Online SOVT ‘Singposium’

Online SOVT ‘Singposium’


Event Details

  • Date:

SOVT (Semi Occluded Vocal Tract) exercises – where the mouth is partially closed – have been an essential part of vocal training and rehabilitation for some years.

Originally curated by Heidi Pegler for Eurovox 2020, we are delighted to invite three of the leading figures in this field from across Europe to demonstrate how they use some of the latest techniques and findings to work with singers. Oren Boder (UK/US), Dr Filipa Lã (Portugal/Madrid) and Dr Ilter Denizoglu (Turkey) will each give a presentation followed at the end of the afternoon by a Round Table and open Q&A for delegates – hosted by Dr Susan Yarnall Monks (President of EVTA) and Heidi Pegler (AOTOS Past Chair).

Come and find out more and have the opportunity to ask questions during this informative afternoon.

Price: £15 (AOTOS members), £20 (Non-members)

Booking for this event is now closed

Links to the recorded presentations will be made available to delegates only for 30 days after the event.

Programme

2.00–2.35pm: What size straw? Working out the optimum size for each singer with Oren Boder
2.40–3.15pm: Augmented feedback of airflow: towards the development of flow phonation in voice education with Filipa Lã
3.20–3.55pm: The DoctorVox Approach with Ilter Denizoglu
4.00–4.15pm: BREAK
4.15–5.00pm: Round Table and open Q&A with all speakers and hosts

Presentations

Oren Boder: What size straw? Working out the optimum size for each singer.

When considering what type of SOVT intervention to use, it is important to understand that there is no single ‘one-size fits all’ approach. Each singer is anatomically unique, which needs to be considered when choosing a suitable SOVT resistance to balance the system. We are currently conducting a multi-phased study into the efficacy of SOVT devices, with particular interest in understanding how airflow (velocity and pressure) move through straws/tubes. The aim is to inform the straw/tube selection process for each unique singer, by outlining the resistance capabilities of a range of different devices, as well as to optimise the effectiveness of their design. We use 3D modelling, Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations, mathematical models, and ‘real world’ hardware rigs to enable analysis of the relationship between diameter and length, and to calculate the back-pressure offered by SOVT devices, across a variety of airflow and vocal tasks. This presentation will be an overview of our preliminary findings.

Filipa M.B. Lã: Augmented feedback of airflow: towards the development of flow phonation in voice education

Unlike instrumentalists, singers need to coordinate non-visible internal systems (i.e., breathing, vibratory, resonatory and articulatory) to produce sounds capable of conveying musicality. To facilitate the achievement of such a skill, tools promoting augmented feedback of non-visible aspects of voice production have been applied when teaching singing. A new real-time visual feedback tool for displaying airflow during phonation is presented: the flow ball (FB). The FB acts as a flow meter; thus, its use assists the quality of the primary sound source, i.e., the pulsating transglottal airflow. In addition, its abductory effect of the vocal folds promotes phonatory habits towards flow phonation, a type of phonation with paramount importance with respect to singer’s vocal health and voice economy.

Ilter Denizoglu: Exercise Physiology and Vocal Periodization for Singers in the non-performing Pandemic Period : The DoctorVox Approach

Professional vocal performance is a sportive activity, moreover, each and every single stage performance should be treated, for instance, as a professional football match. Football players prepare for that single game and for the whole season by periodization. It is a conscious programming strategy which can be divided into different periods: Performance period, peri-performance period, and non-performance period. This periodization strategy is a perfect analogy for the singer as an athlete. In the performance period, the general sportive condition must be ready for a stage event and the daily life activities are managed for a perfect performance. Peri-performance period contains strategies applied just before and after the stage performance in vocal warm-up and cool-down exercises. In the non-performance period, as in pandemics, the singer should be aware of being in a certain state of vocal fitness as well. The motor skill, muscle power and condition in the non-performance period should be maintained by daily exercise programs.

DoctorVox Voice Therapy (DVT) is a multilevel-multidimensional programme using SOVT and artificial elongation of the vocal tract as tools. The DVT framework includes an action plan, well defined exercises and a monitoring strategy. The four-level process starts with a preset exercise (relaxation, noble posture and low breath), then exploration of the primal sound, development and adaptation levels are applied respectively. Some tools and devices are devised for specific purposes such as silent rehearsal, vocal weight lifting, registration, warm-up and cool-down and so on. The fundamental concept in DVT is the method itself: using a tool must never be regarded as the main goal. In this sense, the DVT method may be used in the periodization strategy of the vocal performer.

About the Speakers

Oren Boder

Oren is an award-winning singing teacher, voice researcher, entrepreneur, and inventor of the SOVT Singing Straw, and is proudly supported by both the Prince’s Trust and Virgin Startup. Oren believes in enriching lives through the arts, and through the pursuit of meaningful science, develops innovative tools and resources to help singers enhance and improve their vocal development, health, and wellbeing, whilst also having an impact on the universe.

Oren’s journey started at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where he trained in singing and vocal technique, as well as studying internationally in Holland in collaboration with the London College of Music, and then with New York Vocal Coaching (NYVC). Oren also holds a degree in Psychology. His current pedagogical focus is on researching and developing vocal development tools and techniques that involve singing through straws, using state of the art computer simulations to explore the interactions of airflow and air pressures of different straw types and their effects on the voice.

Dr Filipa Lã

Filipa M.B Lã (soprano) holds a Ph.D. and Master’s Degree in Music (Singing) and a Licentiate in Biology (Education). The interdisciplinary nature of her background encouraged her to pursue interdisciplinary research in music-related sciences and music (singing) education. Her main research interests are voice-related gender studies and health education, focussing on singers and musicians and technological interfaces to optimise music performance. Currently, she is a senior researcher and a teacher at the Faculty of Education of the National Distance Education University (UNED), in Madrid, Spain. She is the PI of a research project on the Effects of Menopause on the Voice of Professional Voice Users and the director of a distance learning continuing education course on Pedagogy and Technology of Voice and Singing (delivered in English, Spanish and Portuguese). She is Associate Editor of Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, and a permanent member of scientific committees of PEVOC and CoMeT. She has been awarded several national and international awards, including The Hamdan International Award (2020), by the Voice Foundation, USA, and The Van Lawrence Award (2015), by National Association of Teachers of Singing, USA. As a singer, she has participated in numerous recitals in Portugal, UK, Ireland, Spain and Australia, interpreting repertoire from early to contemporary music. Under the direction of Andrew Lawrence-King she has sung Cantate Domino by Montverdi and Es steh Gott auf de Schütz (”… outstanding young singer …” Sheffield Telegraph), and interpreted the roles of Vénus and Terpsicore in the Opera La Púrpura de la Rosa by Tomás de Torrejon y Velasco (”… Filipa Lã as Vénus/Terpsicore was suitable coy and majestic by turns…” Galway Advertiser).

She has been invited to deliver continuing education courses on the science of the singing voice to teachers of singing and speech and language therapists in Germany, Spain, USA, Finland, France, Portugal, Sweden and UK.

E-mail: filipa.la@edu.uned.es
Website: https://unedvoicelab.com/

Dr Ilter Denizoglu

Ilter Denizoglu MD, MSc, PhD cand. is Founder and Director of Vocology Center and University Lecturer of Pedagogical Vocology. After studying medicine at Ege University Faculty of Medicine, and otolaryngology head and neck surgery in Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Medicine Otolaryngology department; Dr. Denizoglu decided to pursue a career in phoniatrics. Starting with basic physics, he observed vocal pedagogy in Dokuz Eylul University Conservatory of Music, opera department for 2 years. His ongoing studies for Biophysics (PhD cand.) and Audiology Voice and Speech Disorders (MSc) are part of his enthusiasm about completing the whole picture of human voice in the name of basic, clinical and pedagogical vocology fields.

He is an amateur singer and interested in vocal music in various approaches (singing pedagogy, musical acoustics). He has prepared the curriculum for Pedagogical Vocology lesson and has been delivering the lectures in three universities’ singing schools since 2008. He has devised new projects and devices for voice therapy and training of professional voice users such as Laryngoaltimeter, Vocal posturometer and NIPA (Negative Inertance Phonation Apparatus).

His medical work is exclusively on phonosurgery and (singing) voice therapy. Based on Sihvo’s LaxVox Exercise; he has structured the DoctorVox Voice Therapy and Vocal Training Programme (DVT). He has devised new devices (doctorVOX, pocketVOX, maskVOX) for voice therapy and vocal training through DVT process, and instruments for phonosurgery as well. His book ‘Textbook of Clinical Vocology’ was published in January 2020.

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