Understanding didactic strategies based on the Laban-Malmgren technique when developing technical and musical proficiency of singers

Abstract

The Laban-Malmgren technique (LMT), and especially the way it might inform a pedagogical approach when working with singers who specialize in Western art music, is largely unknown to most people who work in the fields of vocal performance and voice pedagogy. Therefore, the purpose of this multiple method study was to understand how an understanding of the use of didactic strategies based on the Laban-Malmgren technique (LMT) might enable a voice pedagogue to develop the technical and musical proficiency of singers who specialize in Western art music. Fourteen singers from four different universities and contexts participated in this research study. The universities were the Academy of Music and Drama of the University of Gothenburg (UGOT) and the Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH) in Sweden, and the South African College of Music University of Cape Town (SACM) and the School of Music and Conservatory of the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus) in South Africa. The strategies of inquiry in this research involved exploring my own teaching approach, as well as the manner in which I might employ didactic strategies based on the LMT during the teaching and learning sessions at the various research sites (self-study), participatory action research (PAR) and interpretive description (ID). Various methods of data collection were used, such as conducting a systematic literature review, observing and recording participants’ responses while presenting lectures, workshops, vocal masterclasses and individual singing lessons. The coding and categorising of the data obtained from the literature review, my own teaching approach and the teaching and learning sessions at the four research sites, were guided by concepts related to the LMT, namely Laban’s three dimensional planes, the working actions, the externalised drives, shadow moves, the four grades of intensity, the inner attitudes and Malmgren’s ten questions. The research results have shown that the use of didactic strategies based on the principles of the LMT can enable a voice pedagogue to develop the technical as well as the musical development of a singer who specializes in Western art music. The xi participants’ vocal development showed how the use of such strategies contributed to, for example, reducing unhealthy physical and muscular tension, improving their posture, establishing a breathing process conducive to singing, the embodiment of sound, onset of tone, legato singing, phrasing, register equalisation, vibrant timbre, rich resonance, secure intonation and a controlled vibrato. The use of the didactic strategies based on the LMT also contributed to the participants’ improved understanding, internalisation and depiction of characters.