The Singer’s Guide to Complete Health
edited by Anthony F. Jahn, MD
(Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0195374032)
“You are what you eat.” “He has nodules? He must have bad technique.” “You’ll get used to auditioning; it’s only difficult the first few times.” “You’re too fat.” “You’re too skinny.”
With what feels like millions of opinions floating around in this industry, many directed at you, it’s important to know what’s truly best for you and not the thousands of other singers in your Fach.
Add The Singer’s Guide to Complete Health, edited by Anthony F. Jahn, MD, to your arsenal of references on singer health.
This book certainly covers topics of interest to me personally—and I can’t imagine I’m the only singer out there who has considered meditation, home remedies, and yoga and how they might be of use to a performing artist.
But the beauty of this book, in its 36 chapters and 400-plus pages, is that it’s comprehensive in its coverage of many aspects of vocal, physical, and mental health.
While Jahn himself wrote a number of chapters in this book, and edited it in its entirety, he brought in other professionals to contribute their diverse expertise. This means you may encounter from chapter to chapter opinions that do not quite line up with one another, but that is perhaps the way a guide should be.
Jahn is medical director at the Metropolitan Opera and is a board-certified otolaryngologist with special interest in care for professional voice patients. The guest writers are not all doctors; take comfort in knowing you are getting a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. For a performer’s perspective, Jahn called in singer and actor Marni Nixon (the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 My Fair Lady film), tenor Anthony Laciura (of television series “Boardwalk Empire” fame since 2010), and New York-based mezzo-soprano Ory Brown, to name a few. Other guest writers are from fields such as audiology, traditional Chinese medicine, facial cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, dermatology, and cardiology.
The first chapter, written by Jahn, touches on keys to overall health. Jahn provides a “typical prescription for good health” written by Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago and shows how many of the same principles apply to modern medicine. He writes that a “healthy and maximally lived life requires that we pay attention to three things: our body’s circulation, our immune system, and the effect of our mind on the physical body,” giving a brief explanation of each with advice on how to work toward achieving those aspects of health. Some of what’s in this chapter is common sense, but it never hurts to have the ideas reinforced by a well-respected doctor.
The second chapter, also by Jahn, is a concise (23-page) overview of the vocal apparatus. It quite successfully summarizes—in words, diagrams, and tables—what we’ve all labored through in numerous pedagogy books, but with some commentary from the perspective of an otolaryngologist. Jahn says it best: “ . . . no description can begin to touch the complexity of the act of singing,” but he does a fine job within these pages.
Next up are chapters by doctors on pulmonary medicine and allergy basics. Included are causes, symptoms, and treatments of ailments such as asthma and allergic rhinitis, which many singers deal with at some point in their lives. For you pet lovers out there, Dr. Boyan Hadjiev respects that getting rid of a pet to reduce exposure to pet dander allergens is “usually difficult to do,” so he offers tips for controlling the dander.
Jahn writes on disorders of the nose, sinuses, and throat and recommends seeking a “second, even a third, opinion before making a decision” if surgery is prescribed. Also, he says, “The surgery should be performed by a surgeon who is familiar with the anatomy and physiology of singing.”
In addition to what you might expect to find in classical singing reference books on pedagogy and general health, insight into mental health, acupuncture, Chinese herbal remedies, skin care, bariatric surgery, and “crossing over” set this apart as a multifaceted resource.
One of my favorite chapters is “Mental Health for Singers,” written by David M. Sherman, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist who is consultant to the Juilliard School. He writes about the “unique set of stresses that are particular to your trade.” Sherman’s information is presented clinically but also humanely, without judgment and with the perspective of someone who understands a singer’s struggles—for instance, relationships with teachers, dealing with failures, and harnessing stage fright.
I have only scratched the surface. To summarize every chapter in the book would not only take pages and pages of magazine space, but doing so would not do justice to the valuable information found in The Singer’s Guide to Complete Health.
I do not think the goal of this compilation of essays is to tell you how to live your life but to impart some of the knowledge these medical and industry experts have to offer. In fact, I expect the discerning singer will disagree with some of the opinions presented here. But you will likely find just as many, if not more, opinions that will change the way you think about your personal health. Available in Kindle format, hardcover, and paperback, I highly recommend picking this up as soon as possible.
Holiday reading, anyone?
