Annika-McCoy-Chapter1

 Summary: McCoy opens the book by explaining how we hear singing and the continuums we listen on. He gives examples of artists and songs they’ve sung that demonstrate different areas of our voices and how we hear them. McCoy writes about the following continuums: Bright to Dark, Back to Swallowed, Breathy to Clear, Clean to Raspy, Healthy to Damaged, Nasal to Non-nasal, Vibrant to Straight tone, In tune to Not in tune, Good diction to poor diction, and Stylistically correct to Stylistically incorrect. He uses ratings to rank how several professional musicians sing certain songs and where they sit on each of these continuums.

Application: It is important to not only be critical singers, but also critical listeners. We can listen to music and identify the continuums for ourselves, which we can use with our students to help them achieve the healthiest, clearest, most well supported sound possible. We can also use this in our own practice, recording ourselves and listening back to identify where we sit on each continuum and how we can improve.