Throughout their career, jazz singers encounter with a variety of jazz styles. Each style requires a different use of the voice, so building up a solid vocal technique in these styles is essential both for attaining a high level of artistry and for vocal health. In her previous research project, Katrien Van Opstal developed the ‘Mixing Table Model’ that represents the human voice production as it is commonly used in jazz. This tool offers the jazz singer a very clear insight in how the voice works and how the vocal characteristics are used in a specific style.
Based on this innovative model, it is possible to develop a more suited vocal technique for jazz singers. The pedagogy that will be developed in this new research project ‘Clarifying vocal jazz: from insight to practice’, has to allow jazz singers to understand better how the voice production system works, how to train it and how a desired style and timbre can be chosen and acquired. It starts form a profound theory and research on
- the link between the features of the voice production system and the produced sounds
- insight in different jazz styles and the voice production system
- spectral analysis of the vocal sounds
This research will provide the jazz singer with support and a mainstay, paving his artistic pathway in the musical forest of vocal jazz.
An international team of renowned jazz musicians and voice specialists have given their commitment to work together with the researchers Katrien Van Opstal and Vanessa Matthys to help develop, test and use the new pedagogy.
Advisory team:
Hendrik Braeckman (promotor and faculty member of Royal Conservatoire Antwerp)
Eugeen Schreurs (promotor and faculty member of Royal Conservatoire Antwerp)
Barbara Wiernick (advisor and vocal jazz teacher at Royal Conservatoire Antwerp)
dr. Justin Binek (advisor and vocal jazz teacher at KCC, Kansas)
Stefania Patanè (advisor and vocal jazz teacher at iSchool, Rome, Italy)
