Online Reviews
Voice teacher? Vocal pedagogy teacher? Singer? Buy this book. Buy it now. While others have written about this, Bozeman is able to present this complex material concisely and practically in a way that everyone can understand intellectually, aurally, and kinesthetically. Teachers of singing, rejoice! With concrete examples of elite singers drawn from easily accessible youtube videos, useful videos of singing students found on the accompanying DVD, and voice modeling with the free Madde Voice synthesizer software, Bozeman presents not only the science behind, but also the practical results of certain technical choices: the impact of a specific resonance choice on timbre and the accompanying sensory experience of the student. This is a great book for the practical application of the previous half century's worth of voice science to the teaching of singing: instantly useful (including exercises that illustrate specific points), accessible, and exemplary of the best thinking found at the intersection of historical and scientific approaches to vocal training.
Ian Howell
Vocal Pedagogy Director
The New England Conservatory of Music
Boston, Massachusetts
USA
Great, easy and accessible! I highly recommend this book for any beginning student or experienced teacher.
Steven Spears
Associate Professor of Music
Lawrence University Conservatory of Music
Tremendous Resource. The science presented in this book is not only easily understood, but is presented in such a way that it can be directly implemented into the singing teacher's toolkit. The material presented on both female and male acoustics of the singing voice is current and serves to further eliminate the guesswork of voice teaching. The voice pedagogy community owes a huge debt to Kenneth Bozeman for the practicality and years of voice teaching experience behind this text. I am so confident in its content that I use PVA as a required textbook in my graduate voice acoustics course.
Nicholas Perna, DMA
Assistant Professor of Voice and Vocal Pedagogy
West Virginia University School of Music
Excellent. I cannot praise this book highly enough. This should be required reading for anyone who sings or teaches voice (especially male voices). The material is presented in a straightforward, easy to understand manner, with implementation strategies that can be easily applied. If you are involved with any aspect of the training and development of singers, you owe it to yourself and your students to buy this book.
Peter Bush
Essential for the singer and teacher. Kenneth Bozeman presents here an accessible and intelligent guide to acoustics and voice science that can be used by singer and teacher alike. I certainly use it for both those things. As a voice teacher, this book has been very useful for me and my students. Before teaching, I'll frequently use it to look up issues I am having with a student before that student arrives. In that way, I am able to ensure that I am using the correct nomenclature when referring to a certain phenomenon.
As a professional singer, the ideas presented in this book have been invaluable to me. The guidance offered for negotiating the passaggio, vocal "turning over"/vowel modification, and more "subjective" feelings of tube length and nebulous freedom of the vocal tract are ideas I return to again and again.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Buy it.
Scott Sandersfeld
Singer, Composer, Artistic Director of Mirandola Vocal Ensemble
I’m like a kid in a candy store! I pre-ordered this book as soon as I saw that I could, as I've enjoyed reading Kenneth Bozeman's articles over the years. I soak up all this kind of voice science information, and was so excited to see that Bozeman was publishing this book. It will be a useful resource in my voice studio, as well as a helpful reference in my own writing. It is clear, concise, and well-written. I've had this book for a few months now, and have referenced it several times. I'd read it back-to-back all in one sitting if I had that much spare time!
K. O’Connor
Voice Teacher
Boston, MA
A Must-Have Resource for Vocal Pedagogues and Students of Singing. Kenneth Bozeman's "Practical Vocal Acoustics: Pedagogic Applications for Teachers and Singers" is an accessible, easy-to-understand introduction to an important topic. Bozeman makes the complex simple, digestible, and easy-to-understand. A helpful glossary, five appendices, and DVD are also included. This book clarified many concepts for me and introduced me to several new ideas as well. It is a welcome addition to my vocal pedagogy shelf, worthy of standing alongside McCoy, Miller, and Doscher. I am a better teacher and singer for having read Bozeman's book. Highly recommended!
Matthew Hoch
Associate Professor of Music
Auburn University
Editor of NYSTA’s E-Journal
Solicited Reviews
After many years of admiring the qualities of Kenneth Bozeman’s students, I read his book on vocal acoustics. He not only explains how the voice is produced, but also how understanding vocal acoustics fosters “the Italian school” of singing. This book is a valuable contribution both for the instructor and the performer.
Dale Duesing, international prize-winning baritone, leading roles at the world’s major opera houses (Metropolitan, San Francisco, Chicago Lyric, Covent Garden, La Scala, Paris Opera), Artist in Residence, Lawrence University
This is the book I kept looking for—hoping for—during my forty years as a voice teacher. It’s a most helpful, substantive connection between vocal science and studio teaching. I think it’s a milestone.
John Koopman, professor emeritus (voice), Lawrence University; internationally published opera journalist (Opera News, Opernwelt, Opéra Internationale)
Kenneth Bozeman has put into clear language the most important insights from acoustic research regarding the passaggi that singing teachers and their students struggle with. The reader gets not only a factual description of such maneuvers, but also the sounds that go with them.
Donald Gray Miller, PhD, voice researcher with Harm Schutte at Rijksuniversiteit at Groningen, Netherlands, frequent presenter at Voice Foundation, NATS, and Pan European Voice conferences, author of Resonance in Singing, originator of VoceVista (leading voice analysis program)
Singers and teachers no longer need to fear formants! Kenneth Bozeman’s Practical Vocal Acoustics demystifies complex concepts of resonance and registration, systematically exploring the acoustic underpinnings of voice pedagogy in a uniquely accessible manner. Bozeman writes in a way you can understand, empowering you to be the best possible teacher and singer.
Scott McCoy, D.M.A., Director of the Helen Swank Voice Teaching and Research Lab at The Ohio State University, author of Your Voice, An Inside View, past president of National Association of Teachers of Singing
Kenneth Bozeman has succeeded in condensing state of the art voice science into a well-digestible and concise tutorial. With its solid scientific background, Practical Vocal Acoustics helps to establish a modern approach in teaching how to sing: less myth and more facts.
Christian T. Herbst, PhD, contributing author to the Oxford Handbook of Singing, (Oxford University Press), articles on voice pedagogy and science (including Journal of Voice, Journal of Singing)
Kenneth Bozeman’s book Practical Vocal Acoustics bridges the gap between concept and aural experience. The use of synthesis exercises makes the transition from theory to reality possible for all of us. Thank you Professor Bozeman for this wonderful addition to the voice pedagogy/voice science crossover literature.
Stephen F. Austin, PhD, Associate Professor of Music, University of North Texas, frequent presenter at the Voice Foundation, NATS, and Pan European Voice conferences, a regular columnist in Journal of Singing, also published in Journal of Voice and Australian Voice