Listening vs Feeling

Don't listen to yourself! Feel yourself! That's what the voice teacher is often heard telling a student, my own teacher being among them at one time or another.

Margaret Harshaw would also say that the voice was like a coin: feeling on one side and tone on the other—which is just about the most comprehensive teaching I've ever encountered because it describes the two avenues by which we process sound—bone and air conduction. 

Too few voice teachers and singers understand that bone and air conduction are indivisible. You can no more stop listening to one than you can feel the other. Some do not believe this; and maintain that feelings are illusory and you can't really hear yourself. So why bother?

Several years ago, I spoke with a leading scientist at a voice symposium who noted that, during his training, it was common for the audiologists across the hall to be involved in research with the voice scientists. But those days are long gone. Now everyone trains and focuses on their own field; resulting in a peculiar brand of intellectual myopia. The majority of research on the voice has very little to do with the actual means by which the singer monitors what he/she does; which involves auditory processing of information. The ear and the larynx aren't separate. But you wouldn't know that from current research which confines itself to investigating the vocal tract. Don't get me wrong. It's incredibly valuable research. But knowing the physiology of the vocal tract doesn't teach the singer to sing any more than knowing the grammar of English teaches a Korean immigrant to speak with a Brooklyn accent.

The Old School made a big deal of voice placement, which, as I see it, has everything to do with the audition of bone conduction. It is felt, being one half of the coin Margaret Harshaw talked about. The more bone conducted activity involved, the clearer one's perception of tone.

What does bone conduction sound/feel like?

"It's the buzzy business that never turns off!" —Margaret Harshaw

One clearly apprehended, it is put to use in exercises which demand ever more skill.