Vocalist.org archive


From:  Patricia M Smith <dgcsorcmgr@j...>
Patricia M Smith <dgcsorcmgr@j...>
Date:  Fri Jun 29, 2001  3:34 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Students who quit...


I believe the original question was "why do students quit?". I was ready
to chuck it all about 2 months ago & it didn't have anything to do with
my teacher. I was told about a conversation that my husband had with a
conductor that we know. What came back to me, the night before one of our
"Women in Music" recitals, was that I would never be a "soloist". Okay,
so I asked myself "what is that suppose to mean?". Because I was already
struggling with some confidence issues at the time, I became upset about
this for a month & began to wonder if I'm wasting my time studying voice.


I don't know what ambitions this conductor thinks I have but I don't have
ambitions to sing full-time & can only consider myself as a "semi" pro as
I only get paid on rare occasions. I don't get called for solos outside
of church situations, funerals & these occasional recitals that we do.
I'd like to do more but it hasn't worked out that way & my day job (which
I really like most of the time) tends to zap my energy for practicing
unless I have something specific that I'm working on.

Anyway...I told my teacher about this while rather blurry eyed & I've
lost a lot of the motivation that I had & am still having a hard time
getting it back. She doesn't quite understand either what this is
supposed to mean & has advised me to not let it hinder me in pursuing
singing, especially since it is for my own improvement & enjoyment and, I
hope, being an encouragement to others. I've also since been approached
by this conductor about what was "really" meant but I'm not entirely
convinced I believe what I was told.

I guess my point is that voice teachers need to know what the "right"
questions to ask are when a student announces that he/she wants to quit.
I think that the teachers might be surprised at what they are told &
that, frequently, it doesn't have anything to do with themselves.

Pat


On Wed, 27 Jun 2001 21:33:09 -0400 (EDT) Karen Mercedes
<dalila@R...> writes:
<dalila@R...> writes:
(snip)
>
> I've actually reached a point I do not trust compliments from anyone
> I
> know (except for my mother, who - in the way of mothers - can be my
> most
> brutal critic...for my own good, of course), and least of all from
> my
> teachers and coaches. Their negative criticisms I trust. But I have
> enough
> self-doubt, I suppose, or enough lack of faith in human nature, to
> suspect
> the motives of compliments. If a stranger compliments me after a
> performance, I'm far more likely to trust that compliment - because
> a
> stranger has no need for a hidden agenda: a stranger can just as
> easily
> say nothing than to go out of his/her way to approach and compliment
> me.
> I just wish I could have equal faith in the people I should be able
> to
> trust most of all when it comes to telling me about my voice and
> singing:
> my teacher and coaches. But I can't. Though I have to admit, I do
> trust my
> current teacher much more than I did my last one, in large part
> because my
> last teacher had a lot of students who, frankly, were bad singers -
> they
> loved to sing, but technically, despite studying with her for year
> after
> year, they seemed never to make much (if any) technical progress.
> And yet,
> she encouraged them.
(snip)

________________________________________________________________


  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
12933 Why do we quit?--And HUGE typo promero@w...   Fri  6/29/2001   3 KB
12949 Re: Students who quit... John Alexander Blyth   Fri  6/29/2001   4 KB

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