Vocal Techniques for the Instrumentalist - 2nd edition

Reviewed by Briana Nannen, Associate Professor, Marshall University on 5/15/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 2 see less

This book provides a nice overview of the vocal mechanism.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

While I appreciated the claims made about singing in the opening pages of the book, they did not include citations, offering little confidence about their accuracy. The remainder of the book, however, includes beneficial information on the singing voice and would be a nice introduction for students.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The correlation of voice to instrument was very beneficial and included the point of deviation for singers. The diaphragm video link was helpful in showing a visual representation of what was discussed in the text. It would be wonderful to have those for each section. (The forced breathing video link went to a page stating the video had been removed so checking and updating links in the future will be necessary to keep the book relevant).

Clarity rating: 5

The book is enjoyable to read.

Consistency rating: 3

There was some contradictory information regarding the vocal tract, ex. stopping at the soft palate but including the nasal cavity as a resonator and a part of the vocal tract in later descriptions.

Modularity rating: 4

The headings are clearly labeled and broken down by section.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

I like the inclusion of exercises throughout but would like to see the vocal exercises embedded in the reading rather than requiring students to flip back and forth. Having them in both locations with headings where they appear in the Appendix would be beneficial.

Interface rating: 4

The inclusion of the vocal exercises, glossary of terms, vocal journal, and IPA guides were a good closure for the text. The visual representations included were limited, but beneficial to show the reader what had been described in the previous passages. Some links did not work but the ones that did were beneficial in supporting the content of the textbook.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

There are, unfortunately, some grammatical errors in the opening pages of the book, which are somewhat off-putting for the reader going forward. These continue throughout the book and could cause some confusion for readers unfamiliar with the content.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

Some examples in the text are listed as a gender binary while others illustrate gender paired to voice type (ex. alto/she). While the examples listed are common, the language can exclude transgender singers.

Comments

Overall the inside of the book is aesthetically pleasing. I appreciate the note following the introduction encouraging the reader to find their own unique singing voice.

I appreciated the inclusion of the hyperlinks, but the first one went to a dead link, which might discourage students from clicking on the remaining active links throughout the text.

Reviewed by Randall Speer, Professor, Randolph College on 3/25/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Amy Rosine's Vocal Techniques for the Instrumentalist is a decent crash course in vocal technique for instrumentalist music education students. The brevity of the text overall does result in a less comprehensive approach to the topic. For example, some topics helpful to instrumentalists in K-12 school settings, such as children's and changing voices, are unfortunately not present. Additionally, more exercises could be provided for the physical practice of concepts.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

The text is somewhat based on Clifton Ware's Adventures in Singing, which puts concepts from his Basics of Vocal Pedagogy into a usable class voice (for singers) format. Ware's pedagogy textbook directly reflects concepts and content in Richard Miller's highly respected The Structure of Singing. However accurate Rosine's brief treatment of topics may be, it may lead to occasional misunderstanding of some concepts. For instance, range information is provided for adult solo voice classifications of bass/baritone/tenor/contralto/mezzo-soprano/soprano, with the helpful suggestion that choral designations of bass/tenor/alto/soprano are more useful in the K-12 setting. No range information is provided for K-12 choral singers. Understandably, passaggi and registration, the most reliable indicators for voice classification of the adult voice, appear to receive less weight than the discussion of range. The discussion of resonance leaves out the fact that conductive resonance is the primary source of information for the singer.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The concepts of vocal production presented are very relevant and rather timeless.

Clarity rating: 5

Concepts are presented in a very concise, clear manner.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is very consistent.

Modularity rating: 5

The book is logically broken down into the same divisions as Ware's and Miller's pedagogy texts.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book follows the same organization as Ware's and Miller's pedagogy texts.

Interface rating: 3

Links do not open in new windows; return to text takes one to the beginning of the book.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book contains no culturally insensitive material, and is based on sound concepts of voice science.

Reviewed by Alissa Rose, Professor, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania on 3/15/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The book is quite short, but most applicable topics are briefly covered.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I do not agree with everything in it, but it is generally unobjectionable and accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

There is no real issue with this material going out of date, at least not very quickly.

Clarity rating: 4

The book is well-written and easy to read, in a fairly conversational tone, although I'd sometimes like a few more words– it would flow better with a bit more explanation.

Consistency rating: 4

I did not find any inconsistencies in this text.

Modularity rating: 4

I think one could fairly easily excerpt a chapter or two for use in this or another course.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The book is well-organized, and topics are ordered similarly to other similar texts.

Interface rating: 2

When clicking on a link, the link opens in the same window, not a new one, and when then going back, it goes back to the beginning of the book, not where you were.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

I found no errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

I didn't find any particular references to other cultures or ethnicities, but it is not offensive in any way, unless the reader would like more references to non-classical singing.

Reviewed by Elaine Bernstorf, Professor, Wichita State University on 10/31/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The comprehensive scope seems appropriate for the intended audience. As a short text it covers the most important topics briefly, but with specific comments that relate to instrumental musicians.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

From my view as a musician and speech pathologist, the simple nature of the text supports accuracy by not presenting controversial topics.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

This is a needed resource for instrumental musicians who may be taking a group voice class. The design of the text has a focus toward solo singing and apears to support a course requirement for preparation of a traditional classical solo. The text could be broadened more toward added types of singing. For example, the text mentions that instrumental teachers may need to sing in elementary settings. In my experience those instrumentalists who sing most effectively use singing for many tasks. They sing to demonstrate style, in jazz settings, in community performance settings, and in teaching. These tasks are eluded only slightly.

Clarity rating: 5

The langauge is kept at a simple level and technical vocabulary is supported with descriptions and a glossary.

Consistency rating: 4

The text seems consistent with material that has been used effectively and packaged for a group seeting and a semester course.

Modularity rating: 4

The course is nicely divided into modules but those modules seem designed to be sequential. I would hesitate to reorder the chapters. That being said, the order of presentation aligns with usual vocal pedagogy texts and is appropriate for the topic and the audience for which is intended.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics of the text and their organization are logical for this topic. The introductory chapters are helpful in setting up a positive appropach to vocal techniques. The topic of each chapter is presented in a friendly appropach with a simple exercise for application.

Interface rating: 3

There were not very many added links to supporting material. The suggested links were not inappropriate but were a bit difficult to navigate as they did not open in separate windows and when using the backup key, the return was to the first page of the book rather than back to the location of the link within the text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text was clearly written with no evident grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Given that the majority of the text is focused on technical aspects of vocal production, this comment is primarily related to the chapter on articulation. The nature of the text is toward a traditional classic approach to vocal technique/pedagogy . As such, the chapter is culturally limited toward western music literature and romance languages and vowel modification. However, early in the text, the author encourages the instrumentalists to sing as a means to "widen your cultural understanding."

Comments

This text is limited in scope, but appears to do exactly what it is designed to do. It is a nice text for a required vocal course for instrumentalists. It also could serve as nice added reference text for a both vocal and instrumental music education students taking a choral techniques class.

Reviewed by Crystal Kim, Adjunct Lecturer, New York City College of Technology on 4/13/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The basis of the technique has a great scientific and anatomical explanation to how the voice is used as an instrument. Since singing has to use the right body parts to make full use of the voice, the book goes into detail of what these body parts are and why they are important. It could link certain techniques to more hands on use such as giving better explanations on utilizing the exercises, such as how we can use the body to make the singing breathe better. Though videos were shown to partially show this, the videos could have been longer as a better visual tool, and one of the video does lack sound as well. The book does provide great types of consonants to look out for in regards to phonation. Some video or audio samples of these types of consonants could have been useful. And how to utilize vocal techniques to make these particular types of consonants more effective could have been further explained and tied together. Overall, a great explanation of body parts used for vocal techniques is shown and explained.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Overall accurate at least as far as my knowledge of the vocal side.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The book would be very helpful as a supplement to an intermediate level or above singer and/or if a teacher provides great explanations to what the book provides. For a beginner, it may be a big hard without any sort of hand on experience.

Clarity rating: 4

The sound of one of the videos does not work which they link to Youtube and only noticed 1 misspelled word.

Consistency rating: 4

The book is consistent with the body anatomy and how that's to be used effectively with the singing voice. Just as mentioned before, how to utilize vocal techniques to make particular types of consonants more effective could have been further explained and tied together, and how to utilize the breathe better.

Modularity rating: 4

Overall, organizes the sections pretty well and categorizes topics and sub-topics well.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The topics in the text are presented overall in a clear way for the intermediate level or above user. Without hands-on experience, it may be a little confusing to a beginner. Just more sub-topics on breathe control and phonation could have been explored in detail.

Interface rating: 3

Better video content could have been used. Having a 2D type of animation wasn't bad to understand how the diaphragm works during singing but could have extended that further with an actual person singing.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Nothing offensive. Might have been interesting to including sounds that may exist from tonal languages.

Reviewed by Shawn Goodman-Royer, Assistant Professor, Marian University on 12/26/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

Rosine was very concise and created an easy to read book. However, the book does not cover a variety of topics that might be considered essential for the pre-service educator. Specifically, the Rosine does not really address the changing male voice and how to address this pedagogically, nor does the author address techniques for teaching in choral settings.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content of this book is accurate and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This book is up-to-date and incorporates citations and relevant references. Additionally, the book includes relevant hyperlinks to additional content, including videos and websites.

Clarity rating: 5

One of the things that I really like about this book is that it is written in easy to understand, conversational text. The book is not overly academic in nature and is obviously geared towards an undergraduate level music student.

Consistency rating: 5

This book is consistent throughout in that the author utilizes minimal text while incorporating an appropriate mixture of graphics, colors, and links to keep students engaged.

Modularity rating: 4

The first four chapters of this text could probably be condensed into one chapter while the latter chapters address more specific techniques and academic information. With only 47 pages total, including the title pages and table of contents, I feel that this text is lacking much needed chapters on pedagogical techniques, specifically addressing choirs and how to work with adolescent's changing voices.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The order in which the content was presented was logical and presented in a way that was clear and concise.

Interface rating: 5

This text was easy to navigate and the links were helpful.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

There are several misprints and typographical errors present throughout this text. While it is usually easy to figure out what the author meant, the errors are a bit distracting.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

This text addresses bel canto, operatic, and folk-singing, but does not address more modern styles and does not incorporate other non-Western cultures. Specifically, there was not any discussion of jazz or other African music traditions, pop music, musical theatre, or any cultures or musics outside of the Western cannon.

Comments

This textbook refers to the vocal techniques "class" and contains specific references to the class structure within which the author envisions this book being used. For example, on page 4, the text reads, "This course uses group meetings to provide feedback between class meetings," and page 12 reads, "The final exam for this class is a public recital..." If you plan to use this textbook, you'll want to keep this in mind when planning your course! Also, for a book that is specifically geared towards "instrumental music education students," I wish that the book dedicated as much time to pedagogical approaches as it does to the excellent information it presents about phonation, resonance, and articulation.