In my seventh year of K-12 teaching, I assumed the role of band director and became the sole music teacher for my very small district's fifth through twelfth grades (and I did so for the following six years!). While I did have some background in instrumental music and even though I did complete courses for an area music education major (meaning I took everything from instrument repair to vocal pedagogy), I was overwhelmed with teaching beginning band and beyond. I knew I was a competent musician, but the thought of all those fingerings, embouchures, giant scores and intonation problems really sent me into a panic. When I finally caught my breath, I decided to treat my instrumentalists as if they were vocalists and everything I had previously learned in my undergraduate career became clear and focused. At a spring band festival during my inaugural year as a band director, one of my judges told me that my bands sounded "chorusy" and sounded as though "they were singing through their instruments". This is when I realized how much I already knew about teaching instrumental music.

This short article is dedicated to those who have come to choral music by way of extensive and sometimes exclusive experiences in the instrumental realm. My epiphanies were the result of looking at teaching instrumental music through the processes and lenses of the four phases of tone production: respiration, phonation, resonance and articulation. As you read through each section, it is my hope than those who are "faced" with teaching vocal music will soon realize how similar approaches can make your teaching more effective and yes, more rewarding. This is not an all-encompassing comparison but an introductory look at certain aspects of each of the phases of tone production.

Respiration

Breathing is the vital foundation of singing and playing wind instruments. As with playing an instrument, singing requires low, torso-centric intake and retention of air. The instructor watches for students with tall posture, sitting on the edges of their seats. The choral director also instructs students about the counter- productivity of raising shoulders on intake of air and hales torso expansion and retention of said expansion as the air is leaving the body via the larynx, throat and mouth. The trick for kids is too learn the motion of breathing, to feel the expansion of the ribcage and to maintain expansion as a phrase is sung.

After beginning the warm up with relaxation exercises (head rolls, shoulder rolls, shaking out arms and legs), the students can focus on air intake via a slow sip (as through a straw) and gradually release the air through steady hissing for various counts (inhale for four, hiss for four/eight/sixteen, etc.). The same process can be repeated with pursed lips (no hissing resistance) and finally verbal counting, which engages the vocal cords. While students are hissing, blowing through pursed lips, counting, they might put their hands on their ribcages with fingers pointing forward and thumbs backward. In this stance students can attempt to maintain the expansion as the air leaves the lungs. This keeps the focus in the torso area and away from the shoulders.

Phonation

Phonation occurs when air passing through the trachea creates a vacuum of sorts in the larynx, causing the vocal cords to adduct (come together). A similar thing happens the minute the bow hits the string, the stick hits the membrane, the air meets the mouthpiece, reed, tone hole, etc. While we can observe and hear the fundamental sound from a head joint or mouthpiece (minus the bodies of the instruments), we cannot do the same because we cannot (legally) remove the head from the neck. Just as beginning wind players work with their mouthpieces, reeds and head joints, the choral instructor must focus on the fundamental sounds voices can make.

Assuming students have good posture and basic breathing technique in hand, they can attempt long descending sirens (glissandos) on forward ee vowels. The ee vowel is particularly helpful for adolescent females, who undergo voice changes (less obvious than boys) that cause the vocal folds to adduct inefficiently resulting in a very breathy/airy tone. The ee should be produced with slightly rounded and flared lips with one finger's width of space between the upper and lower teeth. This stance will cause the larynx to relax and create a more open throat, allowing for efficient phonation. In essence, creating this fundamental sound is akin to establishing a healthy wind instrument embouchure, a relaxed bowing or sticking position that creates musical sound. The choral instructor should give students definite pitches beginning the 9th above middle C ("D5") for females and unchanged male voices and the D right next to middle C for changing/changed male voices. Descending by half steps to around Bb and then back up to D with the aforementioned mouth formation will assist students in experiencing the most efficient phonation. Once students are phonating efficiently and healthily, I introduced a simple five-note scale (SFMRD), using the same mouth formation and starting pitches, always descending. With this pitch pattern I try to explore more range in the singers, working both lower and higher than with sirens.

Resonance

Resonance is all about vowels and vowel placement. I like to refer to five key vowel sounds with my younger singers: ah, eh, ee, oh and oo, all made with good space between the upper and lower teeth and with a rounded lip posture. In instrumental music we typically use ah shapes for darker, warmer tones and yes, in singing the same is true. The back vowels—oo, oh, ah—are the hallmarks of warmth in singing tone. This is not to say that forward vowels such as ee are not conducive to fine singing. The trick is to sing the ee and other forward sounds through a rounded shape, such as an oo or ah.

With these key vowels sounds most diphthongs are created. A diphthong involves two or more of these key vowels, as in the word "night"—n + ah + ee + t, with the "ah" receiving the emphasis. Other common diphthongs are ay—as in the word, day (d + eh + ee), ow—as in the word, cow (K + ah + oo) and oy—as in the word, boy (B + oh + ee). If performed incorrectly, however, diphthongs can be disruptive to pleasing tone and blend. A key factor is making sure all students are singing the same vowels at the same time; this will facilitate not only improved blend but also better intonation. Yes, these are somewhat oversimplified but they are useful when working with younger singers. For detailed and more specific symbols and sounds, I refer you the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which provides the various colors and shades of vowels and phonemes found in all cultures. The key is to ensure that your singers are making the same vowel sounds with the same kind of space between the upper and lower teeth.

For more popular styles of music, forward vowels can be the focus. The brighter instrumental sounds we hear in popular music may be, as in singing, associated with the forward ee and eh vowels. The bottom line is that in choral singing we want our students to be conscious of vowels and their appropriate shapes.

Articulation

The final common area for consideration is that of articulation. In wind music we use our tongues, jaws, teeth and palates to define the pitches we play. In vocal music we use the same articulators to bring sense and meaning to our vowel sounds, which always should be the majority of sung sound via consonants. While there are many ways to classify consonants, the most important distinction is that of the voice/unvoiced consonants. Voiced consonants require phonation while unvoiced consonants do not. To know whether a consonant is voiced, simply putting one's fingers on the larynx while enunciating will either yield a sense of vibration in the throat or not. Vibration means the consonant is voiced and requires a slight "uh". Here are common pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants—place your fingers on your larynx to feel the differences (the first consonant in each pair is voiced): b (enunciated as buh) and p, d and t, v and f, g (go) and k, z and s, th (then) and th (theta), zh and sh, j and ch. Other voiced consonants, which are not paired with others, are m, n, l and r.

One of the most difficult parts of teaching vocal music is to convince students to voice consonants; there seems to be universal reluctance to make the sounds necessary to afford intelligibility to text. Therefore, at the end of the word, "love", we must hear vuh; otherwise, it comes to the listener as an "f". Another concern with voicing consonants is where to place the ending consonants. Simply put, if the consonant in question occurs at the end of the phrase and there is a rest immediately following, the consonant is placed on the rest. If there is no rest, the consonant must be "subdivided" into the existing beat. If the consonant occurs in the middle of the phrase, both the ending consonant and beginning consonant (if any) of the word that follows must be equally voiced within whatever rhythmic values are indicated.

This brief comparison of vocal and instrumental tone production is by no means perfectly parallel but for a music educator who finds him/herself in the position of teaching outside his/her comfort zone, it is helpful to embrace one's musicianship and look for the similarities between singing and playing instruments. It is my hope that this provides an introduction to this mindset.