Marth Munro

Multimodal Enhancement of Culturally Diverse, Young Adult Musicians: A Pilot Study Involving the Tomatis Method:

Musicians, seeking stress relief and vocal/instrumental enhancement, often turn to the Tomatis Method of sensori-neural integration training, based on the interdependence and interaction between hearing and listening, psychological attitude and speech and language. The paucity of impact studies on musicians, despite its acclaimed efficacy, has prompted the current multidisciplinary pilot study, involving a two group, pre-post experimental design. Listening aptitude, psychological well-being and vocal (voice) quality were assessed in availability samples of culturally diverse young, adult musicians (n=28), recruited from two tertiary institutions and assigned to a control group (n=10) and an experimental group, consisting of sub-experimental group one (n=10) and sub-experimental group two (n=8). Reasonable preprogramme group equivalence was established between the two sub-experimental groups and the control group. A Tomatis programme of 87.5 half hour listening sessions and concomitant counseling was completed by the total experimental group (n=18). Results indicated practically significant enhancement of: (i) listening aptitude on the Listening Test and (ii) psychological well-being, in terms of reduced negative and increased positive mood state (vigor) on the POMS in both sub-experimental groups, together with enhanced behavioural and emotional coping in sub-experimental group 1 on the CTI. (iii) Vocal enhancement, perceived both by singer-participants in both sub-experimental groups and a professional voice teacher, culminated in (iv) distinctly enhanced musical proficiency in 28% of all programme participants. Despite indications of multimodal enhancement, further research, necessitated by current methodological limitations, remains a prerequisite for achievement of definitive results.

Mind the gap : beyond whole-brain learning

In past research we 1 have demonstrated how methodologies used in the training of performers can both encourage whole-brain learning and answer to the demands of South Africa’s current educational paradigm, outcomes-based education (OBE). OBE is a needs-driven, outcomes-driven and competency-orientated pedagogy, which aims at incorporating learners as active agents within the learning process as opposed to the previous content-driven, teacher-orientated approach to education (Coetzee 2004). Our research was prompted by the constant need for our Drama departments to validate their existence in the light of changing funding structures for the arts, governmental and institutional demands for measured outcomes and our institutions’ emphasis on wholebrain learning as the preferred pedagogical approach to education and training. We explored the ways in which the changes in the South African educational dispensation impact on the work of educators within a Drama department in the Higher Education and Training band (HET) in South Africa. These changes include a focus on competencies and critical outcomes across learning areas and across the qualification bands identified by the new National Qualifications Framework. In our search for ways in which to implement the critical outcomes 2 demanded by the OBE framework, we turned to Herrmann’s argument (1995) that optimal, deep structure learning can only take place when whole-brain modes are operative. Our investigations were supported by research undertaken by De Boer, Steyn and Du Toit (2001:192) in which they indicated compatibility between the processes associated with each of the four modalities that constitute whole-brain learning and the processes associated with reaching OBE’s critical outcomes as demonstrated in Table 1 on the next page.

Lessac's y–buzz as a pedagogical tool in the teaching of the projection of an actor's voice.

This article is a preliminary study on the effects of Arthur Lessacsy-buzzas a tool in teaching projection of an actors voice. The y-buzz is described as part of the Lessac System. Leinos formulation of the actors formant is presented. Following this, LTAS analyses of the y-buzz and a prose extract from Lessac himself are done. LTAS analyses of a trained and an untrained male voice doing the y-buzz and speaking a prose extract are demonstrated. These analyses are compared to the LTAS analyses and results collated by Leino. The spectra analysed for the two male voices trained through the Lessac System seem to have an actors formant. This seems to suggest that the Lessac System may be an effective teaching tool in voice projection for actors. The need arises for a more indepth study in this field.

Deeper sites through various lines : LMS and whole-brain learning in body / voice training for performers in the HET band

Tertiary institutions in South Africa, in accordance with governments drive towards an equilateral pedagogical approach that fosters life-long learning, have moved towards an outcomes-based education and training framework (OBET). OBET is a learner-centred approach, primarily characterised by a focus on applications and outputs. The primary goal of OBET is to produce learners who are actively and creatively involved in their own learning processes, capable of critical thinking, able to reflect on existing knowledge and generate new knowledge both in a personal and social context (applied competence), implying that learners will be stimulated to move beyond the dominantly logical and factual orientation used in the former educational dispensation. (http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/learner/2000/scheepersmd/pro.23/06/2003). This shift is supported by Hermanns whole-brain learning approach (1995), which indicates that optimal learning only takes place when the whole brain is involved in the learning process.

Vocal traditions: Lessac Kinesensics

Lessac Kinesensics (LK) is a well-established and holistically developed approach that is ever emergent (and continuously evolving) as a bodymind approach toward optimal and an effective body and v...

Locating the ‘voice-as-object’ and ‘voice-as-subject’ for the entry-level theatre voice teacher

In this article we argue that the entry-level theatre voice teacher is confronted in the theatre voice class with a ‘dichotomized voice’ in training, where the physiological and the socio-cultural interweave brain/mind/body to form a sense of a self-reflected whole, through and because of voice usage. In the theatre voice training process, the students voice is subject to his or her embodied socio-cultural experience, which impacts on how the voice is produced and used in relation to the sense of self. Therefore the voice-in-training is intimately shaped by the body and embodiment. The students voice as gestural routine becomes an auditory marker of his/her identity. The entry-level theatre voice teacher should develop skills to pedagogically and ethically facilitate the training of the ‘dichotomized voice’.

Embodied knowledges : physical theatre and the physicality of theatre

While the general contours of virtuosity are the same across media, every sacred monster is unique; every technique organizes its own monstrosity, and every community engages its virtuoso monsters on its own terms (Hamera 2007: 42).

Creativity, emotional intelligence and emotional creativity in student actors: a pilot study

This article frames the demands made on the actor in this specific field, but specifically attempts to argue the interface between emotions and creativity in the actor, using the notions of emotional intelligence and emotional creativity as a way of interrogating the connections.

The Lessac Approach as a Pedagogical Answer to Outcomes-Based Education and Training, and Whole Brain Learning

racial and educational, amongst others, inequalities of the past. In the current dispensation, the government has put structures in place that urge education providers to adopt strategies that will level the educational playing field. The National Qualification Framework () and South African Qualifications Authority () are evidence of this process. The new education and training dispensation resulted in the introduction of the concept of OutcomesBased Education and Training (referred to as ). Under this umbrella concept four divisions of education exist: • General Education and Training (—the first nine years of formal education), • Further Education and Training (—the last three years of high school, where some form of specialisation will take place), • Higher Education and Training (—the domain of tertiary training institutions), and • Adult Basic Education and Training (—an attempt to address the massive illiteracy problems amongst adults in South Africa).

Principles for embodied learning approaches

To be human implies to be a continuous and constant bodied being situated within an environment. The fluid interrelationship between the bodied being and the environment culminates in a multimodal bodymind. It is this bodymindedness that calls for embodied pedagogies. A significant scholarly discourse argues for, and underlines, the importance of embodied learning. Embodiment is defined in this article as ‘the deliberate and mindful simultaneous bodyminded engagement of the self with both the inner and outer environments.’ Embodied learning is argued to be ‘the deliberate use and recognition of multimodal bodymind activities and strategies to facilitate shifts in perspectives, perceptions, paradigms, behaviour and actions.’ This article begs the question: On what principles do pedagogues from different fields design embodied learning strategies? Nine principles of embodied learning are provided. The author argues that these principles form the bedrock for decision-making when designing embodied learning strategies.