David Aks leads a busy career working with singers—from his main job as artistic director of the California State University–Northridge’s Opera Theater, to his more than 20 years working with Ann Baltz’s OperaWorks, to his long list of conducting credits nationwide. So how did this once-upon-a-time cello performance major at Oberlin College become so immersed in the opera field? More importantly, how did he create the curriculum for which he’s best known—empowering singers to use their minds fully in a form of practice Aks calls audio-visualization? And what is audio-visualization, anyway?
I sat down with Aks and singers who have worked with him to get the answers.
Could you please tell us a little of the story of your journey, from your training as a cellist to becoming the head of CSUN’s opera department and working with OperaWorks? What got you interested in working with opera and singers?
I was raised in a musical household. My grandfather [Wallingford Riegger] was a composer and my father was a choral conductor, and I grew up surrounded by the great choral masterworks. I started cello at an early age and actually began conducting when I was 13. I had parallel careers as cellist and orchestral conductor for the first part of my life. I started working with singers in earnest when I began teaching at OperaWorks. My understanding and appreciation for the operatic art form grew until I was asked, in 1999, to take over the opera program at California State University–Northridge, where I had been conducting the CSUN Symphony for 10 years.
I have now been directing this program for 12 years, and conducting opera is one of the great joys of my life. Why? I get to do the whole opera myself! I set every mood, I live every note and emotion of every character and every instrument, and I have the great responsibility and thrill of turning ink spots on the page into a three-hour slice of life on a magical planet where people sing instead of talk. I am often asked whether I prefer opera or orchestral conducting and, at this point in my life, the very real humanity of opera inspires me in a way that abstract orchestral music does not.
I’m excited to learn more about audio-visualization, as memorization has been a weak point in my singing arsenal. I expect that is a common complaint among singers. Yes?
I do understand that memorization can be a problem for singers, although it has always been my contention that there is no such thing as memorization: either you know it or you don’t. If you’ve done the work and you know the piece from the inside, then memorization should not be a problem.
But that wasn’t your question. Audio-visualization can be very useful in the learning process in that, if you take the time to practice and rehearse your music in your imagination, without actually singing, you will be establishing the neurological pathways that are required to firmly embed something in your mind. How is this different from singing out loud? It has several advantages: it saves wear and tear on your vocal folds; you can choose to do it perfectly in your imagination, which is something that never happens in reality; and you can do it in a state of great physical ease and relaxation, which rarely happens in reality, either. The adage that “practice makes permanent” is scientifically true, so it might be a good idea to practice the correct thing, which is much easier to achieve in your imagination than in reality.
How can a singer who really dives in, using this method as a guide, expect to improve?
It is a scientifically provable fact that the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between a real event and an imagined event. If you imagine it, your mind/body thinks you are doing it. This remarkable little design feature of the species can be put to incredible use if we only have the discipline to harness it to our advantage. Virtually any aspect of singing and performing can be developed using the power of our imagination to construct an ideal that is, well, ideal. Some of the things audio-visualization can help with are line, support, sound, vibrato, diction, high notes, low notes, etc. As I said before, we do what we imagine, so it would behoove us to have those images be ones we have consciously chosen, rather than a lifetime’s accumulation of doubts, insecurities, and bad habits.
How would you introduce someone unfamiliar with the techniques to the basics of what audio-visualization is all about?
Audio-visualization is no more and no less than using your powers of imagination in very specific ways to solve technical, vocal, and artistic problems in an efficient, time-saving manner. It also requires a clear understanding of the functions of the two hemispheres of the brain. It is a proven fact that we learn better from right brain images than from the left brain instructions. The act of “trying to remember” resides in the left brain, and we all know how effective that can be when we are on stage trying to count, have perfect diction, follow the conductor, relate to other people, deal with a costume malfunction and, above all, look natural!
Through many years of working with singers at OperaWorks and CSUN, I am convinced that audio-visualization can be a wonderful tool in a singer’s practice arsenal. It can also be empowering when singers learn that the ability to change and grow lies within themselves and their own imagination, if they will only take the time to use it creatively.
What inspired you to start experimenting with mental, as opposed to physical, rehearsal?
Several years back, OperaWorks invited Don Greene, a prominent performance psychologist, to work with our singers. His background was in sports psychology, and among the many wonderful things he taught our students was his emphasis on “mental practice.” He brought a book to my attention, Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, that basically lays out the theory and practice of visualization in all aspects of life. I began to use these principles in my own cello playing, with remarkable results.
Mind you, this is not a substitute for actual physical practice. One must go to a master teacher to find out the proper way to do it (whatever “it” is). Then one must “do the reps” and build the muscles and the muscle memory required to accomplish the task. It is at this point, when we have done the practice and we still don’t like the way it sounds, that visualization can be incredibly helpful. Usually the problem is mental, not physical, and a mental solution is called for.
In my own cello practice, if I make the same mistake twice, I put the bow down, close my eyes and begin examining my thought processes to see if I am being clear in my conception of how I want it to feel and how I want it to sound. Then I go over the passage at least 10 times before playing it again. And, as a student of mine once wrote after going away to grad school, “You know that visualization thing you taught me? It always works—100 percent of the time.”
What would be some first steps you’d suggest to singers who would like to begin using their imagination to improve their craft?
You mean besides coming to my sessions at the convention? Seriously, I think it is important to find a teacher who can help them develop the techniques and discipline to effectively use visualization to their advantage.
Is it better to imagine aspects of performance from an audience or performer perspective, from outside or inside? Or do singers often use a combination of the two?
That’s a very good question, and really depends on what a singer is trying to work on. In my experience, most of the work of singing is internal, a mental conception of a specific technique, or an image, or a sound. And there is also the ever-vexing issue of all that negative chatter inside our heads that keeps us from doing our best.
If you have been singing a piece for five years, and every single time you get to that hard part you think, “Oh no, here it comes!” that is your image of that moment, whether you like it or not, and it will affect your performance of that passage. You’ve become quite expert at that particular thought, and no amount of physical practice is going to break you of that. But, in your imagination you can choose to replace it with a more positive, helpful thought. Do the passage 20 times in your imagination with that new approach, and I guarantee you will be well on your way to solving the problem.
Remember, you can be anything in your imagination, even perfect.
