It’s February and it’s mid-winter. Most of us have already gone one round with the flu, or battled at least one cold head-on. Those of us who haven’t been sick yet are busy telling each other what our wellness secret is, or buying every homeopathic remedy known to man—perhaps even resorting to superstitions—to avoid getting sick. It’s the season when singers need answers to questions they didn’t have in June.
It’s a great time to read Care of the Professional Voice: A Management Guide for Singers, Actors and Professional Voice Users, by Dr. Anthony F. Jahn, Classical Singer’s monthly medical columnist. Written with D. Garfield Davies—a London-based otolaryngologist who has professional connections to the voice faculty at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and both the English National Opera and the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden)—the book is a gold mine of vital information we all need.
The opening chapter features one of the clearest, most succinctly written descriptions of the vocal mechanism and its functioning of any book available. Other, more pedagogically slanted treatises tend to describe vocal functioning exhaustively—and somewhat laboriously. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s a bit more than some of us need (or want) to know. Dr. Jahn’s book is concise and to the point, beginning with the breath and ending with the resonators, in effective, easily understood language. You don’t need to be a voice scientist or a medical doctor to understand it.
“Care of the Professional Voice” includes many analogies from the actor’s standpoint, which is extremely interesting to singers, since, as professional voice users, we have so much in common with actors, but don’t tend to regard ourselves as processing or functioning the same way vocally. The authors point out on the second page that a comparison of breathing techniques among actors revealed that the more accomplished the actor, the more he uses abdominal breathing. This deeper breathing approach shows greater speech variance and control onstage than the novice actor evinces.
Jahn and Davies compare controlled and active exhalation during singing and dramatic vocalization to pushing the plunger of a syringe while administering an injection. The muscles of the abdominal wall contract, pushing up against the diaphragm, which expels air at a controlled rate of flow through the glottis, resulting in sound.
The section on laryngeal development and maturation is fascinating. Jahn and Davies point out that between the ages of 6 and 16 the developmental changes that take place are not in absolute range, but instead in improved laryngeal efficiency, control and quality.
The authors have a wonderful section on “Vocal training and the young larynx.” They discuss the dangers of a child beginning a musical career singing Broadway-type musicals in summer camp productions or copying the electronically enhanced voices they hear on the radio, and suggest that to start a young singer on training as soon as he shows a distinct enthusiasm is the best route to avoiding damage, if the teacher is sensitive, caring, and knowledgeable. This initial training might consist of nothing more than breathing and injury avoidance techniques. Davies and Jahn add that serious vocal studies should not begin in boys before the age of 18-19 and girls before the age of 17. Even then, the singer’s true Fach may not be evident for several years.
The authors give advice on choosing the right teacher, and caution against the “great artist” as teacher. He or she is often a poor teacher who simply forces his or her own technique on the student. Many great artists have great natural aptitude that has exempted them from personally encountering the technical problems their students may face. In fact, say the authors, some of the very best teachers may not have had “great” performing careers themselves.
A short but excellent chapter on the aging voice follows, with a very holistic viewpoint that aging is a gradual and lifelong process. None of us wakes up one morning with an “old” voice! The authors warn that one of the dangers of not being aware of our own aging process is that over time we tend to adopt compensatory habits, consciously or unconsciously, which can bring about a lessening of our vocal powers sooner rather than later.
The book does not provide specific exercises, but the two physicians discuss strategies to avoid this inevitable loss by maintaining general muscle tone and function. In the following chapter, Dr. Jahn tells us that choosing appropriate roles and knowing that changes in the voice over the years demand a change in the repertoire will lengthen the professional life of the singer. He cites Joan Sutherland and Leontyne Price as examples of singers who extended their careers by making wise choices of repertoire.
“Care of the Professional Voice” includes a section on voice conservation, when to perform and not to perform, and illness before performance. The advice contained in this section is straightforward, pithy, and succinct, told in a no-nonsense style that should aid singers when they are put in the unfortunate position of having to make a sing or not-sing decision.
Four meaty medical sections of the book include discussions of laryngeal disorders, general medical considerations in the vocal performer, medications and the professional voice, and surgery and the vocal artist. The laryngeal disorders category includes detailed paragraphs on posturing abnormalities of the larynx, acute and chronic laryngitis, vocal rest, vocal nodules, vocal fold cysts, vocal fold hemorrhage, laryngeal polyps, sulcus vocalis (scarring of the vocal chords), and paralysis of the larynx. Full-size color photographs illustrate many of these latter conditions.
In the general medical category, the authors include paragraphs on reflux laryngitis, allergy, asthma and respiratory dysfunction, obesity and diet, halitosis, hiccup, temporomandibular disorders (TMJ), and hormonal changes. Again, some photographs are included.
The medications chapter discusses the potential side effects on the vocal tract of many prescription and OTC (over-the-counter) formulas. The two doctors tell us that medications can interfere with the vocal mechanism in two ways: They can inhibit mucus secretion and flow over the surface of the folds, and they can cause dehydration, which results in improper oscillation of the vocal fold epithelium. Some medications are mentioned by brand name (Clarityn), and others by their generic nomenclature (antihistamines). Even vitamins and common herbs are included.
Finally, Jahn and Davies tell us what to look for when we choose an otolaryngologist and what steps to take when surgery of any kind is necessary.
If the medical chapters discussed above are the main course of “Care of the Professional Voice,” the side dishes are the excellent chapters on the more psychological aspects of singing. In a chapter titled “Anxiety, artistic temperament and the voice,” the authors assure us that “singers and actors are seldom intrinsically neurotic.” What a relief to know! But they also quote Benjamin Britten, who said we have “one skin less” than most other people. The enormous pressure to succeed night after night can take its toll on any one of us at any time and can manifest itself in stage fright, hysterical hoarseness, and self-sabotage in many forms. Informative paragraphs follow on the management of performance-related stress, self-evaluation and management of performance anxiety, anti-anxiety medications, and psychological counseling and psychotherapy.
Two extremely relevant chapters consider the issues
of the traveling singer and the popular music/musical theatre singer.
“If operatic singers are the high jumpers of the vocal Olympics, Broadway or West End performers are its marathon runners,” Davies and Jahn write. Belting, amplification, and theatre fog are all discussed in detail, with tips on how best to manage these elements.
They advise singers not to travel with a head cold, if at all possible, and to turn on the hot water as soon as they arrives in a hotel room, letting it run until the room is sufficiently humidified. They also advise against talking while in flight, because of the excessive noise level on airplanes. These are all common-sense practices, but it never hurts to have them reiterated in one place.
This excellent book, not including the index, is only 128 pages long. It is not encyclopedic in the sense that entries are alphabetical and completely self-contained. The separate sections instead are connected by various chapter designations and the information is easy to find if you are looking for a specific subject. It’s extremely well-written; there’s very little wasted verbiage, if any. The information is fascinating and made more so because it’s presented by medical doctors who love the voice, a different perspective than we get from our singer friends, who mean well but may not be scientifically reliable. Any singer who truly wants the medically correct answers during flu season will want to read this small volume, which brings the vocalist and the physician together on common ground.
