People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do. (author unknown) Private voice lessons are a special opportunity for teacher and student. They can offer much learning and growth, or a pleasant diversion from the rest of life, […]
Tag: professionalism
Teacher, not therapist
In many conversations with colleagues, it has often emerged that they are more personally involved in their students’ lives than I am with my students. The amount of personal talk in lessons seems to vary a lot. Generally, it appears that more female teachers spend significant amounts of time in the lesson talking with students […]
Discourse and Dissent in Vocal Pedagogy
Recently a voice teacher posted a controversial statement on his Facebook page. When others responded to it, he allowed comments that agreed with him and removed those that did not. This has been his pattern in the past. He is accustomed to writing large articles and posting them on his website without an opportunity for […]
I’m tired – should I go to my lesson?
Yes, you should. Unless you have a contagious illness or some kind of injury, you should follow through with your appointment for a couple of reasons. That’s what performers (people) of integrity do. If they are able to sing, they sing when they have agreed to sing. Learning how to perform when you aren’t feeling […]
The “how” of running a lesson
If you know something about the voice and what to do with a student in lessons, your knowledge may fall flat if you don’t also study the “how” of running the lesson. Some things to consider: How do you greet the student? How much small talk is the right amount? How do you react to […]
Respect Between Teacher and Student
In order not to compound negative feelings, I’m going to be short and breezy with this, but it’s a serious topic. I recently had a new student come for a few lessons. She had one of these email signatures that goes something like this; “born to dare to live my dream”. Those are frankly red […]
Predicting Successful Careers
Having worked on both the vocal and instrumental sides of music, I am ever humbled by the delicacy of the vocal art. One bad teacher, one difficult surgery, one lost “Aha!” moment, and the setback can be huge. It’s just not as hard for instrumentalists. Instrumental technique is largely visible, mostly objective; corrective courses are […]
When do a student and teacher part ways?
If you come to me as a student, I cannot guarantee that you will achieve your goals. I can say that the odds are very high that you will improve if you work with me, but I can’t create worldly success for you. You must create your own success. I can only give tools and […]
Disasters, Debacles, or, You’re kidding, right?
Talking with a dear friend last night about no-win situations in the workplace got me to thinking about some of my favorite musical disaster stories. #1 The Oblivious Symphony of Connecticut When I was 22 I learned about a principal flute vacancy with an orchestra near where I was living. It was a union job, […]
Ego and Competition
When I was playing flute more, it was an important status symbol for me to have an orchestra position. Regardless of the other performing outlets in my life, being in an orchestra was what I wanted on my resume. I would get quite nervous for auditions, then once I was in a group, I would […]
"Because of me, or in spite of me" and bad gigs
My dad was a teacher in my high school. Since there were only two English teachers for grades 7-12 in my district, it was unavoidable that I have him in several classes. I think he was my teacher for Speech, American Literature, and one of the basic junior high courses, but I don’t exactly remember. […]
Paths not taken – or "I might be out of touch"
I am a teacher. It is in my upbringing (my biological parents and stepmom were teachers), my history, and my soul. However, I am a teacher of SINGING. I am a singer. I identify very much as a performing musician, although that is not my main source of money. If I had not taken a […]