The Fundamentals of Singing and Vocal Production

Catalog description

The origin of singing predates the development of spoken language. Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the human voice and provides a medium for communication universally across cultures. This course explores the fundamentals of voice production and offers tools to help singers at any level develop their singing voices. Preliminary objectives will include a basic understanding of musical information associated with singing. The main objectives of the course are: to explore and understand the four systems of singing (respiration, phonation, resonation and articulation) and how they relate to voice production; to provide a greater understanding of fundamental elements of singing; to understand basic laryngeal anatomy as it relates to voice production; to build an awareness of body alignment as it relates to singing; and to provide practice tools for continued education and vocal growth through an applied vocal exercise database. This entry level, non-major, course offering provides greater accessibility to personalized voice instruction which can often only be found in the one on one studio setting. Additionally, as singing is highly personal, this course offers students the opportunity to practice and explore singing at their own pace and in private. The objectives will be accomplished by utilizing an interactive, multimedia online curriculum including instructional videos that demonstrate vocal concepts, selected readings, selected supplementary videos, and a vocal exercise database. Evaluation methods will include quizzes, reflections and assessments of recordings of the students own singing. Students will receive (3) credits for this course, as well as (GA) designation. All videos, texts and examples will be made available to students online.