Summary: There was quite a lot to unpack in these chapters. One thing that he touched on for me that stood out is in the first chapter when he talks about how our voice is not a mechanical instrument. It can be so difficult to work on the voice because we can't look at the instrument and manipulate it like you can a piano, or a trombone. I feel like so many vocal majors are having a rough day simply because their voice is not cooperating. Whereas if another instrumentalist isn't having the best day, it may not affect their playing as it would affect their singing. It's crazy how that happens. And we can't see it and fix the issue. We have to feel it. I also thought the chapter about breathing was very beneficial talking about the different ways to think about breathing. You can go through the most intricate methods of developing a solid breath, or you could not even think about it and let your body work with it naturally. I feel like there has to be some happy medium about it, but I liked the ideas.
Application: It is so important as a voice teacher to understand how your student is feeling, because that can seriously have an impact on how they sound that day. Our voice is so connected with our emotions and other things that we don't even think about it can be frustrating for a singer. I got my start into music by playing the piano, that's my main instrument. So I get really frustrated when I'm sick or tired and I can't sing because I'm so used to just being able to go to the piano and play music to alleviate stress or whatever. I can't exactly do that with my voice (although I still jam out on the piano). When it comes to breath, I would rather not think about it a whole lot, because when I focus too much on it, other parts of my singing falters. I like to think of sensations when it comes to breathing rather than focusing on what I should tell my body what to do. Sorry, I had a lot of rambling but I hope I make some sort of sense.
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