The Complete Idiot's Guide to Singing Review

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Singing ReviewWhile the guidance to good singing in this book can be found in other books, the presentation is reader-friendly, and makes good use of imagery to help improve the singing voice. Basic ideas about singing are introduced early in the book and are elaborated in later chapters. This is repetition but it is repetition with good effect - it makes it easier to understand and retain the advice. The diagrams, summaries, tips, cautions, glossary and trouble shooting are all useful. The CD provides a standard with which to compare your efforts. The book covers a range of singing styles, though some chapters would be of greater relevance to some types of singers than to others, eg a budding pop singer would probably find the chapter dealing with proper posture too restrictive.

The sequence of the material in the book could have been better in two respects. The authors claim that you don't need any initial knowledge to get started. A reader with no initial knowledge is soon confronted with music notes on staves and a diagram of a keyboard. Material on these is included in the book, but much later. So, someone with no initial knowledge would benefit from reading the first 5½ pages of Chapter 10 before tackling Chapter 4. While the book does inform the reader when there is a track on the CD which is relevant to an exercise or a song, the track numbers are not provided in the text where they would be most convenient. The reader needs to consult an appendix for descriptions of each track on the CD.

The exercises in the book are well described, though little guidance is provided on how frequently the exercises should be performed. There is a practice checklist in an appendix which suggests in broad terms the time to be spent on different activities. I think a beginner needs more guidance than this, especially in the first weeks. Is this exercise, for example, one that ideally should be practiced say 6 times every second day for 3 weeks before moving on? Is it an exercise or warm-up that should be done for as long as the singer sings? Should this exercise be done in conjunction with other exercises? It would have been helpful if the authors had suggested a program or provided a chart for say the first 6 weeks to get a beginner started. The book does not address basic questions about frequency that a beginner may want expert guidance on. Questions like: Can I practise every day or is it best to rest my voice on one or more days of the week? Can I practise more than once a day?

One of the breathing exercises entails inhaling and holding the breath for as you long can. There is no caution about what to do if you feel dizzy. Another says that you should exhale slowly - rather than slowly and evenly, especially at the start and end of the breath.

The section of the book on sight singing is elementary. The authors acknowledge that it is a starting point. Most singers need to work through many exercises and a lot of unseen music if they want to become proficient sight singers. There are whole books that specialize in developing just this skill.

In the section on the art of phrasing it is suggested (among other things) that you 'evaluate the sense of harmonic movement underlying the melody - in other words, the song's chord changes.' Someone with no initial experience would find it impossible to do this given that the book does not include material on chords, harmony or harmonic movement.

It seems the authors view their breathing and voice exercises as useful both for improving a singer's breathing and voice and also for physical and vocal warm-ups. However, there is no separate account of warm-up exercises in the book. A separate account could have addressed questions like: What is the difference between a warm-up and the remainder of a practise session? Should vocal warm-ups be soft, slow and gentle before a stage appearance? Is humming of any value?

How does the book compare to 'Singing for Dummies'? The main differences are in the topics covered, depth of coverage and presentation. Dummies has no material on sight singing and almost none on how to read music. It
has no glossary and very few diagrams. It does not systematically describe different styles of singing. Idiots has little or no material on how to act a song, developing a practise routine, belting or on how to select music material. However, it devotes 5 chapters to different styles of singing. It is generally more inviting and easier to follow. It is a quicker read. I think the book (not the CD) would have greater appeal to a younger reader.

On the otherhand, while Dummies is heavier going, it deals with its topics in greater depth, especially topics that are basic to singing. It is not a book you can read from cover to cover without being overwhelmed. It is more like a reference book to be consulted over the longer haul.
The CDs for each book are different too. The Dummies CD has a leader who introduces the CD and tells you what the next exercise will be before it starts. You are encouraged to sing along with almost all of the exercises (with piano accompaniment). The CD ends with one complete song. The Idiots CD takes a different approach. Most of the CD is used to demonstrate the correct way of doing the exercises described in the text. It ends with a few more songs in different styles that you can sing along with. Many of the exercises on the CD are for rhythm and interval recognition and for sight singing. These topics are not covered on the Dummies CD - but Dummies provides more help on basics like singing vowels correctly and it is much more fun to use.
Neither book explicitly addresses the starting and ending of notes (attack and decay).The Complete Idiot's Guide to Singing Overview

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