Bubbles

It is easy for anyone who leads to become encased in a bubble, including voice teachers. When they develop followings, there is the danger that they can be surrounded by people who do not challenge them. All the “yes people” become the bubble.

Once the bubble forms, some typically soapy behaviors may increase. There are teachers and coaches who hold court in their Facebook groups, people who shake their fists at the rest of the profession in their blogs (ouch!), teachers who diss other teachers, students who profess that their teacher has the one true, right-for-all-time way of singing, authors publishing books that claim to have all the answers, and on and on. If you can find people to agree with you – and on the internet that is always possible – there is the danger that you will be enclosed in a bubble that slows down your learning.

Be willing to engage with people you don’t agree with. Please try to listen, somehow. Just stay open by not closing. It isn’t that you aren’t right, but make sure that you don’t assume everyone else is wrong. Learning how to deal with contrasts, rather than shutting them out, is part of what makes an interesting life. And you can learn things, right up to the end.