Motor Learning Principles and Voice Pedagogy: Theory and Practice

Abstract

THE PRINCIPLES OF MOTOR have proven very useful in their applications to the teaching and learning of variety of tasks requiring various types of coordinated physical The successful combination of these coordinated physical movements is necessary for skilled performances. The voice pedagogy and vocal performance domains are no exception to the reality of and necessity for the learning of skilled movements. The bases upon which these principles are built may be applicable to the type of motor learning necessary for skilled vocal performance, and it is important to consider the wealth of information available in this domain and to determine which, if any, of the principles can or should be attempted in the voice studio. LEARNING DEFINED It is often the case that the practice of skill, whether motor or perceptual, is equated with the learning of it. However, true learning as defined in the cognitive and motor learning domains requires both long-term retention and generalization of the skill. Long-term retention is the ability to perform at or near the same accuracy level attained during the acquisition (training) stage; generalization is the ability of that individual to transfer or carry over what has been trained into new but similar tasks. One example of this would be if tennis player learned to better coordinate all muscles involved for forward swing through extended training on that movement, and the backhand swing also improved substantially even though no direct training had occurred during that time period. An example from the voice studio would be if student were working on vocal warmup exercises that focused on bringing more balance or roundness of timbre (chiaroscuro) to the chest register, but as result the middle and head registers were noticeably rounder and more balanced in timbre as well. A few definitions of basic concepts used in the perceptual-motor learning domain will prove useful for the discussions to follow. Motor learning refers to a set of processes associated with practice or experience leading to relatively permanent changes in the capability for or area of study focusing on the acquisition of skilled movements as result of practice.1 Similar to motor learning, perceptual learning refers to observed improvement found in different sensory tasks as result of practice, training, or simple exposure. Motor control is area of study dealing with the understanding of the neural, physical, and behavioral aspects of movement. A motor program is defined as an organized set of motor commands that are typically specified before movement initiation.2 TYPE OF PRACTICE: BLOCKED VERSUS RANDOM PRESENTATION OF STIMULI A primary means of attaining skilled vocal performance is substantial amounts of practice. Two commonly used practice formats in motor learning are blocked and random practice sessions. In both formats, several tasks are trained. In blocked practice format, tasks are trained sequentially within session; each specific task is trained completely before practice on remaining tasks begins. In random practice format, tasks are trained in parallel, with practice trials of each task interspersed with practice on the other tasks (in no predetermined or patterned order). For both practice formats, the same total number of trials per task is completed. In the voice studio, the teacher could choose to have the student work on one piece for 15 minutes, another piece for 15 minutes, third piece for 15 minutes, and fourth piece for 15 minutes (a blocked order), or he/she could choose to cut the time spent on each piece to no more than seven minutes at time, and alternate among the four pieces more frequently throughout the lesson period without repeating the same sequence each time (a random order). The effect of blocked versus random practice format on learning has been extensively studied. An early and important investigation into the benefits of random versus blocked practice was completed by Shea and Morgan, who found that blocked practice resulted in more rapid acquisition of the movement patterns (so the subjects performed better during the training stage). …

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