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)
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