PRACTICE59

Daily or twice daily practice for short periods of time is preferable to long periods. Practice periods should be spaced so that a student does not overdo or lose interest. It is possible to practice softly at different times, or to practice mentally, imagining that one is actually singing. What a student should practice should be set up by the teacher in the singing lessons.

One of the practice tools used by many teachers is vocal¬ization exercising the singing voice on the vowel sounds. The exercises used should be reasonably easy, based primarily on scales, arpeggios, and chords, so that a student can learn to vocalize by himself. Many students, however, with no background in piano, find it difficult to accompany them¬selves even in simple exercises.

In such cases a student should work with an accompanist, or make use of practice aid records which have accompani¬ments for vocalization and song study. It is hardly to be expected that practice will perfect a student's singing, but it will go a long way towards establishing his singing technique if intelligently used.

Memorization 60

Memorization is a mental process involving the ability to retain and re¬call song material that has been previously learned. This ability varies with individuals - some are quick studies; that is, they memorize easily. Some are said to have photographic memories; that is, they can look at a page of music and remember it. The average person is dependent on a process of overlearning through repetition, as a basis for recall.

The more meaningful the song material is to a student the easier he will memorize it. To be meaningful the song material should be the type of lit¬erature that he enjoys singing, or which will reward him, if he sings it well, in a scholastic, a monetary, or a social way. How long the student will be able to retain the material he has memorized will depend also on his understanding of the song material.

This involves knowing the underlying mood or interpretative idea in a song, and in the case of foreign texts, the exact meaning of the words. In the case of a singing part or role, a thorough understanding of the character he has to portray in relation to other characters will aid in retention. Memorization without understanding shortens the time of retention and recall.

Memory

The ability of a student to remember what he has been taught technically will depend on how well he understands what he has been taught. What he understands he will retain longer. In contrast to this is learning without understanding, called rote learning. This type of learning is difficult to re¬tain. Whatever helps a student organize and integrate his knowledge of how to sing will eventually aid him in solving his own problems.

Emotion61 cont.

Emotion in singing may be defined as a state of mind used by a singer to emphasize the emotional content of a song. Among the more common emotions which a good interpreter can project in his singing are love, joy, happiness, fear, grief, and anger, all of which can be enhanced by facial and bodily expression.