice names a part of the body you can locate, can be checked with your hands or your ear, changes from one person to another, and comes with a clear instruction in case of pain. Adeline Toniutti puts it differently in Anatomie du Chant: does this direction speak of a real anatomical cause, or is it an image meant to convey a sensation? A phrase like “sing louder” or “release your emotion” names the symptom without naming the cause.
Can you learn to sing like a star in a few lessons?
No, and no serious method promises it. Nobody can promise a singer they will sing like Céline Dion or Lady Gaga in three clicks or five coaching sessions. Anatomie du Chant points out that great singers such as Céline Dion never push their voice and sing more quietly than people think. What a teacher can do in a few sessions is correct one precise gesture and make it available.
What is a progression curve in singing?
It is the tool described in Anatomie du Chant. At the first lesson, the singer performs a piece they are comfortable with, the teacher assesses what needs work and sets the objectives, and then, depending on those objectives, traces a progression curve along with its milestones. The book specifies that no rule about duration is possible: some singers progress very fast, others take time to absorb the anatomo-physiological constants that serve the voice.
How should a singing teacher phrase a criticism?
Starting from the positive. Anatomie du Chant gives the rule: progress is always built by leaning on the positives, attaching the remarks to a positive base and pointing at the objective. The sentence accompanying the diagram is blunt: progress will not exist if it has no positive anchor and an objective. The book also recalls that the brain does not hear negation, and that tone carries as much as words.
How many pieces of advice should a student be given in one lesson?
It depends on the level. With a beginner, feedback should come down to a single key point, the one the teacher judges most important, with time to absorb it and without cutting the pleasure of singing. With a semi-professional or professional singer, more than three improvements can be given, with the expectation that the next attempt will contain them all.
Do two singers with the same problem get the same instruction?
No, and that is the very principle of the method. Anatomie du Chant holds that the pivot point is applied starting from each person’s singularity and initial state, and that its application must transform according to how the singer evolves. Adeline Toniutti gives an example: to a singer who needs reassurance she will say “begin”, to someone who needs pushing she will say “attack the sound”.
What should you do if a singing exercise hurts your throat?
Report it immediately and stop the exercise. Laryngeal pain during a lesson signals a parameter of the vocal gesture that needs changing. A lesson continued with a sore throat can cause a lesion within 24 hours. If the voice is still abnormal 24 hours after the lesson, something went wrong during it.
What are the signs of dysphonia after a singing lesson?
Four signs: a reduction in the intensity of the voice, a reduction in its range, a change of timbre, and difficulty speaking or singing, the vocal folds vibrating with difficulty. A lesion requires 48 to 72 hours of vocal rest at minimum. Without improvement after that, you should consult an ENT doctor and avoid self-medication, cortisone in particular.
Is a singing teacher responsible for their student’s voice?
In part, and the student is too. Anatomie du Chant states the two commitments together: the vocal coach or singing teacher verifies that the technique taught respects the vocal apparatus and anatomophysiological rules, and the student has the duty to report any problem. The book adds that it is for the coach to make sure the lesson runs safely, by regularly asking the singer how they feel.