The Essentials of Beautiful Singing: A Three-Step Kinesthetic Approach

Voice research has revealed much about the singing voice, but science without practical application may fall short of fine singing. In The Essentials of Beautiful Singing: A Three Step Kinesthetic Approach, performer and scholar Karen Tillotson Bauer bridges the gap between science and singing. It reframes the complexities of voice science with a cultivated simplicity of style and terminology that speaks directly to the singer’s experience of singing, a kinesthetic one. Although well grounded in science, Bauer’s book does not linger in scientific terminology, but rather focuses on an action-based pedagogical approach that speaks to the kinesthetic nature of singing. The skillful use of the body as a musical instrument is the source of fine singing and only through heightened kinesthetic awareness can vocal skills be achieved and refined. Fact-based explanations of kinesthetic singing processes are remarkably clear and replace vague notions about good breath management, rich resonance, and clear enunciation. Guided exercises inform both the body and the mind as a kinesthetic unit. The Essentials of Beautiful Singing has received praise in the Journal of Singing, Choice Reviews for Academic Music Libraries, and the International Choral Bulletin, among others. Its practical perspective reflects the efforts and goals of singer, voice teacher, and choral director. Paired with a science focused text in a voice pedagogy class, it provides a needed balance between science and singing.

About the Author :
Karen Tillotson Bauer has spent more than thirty years teaching singing in the voice studio, in pedagogy classes, and in choral settings for undergraduate and graduate students. She has taught numerous master classes in the United States and abroad, most recently at the University of London, England. She has taught voice and staged opera for the Opera Festival di Roma, Italy, as well as at North Park University in Chicago, where she is director of the Master of Music in Vocal Performance. Bauer’s passion for teaching professionally bound singers and training future voice teachers has led to this unique three-step approach to singing.

Review :
This is a how-to manual in the truest sense. Bauer, an experienced voice teacher, eschews the technical information and jargon currently found in most vocal pedagogy books and concentrates instead on the physical experience of singing. Her kinesthetic approach espouses a mind-body coordination supported by sound technical principles imparted and recalled by simple language prompts. The explanations provided for each of the three steps of her method are uncomplicated and adaptable to a wide variety of teaching styles. Though she cultivates simplicity in style and terminology, the author reveals a keen understanding of the vocal mechanism and also familiarity with modern advances in vocal science and pedagogy. . . . [W]hen Bauer addresses musical skills: her overly detailed analysis of musical/textual syntax and legato risks inhibiting a student's natural musical inclinations. Experienced singers and novices should still find the vast majority of the book enlightening and refreshing in its ease of use and practicality. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. Learning how to sing beautifully and effectively is greatly facilitated by a volume such as this. Experienced teachers . . . will discover innovative ways to teach students how to sing. The Essentials of Beautiful Singing is an excellent guide to the kinesthetic exploration of the vocal art. The Essentials of Beautiful Singing is written in a direct, clear manner. The reading level is appropriate for college students as well as many younger teenagers. The terminology used in the book is in line with modern voice research, with Bauer thoughtfully explaining her reasoning for the terms she uses. The book provides a[n] . . . understandable introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet, and the vocal exercises can be directly applied to both vocal and choral settings. [The book is] helpful for any voice teacher and . . . useful as assigned reading for voice students. . . .Its effective and targeted exercises, and clear descriptions of how to correct common vocal faults make this a handy companion to anyone who works with singers of all ages. The Essentials of Beautiful Singing deserves a space on the shelf of any serious voice teacher in training if for no other reason than the promising ratio of brevity to effectiveness. By resisting the urge to be comprehensive, Bauer’s book accomplishes something that standard vocal pedagogy texts often do not: it allows the reader to step into the mind of a teacher who is not only interested in healthfully produced, repeatable results, but also the most simple version of the dependable process that gives rise to those results. In my experience, this—a process that allows them to sing well when they leave the studio—is what students most desire to take away from their voice lessons. Bauer's book is a welcome one if only because there is a death of texts which focus on singing from a kinesthetic perspective. Look through most publisher's catalogues and what will you find? Multiple treatises which promote the teaching of singing from a 'declarative' standpoint, that is, by acquiring stacks of facts regarding anatomy, physiology and acoustics. Great stuff to be sure, but anyone who knows anything about learning theory knows that this is not the way one learns to sing—which Bauer makes clear in her introduction….Knowing the facts regarding anatomy, physiology and acoustics may be essential for the voice teacher and scientist, but this knowledge does not help the student learn to sing any more than knowing how a car engine is built teaches one to drive. It is for this reason alone that Bauer's approach of 'cultivated simplicity' should be welcomed by information-overloaded students and teachers of singing….Well-written and easily comprehended, The Essentials of Beautiful Singing: A Three-Step Kinesthetic Approach needs to be in your library. Bauer’s helpful approach is not merely one teacher’s bag of tricks or collection of sometimes useful images. Rather, it applies the functional understanding gleaned from voice science to the voice studio in a manner that accentuates practical, reliable, and repeatable techniques. The valuable philosophies found within The Essential of Beautiful Singing deserve to be widely shared and enthusiastically practiced among singers and voice teachers alike. Reviewed by Brian Manternach. Karen Bauer’s The Essentials of Beautiful Singing is a refreshingly accessible distillation of—as the title aptly states—the essential elements of excellent singing as kinesthetically experienced by the singer. Bauer translates successful historic pedagogy as affirmed by emerging voice science into an easy to understand and apply common sense approach that is simple without being simplistic and rich with the wisdom of her experience. Karen Bauer’s The Essentials of Beautiful Singing is an important addition to every pedagogue’s catalog of teaching resources. Her method is based on accessible kinesthetic concepts of open body, open throat, and forward articulation (OOF), which provide a framework for the development of a reliable singing technique. A wealth of exercises are provided to guide the singer’s path, along with common traps and pitfalls to avoid along the way. This book doesn’t simply explain how the voice functions as an instrument—it teaches us how to play that instrument with beautiful singing.