After more than five decades of teaching singers how to breathe, stand, and open their throats, Kathryn Kasper has written down her method. Her new book, Singing: A Technical Guide, is a practical manual for voice teachers, professional and amateur singers, pop soloists, and choir members. The book covers classical, Broadway, and popular technique within a single unified system.
Kasper, who has coached professional soloists, Broadway hopefuls, church choir volunteers, and college freshmen, says every singer has the same instrument, but most are using it wrong. The book is not a theory or history text, but a working document that explains where to put the tongue, how to expand the ribs, why singers should stop listening to their own voice through their Eustachian tubes, and what it feels like when the vocal tract is doing its job.
Across 19 chapters, Kasper walks through the entire singing system from the diaphragm up. Early chapters treat breathing as a coordinated athletic event involving the diaphragm, external intercostals, and upper abdominals. She then introduces the larynx, tongue, and pharynx as the lower architecture of the vocal tract, and maps the lips, hard palate, soft palate, cheeks, and jaw. Middle chapters tackle what she calls “the fundamental,” the raw sound created at the vocal folds before the vocal tract shapes it into language. She returns to this concept from multiple angles, adding layers such as vowel projection, resonance tuning, the Alexander Technique for pharyngeal space, and the relationship between harmonics.
Registration, including the passaggio transitions that trip up many developing singers, is addressed in Chapters 9 and 10. Kasper favors the glissando as the primary tool for smoothing those breaks and notes that popular singers, Broadway performers, and classical vocalists all share the same underlying technique even when their choices about register mixing differ. Chapter 15 provides an accessible introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet for English, and Chapter 17 covers melisma, interpolation, and runs with attention to both Baroque ornamentation and contemporary popular style. Final chapters are practical and personal, with Chapter 18 positioning the book within the tradition of vocal pedagogy, citing William Vennard, Richard Miller, Joan Wall, Robert Caldwell, and Theodore Dimon while arguing for a return toward empirical, feel-based teaching. Chapter 19 addresses special issues such as pitch matching, singing in tune in the upper register, vibrato problems, TMJ, and the concept of “covering” the voice.
The book reads the way Kasper teaches. Information is repeated from chapter to chapter because, as she writes, “repetition is how we learn.” The tone is direct, patient, and free of jargon. Exercises appear at the end of most chapters, many drawn from real studio sessions: sit-ups while singing, wall squats for posture, lip trills for pitch matching, and the finger-in-front-of-the-nose trick for checking projection. The book is designed to work alongside Kasper’s YouTube channel, where many exercises are demonstrated on video.
Kasper’s career spans continents. Born in Lima, Ohio, in 1940, she grew up in a Mennonite family that sang in four-part harmony. She earned a Music Education degree from Bethel College and a Master of Music in Voice from Wichita State University. A Fulbright fellowship took her and her husband, Arlo, to Wiesbaden, Germany, for two years. She then spent three decades teaching voice at Bethel College, performing annual recitals, and co-producing theater with Arlo. After retiring in 2006, a second Fulbright brought the couple to the UniNorte Opera Company in Asuncion, Paraguay, where they have lived for 20 years. During that time, Kasper helped prepare a 540-voice choir for the visit of Pope Francis in 2015. She continues to teach at university programs and privately across Paraguay. She and Arlo have been married for 63 years.
Singing: A Technical Guide is available now. For more information, visit Kasper’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@kaspervocalmethod.
