I've gone through "tape every lesson" phases, but frankly have found those
lesson tapes to have very limited utility.
What I find much more useful are occasional "sanity check" tapes that I
make when I feel I've reached either a "stagnation" point or an "arrival"
point. In the former case, listening to how I sound when I feel I've hit
a technical brick wall can be useful for diagnosing the problem in another
way. In the latter case, I'm able to hear "from outside" the results of a
particular technical breakthrough, to confirm to myself what what I'm
hearing "from inside" (and feeling) is not just an illusion, but is indeed
a good move forward.
I also tape fairly frequently when I'm preparing for a performance, to
make sure a particular aria, song, etc., is indeed "coming across" the way
I want it to.
But as far as my lessons week to week, I find it's much more useful to
rely on what I'm feeling and what I'm hearing "from inside" - since it's
what I'm feeling and what I'm hearing "from inside" that I have to rely on
when I get up on stage to perform. Earlier in my studies, the tapes were a
good way to correlate the "inside" sound with the sound people "outside"
were hearing. But I've been doing this long enough (studying, singing)
that I now have a very good ear for my own "inside" voice, and can almost
always tell when what I'm doing is right or not. My teacher, at this
point, has become the "sanity check" - her role is really to draw my
attention to certain things - habits I don't realise I still have, etc. -
but once she draws my attention to them, I'm able to (1) hear "inside"
what the difference is between doing that particular thing wrong and doing
it right; (2) make the correction in a way that I can repeat it
consistently based on my "from inside" sound and the sensations that go
along with that sound.
Frankly, the only real value the tape recordings have to me is to give me
a chance to see if what I'm doing in terms of PERFORMANCE - musical
choices, dramatic choices - is working. As a tool for learning vocal
technique, I find tapes almost worthless.
KM
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ I sing hymns with my spirit, +
+ but I also sing hymns with my mind. +
+ - 1 Corinthians 14:15 +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
|  |
