The
Tomatis Method
Dr.
Alfred A. Tomatis was born on January 1, 1920 in Nice (France),
and passed away on Christmas Day 2001. He moved to Paris and
became an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. He made some remarkable
discoveries which led to the development of the Tomatis Method.
Its purpose is to re-educate the way we listen, to improve learning and
language abilities, communication, creativity, and social behavior.
The Tomatis Listening
Therapy has helped children and adults with auditory processing
problems, dyslexia, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders,
autism, and those with sensory integration and motor-skill
difficulties. It has also helped adults fight depression, learn foreign
languages faster, develop better communication skills, and improve both
creativity and on-the-job performance. Many musicians, singers and
actors also found it helpful in fine-tuning their artistic skills.
Our
Reflections
"Music that is expressed by the singer
from his or her own centre, is done in greater or lesser degree through
the quality of the instrument, in this case, the voice. A key insight
of Dr. Tomatis is that “one sings with one’s ear,”(The Conscious Ear,
1991, 44)] and that “the voice can only produce what the ear hears.”
(1991, 53) In other words, any alteration in the way the ear perceives
the sound, profoundly affects the sound produced. He found if there was
a poor quality of self-listening, there was a poor quality of
singing. (1991, 42-43) This realization led Tomatis to develop a
filtering device that he called “The Electronic Ear.” This process
helped clarify and order self-listening, and improved singing.
Paul Madaule, director of The
Listening Centre in Toronto, a client, and later colleague and friend
of Alfred Tomatis, has explained, developed, and further applied this
work. Madaule observes that the ear has a function even more primary
than hearing, that he calls “The Listening Function.” (Madaule, 1996)
He explains that the vestibular system, the first sensory system to
develop in the womb, keeps us aware of our body and its position and
movement in space. This body listening is the basis of communication
and becomes the non-verbal dimension of listening. The cochlear system,
which evolved out of the vestibular system, provides the capacity to
perceive sound, and consequently to produce sound with the voice.
Together the two systems form the inner ear. Music, says Madaule,
is a reflection of both systems; it is a composite of rhythm and
melody. And yet, “rhythm and melody randomly assigned do not
necessarily amount to music. The beauty of music, its greatest value,
is the integration of the two.” (Madaule, 1998, 38)
From Norman King and Jane
Ripley, "Music, the Voice of Memory: An Exploratory Perspective,"
presented
at Festival 500, symposium
held at St. John's, Newfoundland, July 2007,©2007