Richard Miller recently added to his prolific output with Solutions for Singers: Tools for Performers and Teachers (Oxford University Press, 2004). This latest volume is set up in a user-friendly, question-and-answer format, and subdivided into topic-based chapters for easy reference.
Miller—a noted Oberlin Conservatory of Music vocal pedagogue who has given hundreds of master classes and pedagogy classes over the years—has taken more than 200 of his most frequently posed questions and organized them into 10 broad categories ranging from breath management, to resonance balancing, to registration, to more general performance concerns. In typical Miller fashion, he writes repeatedly that all singers and teachers need to understand both the mechanics of how things work and the acoustical phenomena involved. He has little patience for non-specific imagery, making forceful statements such as: “Advising the singer to activate the imagination will not keep the tongue from going where it should not go.”
If you were blessed with wonderful vocal pedagogy classes or teachers in your past–or especially, perhaps, if you weren’t–this book will help you move beyond holistic imaging into developing a keen understanding of how the voice of the premier singer really works.
Unlike his widely respected textbook The Structure of Singing, a teaching and singing standard, or his Fach-specific books (Teaching the Soprano Voice and Teaching the Tenor Voice), Miller has imbued this volume with an ease of writing style that is very approachable, thanks to the Q-and-A format, which assures that his answers are in a “readable” length that informs rather than overwhelms. Singers could read the book cover to cover, but it is perhaps most useful as a reference tool.
Miller provides vocalizes to correct specific vocal faults in the beginning singer. With a student unsure how to flip his or her [r], for example, he suggests rapidly saying “pot-a-tea” several times, then quickly juxtaposing it with the Italian “parti.”
His detailed instructions for how to determine the Fach of a young male voice—by exploring the young man’s speaking voice in conjunction with determining registration pivot points—is invaluable, as are his instructions for getting rid of breathiness in the young female voice. (Readers who desire more detailed responses and/or additional vocalize suggestions can refer to Miller’s previous books.)
For the more advanced singer, Miller delves into common problem areas, and offers his best advice (for my money) with his chapter on resonance balancing. He starts by providing a solid background of the physical components of the vocal tract (along with some very helpful anatomical diagrams), and then discuses the acoustical phenomena of vowel definition and tuning before delving into diagnoses and correctives. He explains how to avoid “falling back on the vowel,” or how to reduce tension in the articulators of the lips and tongue, as well as how to routine the onset in ways I found particularly effective. His discussion of “covering” and aggiustamento also is especially useful.
The book’s index can guide you to the questions most closely aligned with yours, and you’ll find Miller’s answers to be technical and precise, but not intimidating. Again, his responses reflect his fervent belief that vocal artistry and technique are irrevocably intertwined, and that teachers, especially, have an obligation to the profession to go beyond imagery into technical understanding.
Miller’s responses to questions relating to various aspects of breath management are illustrative of his approach. Although he acknowledges the various approaches to this aspect of vocal production, he systematically debunks both what he refers to as the ”internal abdominal thrust” (the “in-and-up” approach) and the “hypogastric distention” (the “down-and-out” approach) in favor of an “appoggio technique” where the singer maintains the posture of inhalation while using the three main muscles of the lower abdominal wall (the traverse abdominis, internal oblique, and external oblique). He proves the fallacies of alternative approaches by carefully explaining why they are not physiologically tenable. His opinionated responses might rub some readers the wrong way, but I found his directness refreshing.
At the end of the book, you’ll find some very helpful appendices, especially for the undergraduate or graduate student. Miller provides a glossary of vocal terminology along with two succinct appendices of IPA symbols that compare the vowels and consonants of all four major singing languages (English, German, Italian, and French). Finally, he includes a wonderful, annotated appendix of repertoire suggestions for younger or beginning singers that not only lists the standard chestnuts, but also offers some welcome alternatives.
Solutions for Singers: Tools for Performers and Teachers is a fine overview of the teachings of one of the country’s most renowned pedagogues, a book that manages to be both approachable and concise, and I recommend it highly.
