The Preservation of Intent.
The Principle of the Preservation of Intent is a foundational principle of Intentional Singing: it applies at any time, and in any circumstance, when learning to sing.
We can put the Principle like this:
“When seeking to improve a motor skill (in our case: singing), it is more effective if the intent that motivates the skill is preserved in the exercises and instructions designed to improve it.”
If followed, this simple principle has implications for your entire pedagogic system. Every instruction and exercise will be informed by it: even your choice of words will be affected.
Where has this principle come from, and what is it for?
The Principle in singing is derived five evidential foundations. These foundations are fully explained and referenced in the PowerPoint and PDF in the Foundations page. We can put them briefly here:
Efforts to implement the Principles of Motor Learning in vocal pedagogy.
Evidence for the Intentional Organisation of Movement.
Evidence for the reduced effectiveness of Intention Stripped learning.
Evidence for the effects of Focus and Respecting Complexity in learning.
Evidence for the role of Intention in affecting all aspects of sung performance, from breath to sound.
How do these five foundations lead to the Principle?
In the briefest manner (please see Foundations page for references):
Many have called for the Principles of Motor Learning (PML) to be rigorously applied to vocal pedagogy. The evidential base for the PMLs is seen as strong, but it has been said they are ignored by mainstream vocal pedagogy. The PMLs are loosely defined, but include key roles for task-specificity, goal-directed training, which promote effective transfer of learning. Intentional Singing necessitates goal-orientation and task-specificity, so promoting transfer of learning. Motivation, autonomy and principles of focus (more in no 4 below) also feature in PMLs, and are similarly accounted for by the Preservation of Intent.
There is evidence that bodily movements are organised by action rather than muscle: coordinated neural responses facilitate intended actions. This view is in opposition to actions being “assembled” by combinatorial muscular activation. The effect of this is that the same muscle is activated differently dependent on task. This has been found true in relation to jaw, lip and larynx movements, among others. Intentional teaching also inspires relevant coordinated responses, rather than attempting individual muscular training.
There is evidence that learning is more effective when intention is preserved in exercise and instruction. Stroke-rehabilitation and speech therapy have task-specificity as a key principle. Exercises that “intent strip” often have limited supporting evidence. One class of exercises in speech therapy, non-speech oral motor exercises, which aim to improve speech but without involving meaningful speech sounds, are currently not recommended. This again supports the notion that preserved intention is a key part of learning, and provides evidence that intention-stripping, on the other hand, reduces efficacy.
Plentiful investigations into the use of internal and external foci in motor learning have found that external foci are more effective (and that internal foci are sometimes worse than no focus at all). This evidence includes investigations into singing. Intentional teaching has external focus inextricably built in, as the intention to sing is not the intention to manipulate the body.
Finally, (limited) research has found considerable differences between singing that is motivated either by appropriate, or inappropriate, intentions. These differences are audible, and physical. These studies have raised questions about the transfer of learning if intention is changed between instruction and performance.
Principles can only be based on the best available evidence, and then adhered to, until either theory or practice suggests modification. This is the scientific method at work. A variety of evidence suggests that altering intention during learning and singing is ineffective. Abductive reasoning from this evidence leads to the Principle of the Preservation of Intent in vocal pedagogy.
These foundations are more than sufficient to convince this author both of the validity of an intentional approach and of the need for its discussion in vocal pedagogic discourse. The foundations suggest a Principle of Preservation of Intent in learning to sing. Theoretically based, the Principle is then tested in the studio.