Introduction
TMV brings together singers and teachers representing a wide range of singing backgrounds and techniques, each with its own concepts and terminology. With the encouragement of a number of TMV members, I have volunteered to pull together a research project to collect and organize a side-by-side equivalency (or 'Rosetta Stone' if you will) of these core concepts and terminologies, incorporating the perspectives and experiences of TMV members.
Our first step
I am writing this blog to invite you into the first phase of this project, which is to identify terminology sources and traditions, and any particular schools, teachers, materials or training systems having their own particular verbiage that you think we should include.
To participate
All you need do is respond to this blog, and indicate your interest, and name a terminology source with which you have been trained, along with your most preferred genre(s), and your years of training.
For example, if you are a classical choral singer that was trained for 4 years at Westminster Choir College, you could post that as 'Westminster Choir College - choral singer - 4 years'.
Or, if you have been (or are currently) using one of the popular CD-based systems, Name it, your genre(s) and how long you have been using it.
If you have studied with a private teacher (and feel comfortable discussing the core concepts and terminologies that they have used with you), by all means mention the teacher by name, the genre(s), and how long you have been studying with them.
What I will do
It will probably not take too long to collect the first round of information. In the next couple weeks or so, I will be setting up a discussion group, and inviting those who wish to help with the project to join. There, I will put up a first questionnaire, and we can begin to collect textual and sound clip examples of the concepts, and (especially interesting) clips which allow us to hear the sounds of voices using techniques and tone qualities that may have differing terminologies in the various schools/approaches.
So, Let's Begin
Please respond to this blog, and I will begin to build my lists!
Yours in TMV, Steve
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