Gesture and body-movement as teaching and learning tools in the classical voice lesson: a survey into current practice

Abstract

This article discusses the use of gesture and body-movement in the teaching of singing and reports on a survey amongst professional singing teachers in Germany regarding their use of gesture and body movement as pedagogic tools in their teaching. The nomenclature of gestures and movements used in the survey is based on a previous study by the author (Nafisi, 2008, 2010) categorising movements in the teaching of singing according to their pedagogical intent into Physiological Gestures, Sensation-related Gestures, Musical Gestures and Body-Movements . The survey demonstrated that Gestures were used by a significant number of voice teachers to enhance explanation and/or demonstration, that a significant number of voice teachers encouraged their students to carry out similar Gestures whilst singing to enhance their learning experience and that another type of essentially non-expressive Body-Movements was also encouraged by a significant number of voice teachers to enhance students’ learning. The paper validates the author's nomenclature and offers some hitherto unpublished insights.