Kathryn Kasper has spent more than five decades standing next to a piano, listening to voices, and diagnosing the muscular habits that hinder singers. Now, at 86, she has distilled that experience into Singing: A Technical Guide, a book she describes as the manual she wished she had as a student at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas.
The book is not a history of bel canto or a theoretical treatise. It is a working document that tells singers exactly where to place their tongue, how to expand their ribs, why they should stop listening to their own voice through their Eustachian tubes, and what it feels like when the vocal tract is functioning optimally. Across 19 chapters, Kasper walks through the entire singing system from the diaphragm up, covering inhalation and support, the larynx and pharynx, vowel projection, resonance tuning, registration, and the International Phonetic Alphabet for English.
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 argues for a return to such empirical teaching, citing William Vennard, Richard Miller, Joan Wall, Robert Caldwell, and Theodore Dimon.
What sets Singing: A Technical Guide apart is its unified system. Kasper 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. Chapters 9 and 10 address the passaggio transitions that trip up nearly every developing singer, with Kasper favoring the glissando as the primary tool for smoothing those breaks. Chapter 17 covers melisma, interpolation, and runs with attention to both Baroque ornamentation and contemporary popular style. The final chapter 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.' 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 credentials are extensive. 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 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 written for voice teachers, professional and amateur singers, pop soloists, and choir members. It covers classical, Broadway, and popular technique within a single unified system. Kasper does not pretend the system is simple. She does insist it is learnable. For an industry that often segregates vocal training by genre, Kasper's book offers a rare bridge, and for the countless singers who have been told they cannot carry a tune, it provides a clear, practical path forward. More information about the book and Kasper's method can be found at her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@kaspervocalmethod.
