Journal de médecine pulmonaire

Voice academy- intensive training for high performance singers

Julya Macedo

This training method called “Voice Academy” was developed to provide singers the opportunity to perform intensive and weekly training in order to improve their physical- vocal performance during singing. Functional training is an approach of the vocal technique that develops the conditioning from the natural physiological responses of the vocal tract, stimulating flexibility and freedom, as well as the conditioning of the muscles involved in the production of the singing voice. The training is held weekly in groups of three to six singers, lasting 60 minutes. The groups are divided and treatment is planned based on an individual prior evaluation of each singer by a speech therapist and an otolaryngological evaluation. Singers, who need speech therapy due to some vocal disorder or specific otorhinolaryngological treatment, perform these calls before participating in the groups. The training is divided into modalities: breathing, vocal register, vocal extension, dynamics, articulation, resonance and rhythm. There are an average number of meetings for each aspect based on the exercise physiologic; however, the need for each group is taken into consideration, which may change the number of workouts. During respiratory training, the following topics: volume control, expiratory flow control, dynamic resistance, inspiratory and expiratory muscle perception and conditioning, pneumophonoarticulatory support and coordination. In resonance training, is important knowledge of the places and levels of resonance. This practice is related to vocal register and vocal extension, which addresses the knowledge and conditioning of the muscles involved in the production of bass and treble, muscle progression, zone of passage and chest, mixed, head and falsetto records. Finally, during the training of articulation and diction the focus is on voice projection, vowel production and its relationship with tongue height and tension, phoneme accuracy, articulation levels and position of mouth. The proposal is to present a work with great adherence of the singers, already held some years ago, in my clinical practice and provides tools for vocal group training.