Functional Voice Training
Through
Jazz Literature and Style
LIZ JOHNSON SCHAFER, MM, CERTIF. IN VOCOLOGY
JAZZ EDUCATION NETWORK (JEN) CONFERENCE
JAN. 7, 2017, NEW ORLEANS, LA
Key Points:

Difference between vocal function and style

Understanding of Vocal Athleticism

What Jazz singing offers in terms of voice training

Style

Literature

Definition of Vocology

Muscle specificity and (music) Interval Training

Future of Vocology and Jazz Voice programs

Collegiate marketing – selling jazz voice to contemporary singers

Identifying populations who could benefit from functional voice training

Creating Vocology courses for all singing programs
Vocal Athletes
“Training of the performing voice is not unlike training an
athlete to achieve optimal performance. Individuals who
rely on the voice for stage or song use skeletal muscles
that share many of the same properties as the muscles
used by athletes.”
~Mary Sandage, PhD
The Voice Foundation Newsletter, 2015, Vol. 20, Issue 1
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Communication Disorders
Auburn University
How I learned about vocal function:

Saxophone player turns to singing (it’s all about jazz)

Started teaching JAZZ Voice lessons @ collegiate level

Wait! WHAT?!? Help!

How does the voice work, exactly?????

Mission Impossible: where does one learn the deeper science of the voice
as a “jazz singer?”

Graduate School in Commercial Music Performance, with a heavy,
heaping dose of vocal pedagogy

Summer Vocology Institute @ University of Utah and the
National Center for Voice and Speech
What I learned teaching
Jazz Voice as a University Elective:


Wide array of students

Instrumentalists

Students from Arts and Sciences Departments

New singers

Singers scared of classical

Kids who love jazz and jazz newbies
Bottom Line: jazz will get a voice up and running!

Literature

Style

Both opportunities for addressing functional and technical voice issues
What does Jazz Literature offer the
Vocal Athlete?

Language – jazz vocabulary can be used for composition and creativity
in all commercial styles

Ear Training

Theory

Overall MUSICIANSHIP

Offers an opportunity to incorporate efficient vocal function and
technique

Demonstration of lower and upper registers of healthy, functional voice

Efficient breath support and control

Articulation, vowel development

Intonation

Resonance

etc. etc. etc.
What does Jazz Style offer the
Vocal Athlete?

Agility, flexibility and healthy registration – again, a gateway for addressing
functional issues that inhibit artistic expression

Creativity - FREEDOM

Musicianship – again, putting all the technical ability to use

Celebrates unique timbres of voice

Speech-like singing genre, applicable to other commercial styles



One syllable per note

Low volume – microphone supported vocal production
Rhythmic Training

Awareness

Skill Building
Experimentation – sound, phrasing, emotional expression
What is Vocology?
Audiology : hearing
Vocology : voice
Anatomy and Physiology
for Singing
Laryngeal Anatomy:
Antagonistic (intrinsic) Muscle Groups
TA (Thyroarytenoid) Muscles:
Vocal Folds, Adductors
CT (Cricothyroid) Muscles:
Pitch Control
Muscle Specificity
“One of the key tenants of exercise physiology is the principle of
training specificity, which holds that training responses/adaptations
are tightly coupled to the mode, frequency and duration of
exercise performed (Hawley, 2002). This means that the vast majority
of training-induced adaptations occur only in those muscle fibers
that have been recruited during the exercise regimen, with little or
no adaptive changes occurring in untrained musculature.”
John A. Hawley
“Specificity of training adaptation: time for a rethink?”
Journal of Physiology. 2008 Jan 1; 586(Pt 1): 1–2.
Muscle Specificity
“Furthermore, the principle of specificity predicts that the closer the
training routine is to the requirements of the desired outcome (i.e. a
specific exercise task or performance criteria), the better will be the
outcome.”
John A. Hawley
“Specificity of training adaptation: time for a rethink?”
Journal of Physiology. 2008 Jan 1; 586(Pt 1): 1–2.
Interval Training Using Lit.
Interval Analysis
Here's That Rainy Day – Consecutive Intervals
28
16
6
7
7
3
1
0
Half
Whole
min 3rd
3rd
4th
3
1
0
T.T.
5th
min 6th
6th
2
0
min 7th
7th
Interval Analysis
Well You Needn't – Consecutive Intervals
52
27
20
21
14
0
0
0
Half
Whole
min 3rd
3rd
4th
T.T.
3
5th
0
0
min 6th
6th
6
6
min 7th
7th
Interval Analysis
Midnight Sun – Consecutive Intervals
92
56
16
14
6
0
Half
Whole
min 3rd
3rd
9
2
2
0
0
0
0
4th
T.T.
5th
min 6th
6th
min 7th
7th
Interval Analysis
Desafinado – Consecutive Intervals
75
39
21
21
8
12
1
0
Half
Whole
min 3rd
3rd
4th
T.T.
3
4
5th
min 6th
2
1
0
6th
min 7th
7th
Interval Analysis in Skylark
Interval Analysis in Skylark
Interval Analysis Skylark, mm. 22-24
Consecutive
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Root
half
whole
m 3rd
3rd
4th
TT
5th
#5th
6th
Interval Analysis Skylark, mm. 22-24
Simultaneous
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Root
half
whole
m 3rd
3rd
4th
TT
5th
#5th
6th
min 7th
7th
Octave
min 9
9th
Interval Analysis Skylark, mm. 22-24
Skylark, mm. 22-24
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Consecutive
Simultaneous
Future of Jazz Voice Training



We need to see ourselves (jazz educators) in a larger context

Contemporary Voice Programs

Training for Vocal Athletes

Collegiate Programming should contain Functional Voice Training
Start Introducing Vocology into our Programs

Pedagogy (is different than!!)

Vocology
Plumb the depths of jazz literature and style for performance and
training methods
VoiceScienceWorks.org