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Vocal Exercises
These exercises were developed for teaching actors at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City who have little or no previous
vocal training. It is designed to coordinate foundational breathing exercises and allow sound to “be made” through release and talking on pitch by
removing any physical implemental tension which impedes the accuracy and quality of tone production.
This coupled with concentrated listening to the individual pitches and note patterns allows the coordination of the temporal lobe - which processes
the pitch of individual notes of the melody - and the cerebellum - which processes rhythm and melody - to establish pitch accuracy and quality of
musical tones.
Once these connections and pathways are made stronger through the repetition of the basic exercises (Vocal Exercises #1) and infusing this way of
working within the framework of simple songs, more complex exercises (Vocal Exercises #2) can be introduced and we can begin to activate the
frontal lobe which processes emotional content and other aspects of music.
The final step occurs after an extended period of daily practicing the vocal exercises (and continuing to maintain this regiment) and then
putting ones attention on the emotional content of the song. This process actually frees the voice more fully by allowing the temporal lobe
and cerebellum to operate on auto-pilot.
In the 23 years that I have taught singing at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, I have yet to run across anyone with real
amusia (tone deafness). The normal inability to not have success in singing is almost always attributable to physical implemental
tension and a mind-set that says, “I can’t sing”.
The time frame varies from one individual to the next, mainly due to the lack of regular daily workouts (1/2 hour per day
always yields better results than 2 hours once a week) and lack of interest, but eventually by having assignments to
prepare and days to individually demonstrate, everyone learns how to sing.
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The Voice - A Musical Instrument