Because the necessity to resonant over the sound of an orchestra is dependent on vocal tract, and therefore resonance, adjustments. However, many singers either do not understand resonance, formants, or harmonics well enough, or don't understand how physics relates to physiology well enough, that many misconceptions develop that can greatly hinder vocal progress during training.
Now, I don't mean to generalize, but I do know a lot of singers who roll their eyes at words like "physics" and "math." In fact, I have had so, so many conversations with musicians about these topics now that I'm taking math and physics courses. They usually go something like this: "I can't meet then because my physics class is at that time. Can you do Monday?" "Physics? Why on Earth are you taking Physics?" "Well, I want to have more detailed knowledge of how the physics of sound and air pressures work so I can understand certain areas of SLP research better." "Well, good for you. I know I would never take those classes. My brain just doesn't work that way." It is that last sentence that I take the most issue with. Why, oh why do we as musicians have to demean ourselves when it comes to the potential our brains have to understand something? Do we even realize the message we're sending out? I mean, we are the people who learn multiple languages for our roles, we learn some anatomy and physiology of the voice, and we are supposed to have at least some foundational knowledge in harmonics and formants when it comes to resonance. This is all in addition to music theory, history, performance practice, etc. Why do we pass off math and physics like it's "over our heads?" Or maybe we want the world to recognize that we're plenty smart in our own right and should be respected for that (which is true). Maybe we think that in order for our field to be respected as art we have to separate so thoroughly from science that we must turn our noses up at it. Maybe we're sick of people in the sciences turning their noses up at us...(I know I'm sick of that). Maybe we don't want to have to add more stuff to our already extensive list of stuff to know. Either way, I do wish my fellow musicians would stop looking at me like I've grown a second head when I say I'm enjoying learning calculus and calculus-based physics. But I digress...
Perhaps most of the issues with math and physics for singers, or just most people in general, comes from the fact that these subjects are very rarely taught well in high school (in the US,) and even in college, for that matter. Much of the time, teachers in these subjects see the class as some sort of grand IQ test in which student's successes or failures have no bearing on the teacher's ability, or inability, to effectively teach the material. That's a common fallacy of certain hard-science classes. (Personally, I liked my calculus's professors take on it: Success in her class, as far as she was concerned, was totally up to the student's dedication and motivation to keep up with the homework (practice) and get help when needed.) So we've relegated the teaching of these concepts to a month or so during a vocal pedagogy class. But maybe, just maybe, voice teachers trying to teach these concepts don't quite give the right amount of time or clarity to these concepts either. I mean, if you're knowledge doesn't have a strong foundation, it is really easy to get confused when, a few years after your pedagogy class, you've been swamped with new information, new ideas, new research, new teachers, new coaches, etc. I know I did!
I thought I got plenty of this stuff in my vocal ped. courses. I thought I had a very good understanding of harmonics, resonance, formants, etc. because I was one of the few in my pedagogy class that was not confused by the lectures or book chapters on it. I now know I was mistaken. My mistake came from not having enough of a base-level of understanding in physics to be able to apply these concepts effectively to understanding my own vocal training, and to not get confused a year or two down the road. There is a huge interaction between the physiology of the voice and how the physics of vocal resonance, as well as the physics of air pressure to breath support, work. Those connections were simply missing from my pedagogy classes, and, from what I can gather from other conversations with singers, I think it's missing from many singers' academic training as well.
I had such simple misconceptions that I would be embarrassed to admit to in front of anyone with basic physics knowledge, now that I know better. I see a lot of musicians saying some of these same misconceptions quite frequently, and I really, really want us to stop sounding like complete fools in regards to basic math and basic physics to a large portion of the general population (and not just those in hard sciences, either). And I know a lot of singers who would really, really like to not sound like fools, but it's just never been explained well enough, or thoroughly enough, to avoid it. Even if your interest in this might just be cursory, a more thorough understanding of the physics-physiology connection really does help to understand the science behind how the voice, and operatic singing, works and how to apply that knowledge to long-term training.
So here's how this series is going to work: I'm not going to get all up in calculus, cause I'm not interested in making this a math course, but I will present some basic algebraic equations. I will also thoroughly explain these equations so that you can see how the equation is a working representation of how your vocal tract shapes sound. We'll start with the basics and move up from there, but I'm also going to do my best to detail the interaction between physics and physiology...even if I can't get to that interaction until I get a little further down the series. If you've ever been confused looking at a spectrogram of your singing, like in PRAAT, then this series should help you out a lot. It shouldn't be as long as the anatomy and physiology series, so I hope you can hang in here with me. And ultimately, just like the A&P series, I want this to be a reference tool for singers and teachers to be used whenever you need it.
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