Benefits - Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method Teachers' Association

The following individuals may benefit from Somatic Voicework™ – The Lovetri Method:

Somatic Voicework™ is based voice upon research done on Jeanie LoVetri in 1988 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Dr. Johan Sundberg and the late Dr. Patricia Gramming of the Royal Swedish Institute’s Music Acoustics Lab. In this research, Ms. LoVetri was confirmed to be singing in three distinct, separate vocal productions on purpose. She was already an experienced singer and singing teacher, working with her voice all day long, and had no vocal health issues.

Somatic Voicework™, Ms. LoVetri’s method, is clear, easily understood and incorporates grounding in vocal anatomy and physiology, vocal acoustics and voice medicine, assuring that it presents information that makes sense, is accurate, and is replicable by others, no matter what their background.

Somatic Voicework™ is truly unlike all other vocal training methods in that it is offered at five universities in music, voice, theater, and jazz departments and has had 6 nationally recognized otolaryngologists affiliated as guest faculty, 3 nationally recognized, research-based speech language pathologists as guest faculty, two of whom are also professional singers, and three different New York based Broadway guest teachers to coach participants about music theater expectations and audition technique.

More than 1000 people from all over the USA and 11 foreign countries have passed through at least one level of SVW and hundreds have returned for extended courses year after year, as a measure of their satisfaction with what they have learned.

The participants in this course teach all styles of music, including classical, and are from a wide range of ages, levels of experience, and personal interests. They are open-minded, curious and caring teachers and vocalists who seek the best in their profession.

Somatic Voicework™, with little to no advertising, marketing or promotion, has grown exponentially over the past 11 years because of the quality of the material and the people presenting it. If this sounds interesting to you, click here for more information.

Classical Singers

Understand how to sing classically in a sound that is free, clear, strong, reliable, flexible and authentically your own.
Discover what your voice can and cannot do without manipulation.
Develop control over inhalation and exhalation as part of a coordinative process strengthening both rib cage and abdominal function through voiced sound
Gain confidence in vocal technique that is equally at home in the subtle, intimate sounds of music written for the recital hall and the more powerful sounds of opera
Feel secure that your technique can respond and stand up to the intense and dramatic emotions of opera
Uncover the potential for personal expression by learning to vary vowel sound configurations and register quality deliberately
Release recurring tensions in the jaw, tongue, throat, neck, etc. that inhibit free vocal production
Experience a method that does not impose a pre-conceived sound upon the voice but allows the appropriate unique sound of each individual to emerge over time.
Learn how to adjust to the stylistic demands of music theater and other CCM styles of singing when needed without damaging your classical sound

Music Theater Performers

Develop vocal technique that can accommodate the diverse stylistic demands of contemporary music theater—from revivals of “Golden Age” shows to current pop/rock shows
Gain confidence in a technique that will produce the many vocal colors necessary for dramatically nuanced performances that are “in the moment”
Strengthen your voice to stand up to 8 shows a week, no matter what style you must sing
Clarify once and for all the vocal function behind terms like “belt,” “legit,” and “mix”
Avoid sacrificing vocal performance for the sake of acting demands
Keep you voice strong and flexible so it is ready to go to another role or another show on short notice
Sound the way you want to sound, feel good about your voice

Music Supervisors/Directors of Theater Productions

Learn and use simple, direct terminology to quickly clarify the vocal sound you want from your singers
Blend ensemble sound easily by creating the specific vocal function—not just the general musical quality—you want
Understand what is involved in producing any vocal sound including the vocal functions behind terms like “belt,” “legit,” and “mix”
Develop an efficient vocal warm-up regimen to suit the needs of the ensemble or a particular performer
Improve your recognition of potential vocal problems and recognize when to send your singers for medical evaluation

Jazz Artists

Increase the availability of vocal timbres to a singer for greater artistic expression
Control intonation or “pitchiness” consistently with ease
Develop free vocal production for easy improvisation, even at fast tempos
Cultivate a wider pitch range with more dynamic variability
Maintain strength and stamina for longer gigs
Customize warm-up and practice regimes for specific goals
Expand your artistic choices through deliberate vowel changes and vocal quality adjustments
Vary the ability to use effects like nasality, breathiness or roughness without threatening vocal health
Promote reliability, versatility and healthy vocal technique for any styles
Enhance stylistic uniqueness by facilitating technical freedom and control
Keep the voice is a balanced and centered “home base” no matter how far-reaching the artistic expression you use

Medical Professionals

Enhance the ability to communicate with vocalists on their own terms
During consultations, translate what the singer is saying to terms you know and use
Comprehend patients’ descriptions of symptoms and sensations associated with singing and speaking
Codify typical singing problems and their relationship to possible pathology or recurring vocal health concerns.
Distinguish the difference between classical and commercial singers in terms of vocal use and production
Examine typical issues in each style that may contribute to vocal health problems
Understand the difference between different individuals in the same style versus one individual in several styles and why that matters to your evaluation and treatment
Clarify the role the non-singing Speech Language Pathologist may play in helping return a vocalist to professional caliber function as a speaker
Investigate the value of an experienced Singing Voice Specialist in helping patients return to professional engagements (“gigs”)
Learn what the average teacher of singing knows about vocal health and function

Choral Directors

Cultivate a precise vocal function language to communicate with ease and clarity with your choristers
Understand basic voice science and its application to vocal function
Eliminate jargon and save time during rehearsals
Learn to listen for vocal function to correct problems with intonation, diction and tonal quality
Distinguish between musical, functional and expressive factors that impact overall vocal output
Develop functional listening habits to hear what the voice and ensemble is actually doing
Cultivate an approach that encompasses the whole student and imparts technical information in a simple and reliable manner
Understand basic vocal health issues to recognize possible pathology
Recognize when to send a student for evaluation by a Speech Language Pathologist or Medical Doctor (ENT)
Speak to your peers with more clarity and precision about vocal function and mechanics

College Voice Faculty

Learn a science-based organized method of vocal training, for Contemporary Commercial styles that is also compatible with classical singing.
Develop the ability to distinguish the difference between what the voice is and what it is doing.
Cultivate the ability to “cross-train” vocalists to be comfortable in contrasting vocal qualities necessary for appropriate expression in various styles.
Communicate with your peers in an objective, direct language not based on subjective language.
Receive graduate credit (at certain universities) as part of a NASM approved graduate degree in vocal pedagogy.
Participate in a diverse, informed community of interested educators through an international chat room related to this topic.
This method is based upon verifiable scientific data that corroborates the benefit of a mixed approach to the CCM high belt. There are many similarities between SVW and the concepts of Manual Garcia II, one of the outstanding vocal pedagogues of the 19th century.
Access to a community of teachers and singers at an ongoing chat site where ideas and issues can be discussed and often remedied.
Participate in a medical lecture by a nationally recognized otolaryngologist.
SVW is a method that can be incorporated into an existing teaching style.
Take part in a method that it time tested for over four decades and has been successful presented at singing, medical, scientific and professional conferences and congresses on three continents.

General Music/Middle School/Special Populations

Analyze the level of vocal maturity and function very quickly and efficiently.
Work with students at every level in a healthy manner, both individually and in groups.
Enable students to understand their own vocal development, especially over the course of a semester or year.
Quickly solve current vocal problems and prevent others from developing.
Give students a framework to healthily explore the possibilities of their unique vocal instruments.
Provides the scientific background and justification for working in a specific way to improve vocal function.
Supports the development of higher levels of control and freedom in young vocalists and greater ability for me to interpret the music expressively.
Promotes confidence and self-esteem of young singers as they learn to balance and expand vocal awareness and singing skills with musical criteria.
Provides clear, simple tools for analysis of repertoire versus requisite vocal technique skills.
Gives a language to speech to peers about vocal issues objectively and simply.

Speech Language Pathologists

If you are a Speech Language Pathologist who is interested in singing or works with singers, particularly professional vocalists, Somatic Voicework™ would appeal to you because of its grounding in voice science research, its emphasis on healthy vocal production, its application of vocal acoustics and its strong emphasis on interdisciplinary exchange. The full course provides two medical lectures by world-recognized otolaryngologists, an opportunity that is rare to find in any program about singing.

The three speech language pathologists that have been or are on faculty at are research based and have presented nationally in science conferences. Each specializes in voice related therapy and two are also professional singers who just happen to be belters but are also trained in classical singing.

Somatic Voicework™ is offered at five universities. It’s home base is Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA, where the three tiered full course is offered exclusively. It is possible to take the Level I training at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, The University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, and City College in New York City. It is the only course for teachers of singing offered in music, theater, jazz and voice departments.

All but one of the courses offers CEUs for SLPs and that will soon change to include every university program.

Otolaryngologists

For the medical specialist, Somatic Voicework™ provides a clear picture into the world of singers and singing training, giving you familiarity with real-life issues that today’s vocalists face. It will present to you healthy ways for vocalists and teachers of singing to address contemporary styles like jazz, rock, gospel, pop, folk, R&B, country, and alternative, thus opening the door for you to speak to your singing patients in terms they understand.

The course rests on voice science research, healthy vocal production, and interdisciplinary exchange and encourages interface with medical experts who are trained to deal with vocal problems that singers face. It includes two medical lectures by experts in the field who provide state of the art information about treating world-class vocalists in major cities.

Somatic Voicework also incorporates a “hands-on” approach allowing participants to explore singing with the support of faculty. As a medical doctor, you will be guided to make simple sounds for experimental purposes, in order to better relate to what your patients describe to you about their vocal health issues. While no performing is required, the opportunity to try out various kinds of sung sounds in a non-judgmental atmosphere, will not be found anywhere else in any other course.

Laryngologists who treat singers can learn a great deal about singing in just a few days. This information will support your on-going work with vocalists who come to you as patients, using a language and protocols that you may not have encountered. You will leave with a broad comprehension of singing in contemporary styles, of singing vocal demands and requirements, of professional expectations and parameters and of variations of vocal productions that singers in each style must master.

Voice Science Researchers

If you are conducting research into vocal production, especially if that research is on the singing voice, the Somatic Voicework course is for you.

The materials are based on research done on Ms. LoVetri, the creator of Somatic Voicework, in 1988 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Dr. Johan Sundberg and the late Dr. Patricia Gramming. This ground-breaking research has become the basis for many other papers, dissertations and reports all over the world since it was published in the Journal of Voice. Ms. LoVetri has participated in research with Ingo Titze, Ph.D., Peak Woo and Jason Surow, MDs, and several of her singing teacher colleagues and has written about vocal function for the Journal of Singing, the house organ of the USA based National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Her course is a requirement in Shenandoah Conservatory’s masters and doctoral programs and has helped to establish healthy vocal function for styles in Contemporary Commercial Music (previously called non-classical) as being viable for scholarly, scientific, and clinical study.

If you do not have the opportunity to become immersed in the world of professional singers, aspiring singers, or vocalists from all over the United States and many foreign countries in one place at one time, this course is for you. You will have the opportunity to observe, participate in and interact with the training methods of Somatic Voicework™ and consider their application in your research on vocal use. If you do not want to become a singer yourself, but would like more information on singers, this course will provide an in-depth exposure to singing in a very short time. The full three day course at Shenandoah is equivalent to three full semesters of college coursework.