Kathryn Kasper has spent more than five decades teaching singers how to breathe, stand, and open their throats. Now, at 86, she has written down everything she knows in a new book, Singing: A Technical Guide. The book arrives as a comprehensive manual for voice teachers, professional and amateur singers, pop soloists, and choir members, filling a gap between theoretical texts and the practical, feel-based instruction that Kasper has refined over a lifetime.
Across 19 chapters, Kasper walks through the entire singing system from the diaphragm up. Early chapters treat breathing not as a passive act but 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, before mapping the rest: lips, hard palate, soft palate, cheeks, and jaw. The middle chapters tackle what Kasper calls "the fundamental," the raw sound created at the vocal folds before the vocal tract shapes it into language, returning to this concept from multiple angles, including vowel projection, resonance tuning, and the relationship between the first and second harmonics.
Kasper's approach is empirical and feel-based, drawing on her own humbling lesson in resonance when a doctoral teacher told her he did not hear much of it in her voice. That moment sent her on a years-long search that eventually led to an old Italian method involving inhaling through the mouth while smelling a flower. She favors the glissando as the primary tool for smoothing registration breaks, and is direct about the fact that popular singers, Broadway performers, and classical vocalists all share the same underlying technique even when their choices about register mixing differ. The book also provides an accessible introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet for English, and covers melisma, interpolation, and runs with attention to both Baroque ornamentation and contemporary popular style.
The final chapters are practical and personal. Kasper positions the book within the broader 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. She addresses special issues: pitch matching, singing in tune in the upper register, vibrato problems, TMJ, and the concept of "covering" the voice. 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 (Kathryn Kasper or kaspervocalmethod), where many of the exercises are demonstrated on video.
Kasper's biography informs every page. Born in Lima, Ohio, in 1940, she grew up in a Mennonite family that sang in four-part harmony before she ever set foot in a formal music classroom. 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 spent the next 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.
The book's significance lies in its unification of vocal techniques across genres. While many pedagogical texts focus on classical or popular styles separately, Kasper presents a single system that applies to all. Her insistence that the underlying technique is the same regardless of style challenges the often-artificial divide between classical and contemporary training. For voice teachers, the book offers a ready-made curriculum with exercises and explanations that can be immediately applied in the studio. For singers, it provides a clear, jargon-free guide to understanding their instrument. In an era where vocal health and longevity are paramount, Kasper's emphasis on coordinated breathing, resonance, and registration is a timely contribution. Singing: A Technical Guide is not a quick fix but a working document that rewards repeated study, much like the voice itself.
