more how, less what

I posted about Dr. Katherine Verdolini Abbott's motor learning work a little over a year ago.

It's fascinating stuff, the kind of stuff that has changed the way I teach. She gave an address to members of the National Association of Teachers of Singing during the summer of 2008, which, in my humble opinion, should have required listening. You can find her address here. 

Verdolini Abbott's work has also changed the way I view the empirical teachings of the Old Italian School, specifically that of Francesco Lamperti, a man who, as far as I can tell from my research,  spoke little but accomplished much. As such, he was big on the 'how' rather than the 'what' of singing, which Verdolini Abbott addresses at length. She also introduced me to the beautiful word auditorialization.

Auditorialization involves three avenues of perception: that which we hear via air conduction, that which we hear via bone conduction, and that which we feel, which is the vestibular aspect of our listening ability.