Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. This article uses a variety of concepts and terminology specific to Estill Voice Training. For an overview of Estill Voice, see Steinhauer and Klimek (Citation2018). For a detailed description of concepts, see Steinhauer, McDonald Klimek, and Estill (Citation2017).
2. In looking within , I am referring to the cricothyroid (CT) and the thyroarytenoid (TA) muscles, and I am referencing contemporary commercial music (CCM). The table and the industry concepts are from my antidotal experience.
3. The concept of thick and thin true vocal folds and laryngeal height are concepts from Estill Voice.
4. The concept of Attractor States as defined by Estill has its roots in Dynamical Systems Theory and describes “a condition of stability during [a] motor task (Estill et al. Citation2010a, 7). Attractor states are influenced by habit, training, physical make up, environment, and language, among other things, and they determine what feels easy or difficult to a student. Attractor States describe the condition in which a structure is stable, but not necessarily efficient and may be changed when a different result is needed.
5. The ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) is a music examination board based in London, UK.
6. For a discussion of Estill solutions, see Steinhauer, McDonald Klimek, and Estill (Citation2017).
7. The closed quotient is the percentage of time that the vocal folds are closed—with no air flowing through.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Christie Allen-Valeriano
Christie Allen-Valeriano, M.M, EMT, is a West End singing coach and music supervisor specializing in audition prep and technical fixes. She is also nurturing the next generation of music theatre artists as a singing coach at Mountview Theatre School and Arts Educational Schools in London. Credits include deputy coach on the TV series All Together Now (season 2) and Head of Music for ESPN (Europe Middle East, and Africa). Christie has a MM in vocal performance from Boston University and attended the prestigious Phyllis Curtin Opera Institute in Boston, MA. As a performer, she apprenticed with the Utah Opera and the Santa Fe Opera and was a two-time Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Finalist. She is a certified Estill Master Trainer.