Sing & See - a new tool for singing teachers

Many teachers are now realising that visual feedback technology can provide an additional tool in their repertoire - a tool that can make explanations easier, can clarify feedback, can provide focus for self-directed learning, and can even help to highlight vocal issues in a non-confrontational way.

Whatever has brought you to this website, I invite you to read on to find out how our innovative software tool Sing & See can help to enhance your teaching and provide your students with real benefits in improving their vocal skills.

Before reading on about how Sing & See can benefit your teaching practice, take a look at this short video where you can hear from singing students themselves how Sing & See is helping them to gain a clearer understanding of their voices and what they need to do to improve their singing technique.

Find out more about Sing & See - a computer tool that will help your students learn better!

Sing & See was developed by a team of singing teachers and voice analysis experts at the University of Sydney in Australia, as part of a research project into how visual feedback technology can assist vocal skills acquisition. The teachers who were taking part in our research studies were so impressed by what the software could do for their students that they didn't want to give it back at the end of the study! So we decided to produce a version of the technology that could be made more widely available. Singing teachers all around the world are now using the software and associated pedagogical guide in their teaching in schools, universities, and private studios.

Sing & See is a powerful visual feedback software system that provides a wide range of feedback displays for training the singing voice. It can be used directly in the singing lesson, or as a guide for self-directed practice either in the classroom or at home.

Sing & See enables singers to actually see their voice on the computer screen - while they are singing, and then again while they listen as what they just sang is played back. The software contains sophisticated algorithms that analyse the voice to work out what pitch is being sung. It is then displayed on the computer screen in musically relevant displays that help the singer gain a deeper understanding of how their voice "fits" into the musical structure.

Sing & See Pitch display - the note is shown clearly by the change of colour on the piano keyboard, and also by the stave-note display. The history of the sung note is shown by the blue line trailing the red dot.

Now, how about singing a simple interval. See how the software shows you not only whether the singer is hitting each note exactly, but how the voice makes the transition between notes. You can immediately see if there is overshooting or scooping, clear vibrato, roughness, etc. Conversely, the software can also provide students with positive reinforcement that that they are achieving a clean vocal line.

As well as showing you a line of the exact pitch the voice traces over time, Sing & See helps to visualise singing in a musical context. It highlights each note sung on a virtual piano keyboard at the top of the screen, and also on a musical staff displayed on the left side. So students get an immediate visual understanding of how each pitch in their vocal range relates to music both as it is written and as it is played on the keyboard.

Sing & See also includes real-time spectrographic analysis, which provides in-depth information on the harmonic structure of the voice, allowing you to explore questions such as vowel consistency, vocal timbre, and upper harmonic strength.

Who developed Sing & See?

Sing & See was developed by a team comprising individuals with a wide range of expertise and experience, from singing pedagogy and performing to acoustic analysis algorithm development.

Dr William Thorpe is an engineer and scientist who spent several years working at the National Voice Centre and the School of Communication Sciences in the University of Sydney in Australia, doing research into how people sing - the physiology of their breathing, what it means to have good "breath support", the acoustic patterns of vocal projection, and various other aspects of singing performance. In doing this research he worked with many singing teachers, including Janice Chapman, Jo Estill, Jean Callaghan, Pat Wilson, and others. They published the results of their research in scientific journals and presented it to singing conferences around the world. If you are interested in finding out more about any of this research, you can contact William here.

Dr Thorpe led the research project on the use of visual feedback technology in singing training, and later set up Cantovation to develop the software further and make it available to singers and teachers around the world. Cantovation's mission is "to help people sing better and have more fun in their singing, by creating innovative technology that lets people improve and enjoy their voices", and it is very satisfying to hear feedback from teachers using Sing & See about how it is helping their students learn better.

Dr Jean Callaghan is a teacher, researcher, and consultant in vocal performance and pedagogy. At the University of Western Sydney she designed and delivered Australia’s first full postgraduate qualification in singing pedagogy. She has worked as a professional singer in Australia, England and Germany and has taken leadership roles in the Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing (ANATS), the Australian Voice Association (AVA), and the Australian Association for Research in Music Education (AARME). Her book, Singing and Voice Science, explores modern voice science and scientific findings in the context of the musical concerns of the singer.You can view Jean's Studio website here.

Pat Wilson has worked for over 25 years as a singer, pianist, musical director, composer and teacher. She teaches at several tertiary drama training institutions, as well as maintaining a singing studio in her specialist field of music theatre performance. She has been an office-bearer at both the state and federal levels of ANATS. Her book The Singing Voice: An Owner's Manual,jointly published in Australia and the UK, is in its second edition. She has recently completed herMaster's thesis in the use of visual feedback in learning to sing (using Sing & See), at the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Sydney. View Pat's studio website here.

Professor Jan van Doorn, a physicist with a long-standing interest in adapting technology to voice science, was one of the original researchers in the visual feedback research project. She is currently professor in speech science at Umeå University, Sweden.

Using Sing & See in vocal training

Sing & See is designed to meet the needs of singers and teachers working in all vocal styles and genres. It gives an almost instant visual representation of the singing voice, allowing singers to see the acoustic characteristics of their voice while they sing, and then to listen to it being replayed - again seeing it directly on the screen.

The Teacher's Manual How To Sing and See is a 284-page comprehensive guide to using Sing & See in ways that will foster both vocal and musical development. It includes explanation of the on-screen visual displays, a discussion of vocal questions that need to be considered in the individual application of the software, and a large collection of graded exercises, each laid out with musical notation of the exercise, an explanation of its purpose, the target display and instructions on how to achieve it.

The software can be used to illustrate aspects of your students' vocal production, as part of your normal lesson. It can also be used as a practice aid, to allow students to spend time on their own practising a particular exercise that you set. We have developed a Student Version with a simplified display, specially for this purpose. Some teachers are also using Sing & See as a way to help focus attention during warmup exercises. Indeed, there are probably as many different ways of using Sing & See as there are individual approaches to teaching singing. A few pointers to getting started are given here.

"Mirror of the voice"

The visual display can be used to illuminate vocal characteristics that may not be clearly perceived by the student. For instance, if your student is having difficulty in matching pitch, then you can use Sing & See to show the student the target pitch and the pitch they are singing.

As the student slowly slides the tone up and down, the display mirrors the changes in pitch, giving the student visual reinforcement of what you are explaining in words. The student can then use this information to begin associating the sensation and the auditory perception of the correct pitch.

This reinforcement of correct pitch is also important when the student goes away to practise - they can use the visual mirror of the voice to check that they are still "in tune".

Pitch display - the note is shown clearly by the change of colour on the piano keyboard, and also by the stave-note display. The history of the sung note is shown by the blue line trailing the red dot.

"Target practice"

Visual feedback can be used directly to help guide the student towards reaching a specified target. For instance, you can set a visual goal such as performing an arpeggio, and the student can spend time practising to try and better achieve that target.

Of course, if the student is to progress towards reaching the desired target - what they can see - they need to know what they should be working on to improve their performance. So you might tell them to focus on their posture, or whatever it is that you see they are lacking. The visual display however gives the student some positive reinforcement that they are getting closer to the target.

"Font of knowledge"

Acoustic analysis and display of the voice is a rich source of information that can help the student to gain a deeper understanding of the voice and how it works. For instance, the spectrographic display allows you and your students to explore the harmonic structure of their voices and how it changes across different vowels and through their vocal range.

The combined display in Sing & See shows both pitch and spectrographic information, giving a wealth of detail about a student's voice. In this view, you can see clearly the increased higher harmonics that appear when the voice is properly supported.

How Sing & See can benefit your Teaching

Sing & See is designed to complement your individual teaching style. It is not prescriptive, but provides a variety of feedback displays that you can use to focus on particular aspects of your students' voices as you choose. Some of the benefits that Sing & See can bring to your teaching practice are described below.

Read how other teachers are using Sing & See

Find out how to get Sing & See

Sing & See is a computer software program that runs on a standard Windows PC or Mac (Intel Macs only - check this page for more details)

Read on to find out how to order and start using Sing & See on your own computer immediately. You can also choose to have a CD-ROM containing the software shipped to your address in addition to the immediate download. The CD-ROM and download versions are identical.

NOTE: If you need to order by Purchase Order or prefer to place your order by phone then please check our order options page.

As soon as you order Sing & See through our online order system, you are given a link to download the software and a unique private Product Key that will let you install it onto your computer. So you can start to use it straight away (unless you need to first get a microphone. If you need one we can recommend some options). Even if you have never downloaded software, the process is extremely easy and quick. And safe - read below about what we have done to make this as risk-free as possible.

Risk-free ordering

We use Paypal to process all payments and are a Paypal Verified business. Paypal securely handles all your credit card or bank account details (they have a choice of different methods for payment). Once your payment is complete they notify us and we then finalise your order. Paypal are probably the largest online payments company (they are part of eBay) and offer extremely high security including a policy of "100% protection" against fraud.

Because we want to be absolutely sure that you are happy with Sing & See, we give our customers a 30 day 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE. If you decide, anytime in the first 30 days, that Sing & See actually isn't what you want, we will happily refund 100% of your purchase price. We're very happy to make this guarantee because we're confident that you will find it useful in helping with your singing progress. And if you're not satisfied that the software is helping you, then we want to hear about it so that we can work to improve the software for other people.

We understand the dangers of buying on the internet and want you to feel absolutely comfortable with ordering from us. That is why - in addition to the protection you receive through Paypal - we have now decided to become a member of RatePoint, the premier provider of online business reputation services. You can click on the RatePoint seal to check our business reputation, and can leave feedback about our service on the RatePoint website. So you can have full confidence that we are an honest business with a good reputation to protect.

As soon as we receive confirmation from Paypal that your payment has been processed (this usually takes only a few seconds, unless you choose to pay by electronic check in which case it can take a few days for the payment to clear) our server automatically generates a unique Product Key and emails it to you together with the download link and detailed instructions for installing the software on your PC. Paypal also sends you an email confirming your order, so you have an independent record of your payment, and if you are dissatisfied you can even ask them to intervene. If you have also ordered the CD-ROM or the Teacher's manual we will post that out to you within 48 hours.

Please do let us know how Sing & See is helping your singing teaching practice. We are always glad to hear stories about how it is helping teachers and students in their singing training, and welcome all suggestions and feedback about how to make the software even better.

P.S. Remember, your order is 100% risk-free, with protection given by Paypal and our own 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you prefer to order by telephone or Purchase Order, contact us directly or if you are in North America our distributor A-Prompt Corporation

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Sing & See - a new tool for singing teaching

Singing teaching can be very rewarding, but it is also hard work. As a teacher, you need a wide knowledge and a deep understanding of the instrument to help your students to explore and develop the full potential of their voices.