"The book is wonderful! It is beautifully written, easy to follow and a lovely idea to have photos rather than diagrams.

This important book challenges and encourages a synthesis in singing, voice, speech, and movement pedagogy. Voice, singing and movement trainers have agreed in theory for some time that more integrated methods of training are essential, however, in practice little progress has been made. Melton's book is the first theoretical and technical manual outlining a comprehensive method of physical, vocal, and musical integration. It is the most significant contribution to the field of voice, speech and movement in quite some time.

Joan Melton's recently published book, ONE VOICE: Integrating Singing Technique and Theatre Voice Training, is an outstanding training manual and contribution to both scholarship and practice, and is the first to be published using Fitzmaurice Voicework as the basis of an actor/singer training approach.

I just read your new book and found it wonderfully thorough, helpful and well written. I hope you sell a million copies!

My students are still glowing and inspired by your seminar, and how well and easily your teachings help unlock the voice! This work is so in line with what I teach, but your techniques get there so much faster! I'm requiring all my students to buy your book!

Joan Melton is taking the lead in developing a vital new pedagogy for the teaching of theatre voice. Her conviction that the teaching of singing and speaking for musical theatre performers must derive from the same technical core, is, in my view, the key to the future of vocal training for actors. Joan's rich background, as a composer, pianist, and classically trained singer have prepared her uniquely for the groundbreaking approach she is taking in her work.

I'm amazed almost daily as to what's happening here! Yesterday I felt I walked taller, more confidently and the "strings kept me lifted. Last night in the class with my students, I just had this incredible freedom in my voice and felt so relaxed - my voice just flowed and I didn't have a sense of "oops - I'm pushing" - it just flowed!

This little gem requires all of your attention.
There are very few wasted words, the explanations are clear, precise and quite brilliant.
Congratulations !!

As a professional who has been teaching at an Opera Department and Drama Department for years, specializing in voice building, vocal health and body/voice integration, I bought the book with the attitude that I need to know what is going on in current literature, not expecting to really get excited about "another voice book." What a mistake this was! I started reading the book late one night during a conference and could not put it down! What a gem! Melton and Tom have succeeded in finding just the right style of writing to portray the scientific and pedagogical truth to the student! . . . What makes the book even more user-friendly is the reference list at the end of each chapter and not at the end of the book. . .Another positive point is the reference to internet sources, thus ensuring the interest of the modern student population. The clear photos used for necessary demonstration are another plus, and the helpful hints portrayed in the numerical style are an added bonus for the student reader. It is evident that the authors are experts in their field and have thoroughly researched their target audience. ONE VOICE will certainly appear on my list of primary sources for Drama as well as Opera students in the years to come!

REVIEWS: ONE VOICE: INTEGRATING SINGING TECHNIQUE AND THEATRE VOICE TRAINING Joan Melton with Kenneth Tom (Heinemann, 2003)

Every year I ask my Voice and Speech class, "Where is your Voice?" Inevitably, the students point at their throat. Then I ask, "Is your singing voice different from your speaking voice?" They all respond, "Yes." The integration of the whole body is one of the primary goals of my course. So, I was thrilled to find Joan Melton's Book One Voice. I was trained by Joan Melton to be an Associate Fitzmaurice teacher, so, for me, to read her book and to use it as a resource was to relive the numerous workshops taken with her. It was a pleasure. So, in order to see if this book really suited the voice/speech trainer and the singing trainer, I sought a second perspective: that of a singing voice teacher with no experience in the Fitzmaurice method. Dr. Geoffrey Wm. Stephenson, Professor of Voice Instruction in the College of Music at Bowling Green, provides the second review.

One Voice: Integrating Singing Technique and Theatre Voice Training by Joan Melton with Kenneth Tom is a must read for professionals and students alike. This book aims to unify singing and speaking voice techniques and to postulate that singing and speaking on stage require similar techniques. Ms. Melton, a musician, singer, actor and teacher, encourages studying and playing with both techniques because one informs the other. She encourages whole body interaction and integration of techniques, as "learning these and other vocal activities from a similar perspective can increase your overall level of skill, flexibility, and confidence (135)." Working with universal movement and voice principles, she provides detailed instructions, practice tips, suggested resources, and inspirations for students of all levels. This book is a practical guide, an excellent textbook for a singing for the actor, or a voice and movement course. There are numerous helpful exercises, clearly described and illustrated, that address the issues of the professional voice user.

The book is divided into three sections: (Part I) Basic Technique, (Part II) Performance Details and (Part III) Additional Perspectives. Part I begins in collaboration with Dr. Kenneth Tom, whose lucid and accessible information on anatomy and physiology is invaluable. The illustrations are clear and the language addresses the needs of singers, dancers, and actors. Part II includes sections on reading music, working on text, and singing and acting. The reading music section serves the actor or musical theatre specialist more than it would serve a classically trained singer. She provides a clear argument for studying music notation. Part III provides the reader with some additional perspectives, such as overcoming fear, singing as a diagnostic tool and techniques for reaching highly emotional states and for extended voice use. I appreciated the author's continual reminder to the reader to seek out an experienced voice practitioner; she even provides guidelines on how to do so. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend One Voice.

As a teacher of vocal music performance I found, in Melton and Tom's One Voice: Integrating Singing Technique and Theatre Voice Training some quite positive revelations. Here in one thin 140-page book, the authors have succinctly and effectively addressed the similarities between theatre voice training and music voice training, a rare and challenging endeavor at best; and I found that many of the same techniques that I have been using in training singers' voices are used to train actors' voices as well.

Melton jump starts the first of three parts, "The Basic Technique," with a quick introductory workshop in the Fitzmaurice vocal training technique, which can serve as a warm-up, incorporating vocal and physical exercises. Then she and Tom discuss the physiology of the entire vocal mechanism clearly and concisely, avoiding technical terms that can be confusing or intimidating to student performers. This second chapter concludes with an impressive section on vocal health. The third chapter, "Range, Resonance, and Articulation," returns the reader to physical and vocal exercises, including sung sequences that serve the singer and ease the non singer into musical vocalization without intimidation. To conclude the first part. Melton makes three seminal recommendations that confront the apparent contradictions in the voice/movement relationship: a) voice and movement practitioners should communicate; b) individuals should adapt voice related breathing patterns to movement work; c) movement based exercises should be used in voice class.

Part II, "Performance Details," includes a chapter for actors addressing singing issues, such as reading music, working with an accompanist and choosing audition songs, followed by a chapter of exercises that facilitate the performance of both spoken and sung text. A brief but deeply appreciated chapter on acting while singing concludes this part. The third and final part, "Additional Perspectives," addresses a variety of topics such as overcoming the fear of singing, technical care of the voice and body, and special challenges, such as safely screaming and laughing.

What impressed me the most about Melton and Tom's work here is how user-friendly it is. Each chapter has a list of references for further reading on that chapter's topic. Instructional photos accompany each exercise. The technical drawings of the voice and respiratory apparatus are particularly helpful in explaining the physiology of vocal production. This book's clarity makes it an excellent reference guide for training either the non-singing actor or the musical theatre performer, and can also serve as a brilliant way to re-conceive private voice instruction. True, most private voice instruction is seldom as physical as the exercises in One Voice, but as I progress through my career, I think perhaps it should be. Meltons greatest achievement, however, is her adroit way of bringing together the two worlds of actor and singer voice training. If one makes his/her way in the entertainment industry as a performer, a teacher, or both, I would highly recommend One Voice as required reading.

Singers and actors often view voice use very differently, and the divergence is evident even in the lexicon of instruction. To an actor, voice training denotes learning how to use the speaking voice for the stage, whereas singers assume it will be a singing lesson. This dissimilarity is the impetus for Joan Melton's manual One Voice. Melton teaches voice - that is, for stage - in the theater program, as well as voice - that is, singing - in the music theater program at California State University, Fullerton. She believes there should be more integration of singing into training actors, and more inclusion of acting into training singers. One Voice is a guide, complete with exercises, to amalgamating the two.

One of the strongest aspects of the book is Melton's acknowledgment of the differences between the disciplines. For instance, in the opening chapter on posture and breathing, the author underlines that dancers use the breath very differently than singers. Actors who have an extensive dance background must make adaptations for optimum singing and speaking respiration. When all of the other movement-related disciplines, such as the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, Pilates, stage combat, and yoga - to mention only a few are thrown into the mix, it is not surprising that students often struggle with information that seems contradictory. The author underlines the need for communication among teachers of the different disciplines so students can resolve the contradiction. Melton also encourages the incorporation of movement into voice classes so students understand the application of the different techniques.

Another of the premises for Melton's exercises is the similarity between phrasing in speech and song. She devotes a chapter to working with text, both sung and spoken. The exercises promote more efficient use of the breath and enhanced communication, both in the literal and dramatic sense.

The anatomical and physiological information contained in the book is first rate. Melton sought assistance from Kenneth Tom, a colleague in the Department of Speech Communication at Cal State, Fullerton, to present lucid explanations of respiration, phonation, and articulation. Diagrams borrowed from Meribeth Bunch's Dynamics of the Singing Voice (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982) elucidate the text.

The book's exercises assume previous experience with bodywork, including Pilates and yoga. Melton also draws heavily upon Catherine Fitzmaurice's destructuring/structuring approach. For those unfamiliar with this work, destructuring refers to letting go of habitual breathing patterns, and restructuring refers to returning to the way the body works naturally. Additional resources to learn about the method augment the brief explanation offered by the author.

The guidebook is directed at theater students, and covers topics such as reading music and overcoming fears about singing; however, the book has much to commend it to singing students as well. The author's advice regarding vocal hygiene, how to select a voice teacher, and singing in general is straightforward and accurate.

Instruction on how to prepare scores for audition pianists, and how to select audition material and repertoire, is helpful. Singing teachers will appreciate Melton's advocacy of classical technique, including the use of legato, avoidance of glottal onsets, and emphasis on a relaxed jaw. For these reasons, the book is useful to actors who are studying singing, and to singers who wish to enhance their audition or performance skills in music theater.

"Triple threat" in music theater describes the ideal performer. The tripartite term is misleading, for two of the components - singing and acting are dependent upon one vocal instrument. Melton's One Voice is a welcome aid in balancing the various theatrical demands made upon the voice.