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To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
From: Peter Louis van Dijk
Subject: Re: List of Greatest Voice Teachers
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

>Susi wrote:
>
>>What comes first, the great voice teacher or the ability
>to pick and choose good voices and then become" a great voice teacher" by
>association?
>

>Dr Clark replied:
>You must be speaking of the private studio. Those of us in educational
>settings don't get a choice. We get to teach whoever walks through the door.
>I may get the next Caruso or a student who cannot match a pitch...it's a crap
>shoot every semester! :) Somehow I kinda enjoy the challenge. Lots of
>teachers can make a silk purse out of silk, but it takes a good (great?)
>teacher to make a silk purse...well, you know.


I quite agree. I'm in the same position, even though I run a private
studio, as I feel everyone who asks has the right to vocal tuition . Time
usually sorts out those who want to hang in there and manage to improve
inspite of themselves. At least one cultivates an interested and educated
audience member, if not another soloist, and we need those just as much, if
not more.

I'm thinking about the "great" teachers students flock to AFTER they have
done their initial training, when the likes of us have done the spade
work.One can get a good reputation by repeatedly selecting those voices who
would have made it anyway.The secret,of course, is not to destroy those
voices, which also has been known to happen.
In South Africa the trend is to get a really really good foundation
(whether instrumental or vocal) before the obligatory overseas polish takes
place.
It's not unusual for a young star to come back and start all over again
with his/her previous teacher, because he/she left the nest too soon.There
is a lesson in that, too.

Regards
Susi
C T RSA