Doyle McCoy ch.2

 I know this chapter was really to begin to explain the complexity of the voice as a mechanism, but man did I feel a little overwhelmed reading it all. I tried explaining the part about how many different things have to happen anatomically to have a conversation to my wife, but I stumbled because I was suddenly conscious of my own voice performing all these functions. (Like semantic satiation, but with my body). This begged a question for me: How important is it that we explain these kind of anatomical concepts to our students? I know that with my own lessons, I always am curious about what my voice is doing. But is that because I am both a student, and a teacher? On the other hand, when I think about relaxing my jaw when I sing I usually end up forgetting other things, or finding that i can't do the task. It's the "don't think of elephants!" phenomenon (if you're like me, you thought of elephants). However, understanding how our voice is designed to make a kind of sound might assist in optimizing production of that sound. I'm not sure there is a definite answer to this question, as it realistically is determined by the nature of the issue and the goals of the student. I'd love to discuss this more in depth and see what everyone's own opinion is.

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