About Session
EnCHanting our audience: New rehearsal tools for singer-piano duos.
When you’re preparing for a recital with a pianist, where do you start? Both of you want to amaze your audience – how can you make this happen? Research on performance techniques and score interpretation for piano-singer duos has focussed on factors such as movement, eye gaze, and temporal alignment. However, we know little of the way performers share in the construction of interpretive meaning during rehearsal. Even highly experienced piano-singer duos have been known to limit their rehearsal talk to surface-level coordination, avoiding deeper dialogue about expressive intent or narrative interpretation. Our suite of studio teaching tools seeks to fill this gap. Informed by text-based strategies, psychosocial actioning, and the power of Vocal Affective Bursts (VABs – short, embodied sounds that rapidly convey meaning), these tools support deeper interpretive rehearsal processes. They combine music analysis, text study and efficient communication through action-perception processes, offering performers a gateway for experimentation. For teachers of all genres of singing, the tools comprise a practical method for teaching interpretation and provide tangible navigation of a domain often described as ineffable. This new approach promotes energised, two-way ensemble practice, expanding collaborative musicianship beyond mere coordination, toward meaningful co-creation.
