Dear Mathew, Mike and co vocalisters,
sorry for responding so late, but I don't have much time at the moment.
1. Mike wrote: too bad such a person doesn't exist.
You might give it a try with a teacher of good reputation on the other
side of your immense country.
2. On the suggestion of being your own voice teacher; I am probably the
one on this list that has most experience with that (and with voice
teachers that keep you from making any progress; also see my mail from
about a year ago: 'never again a singing teacher').
If you read 'great singers on singing' you'll find many singers telling
about terrible experiences with singing teachers, although most of them
at some moment found someone that really helped them.
In my experience, being your own singing teacher, can really help you
for a while, certainly compared to staying with a teacher that does not
get you anywhere, for whatever reason. I learned a lot from this list in
my approx. nine voice teacher-less months, especially from Lloyd, but
also from others. I will never forget Ian's mail about (too much)
support making you sing like a pig e.g. I still learn from this list, so
in a way you might argue whether I really was voice teacher-less during
that time (there have been other times where I neither had a teacher,
nor this list and then I did not make much progress, if any, maybe I
even got worse).
The most important thing with being your own teacher is i.m.o., that you
learn to experiment with things, learn to recognise feelings that
influence your voice, and learn to listen to yourself critically.
(Without recording yourself this is quite difficult, but recording and
playing recordings back is also not uncomplicated, I hope to write about
this some other time.)
Probably because I made some progress on my own, I came into contact
(via my pianist) to a very good singer who teaches occassionally, and
that seems to work out great. There are clearly many things I could not
have learned without her, but on the other hand: she could not have
taught me anything, if I would not be able to teach myself. The things
we experience while singing are so different, that nobody but you, can
tell what you have to do exactly: you have to translate the words of
your teacher into your feelings and actions.
I have the feeling that people who work for many years with one teacher
often develop some kind of dependency-relation to their teacher. That is
very wrong i.m.o.: a teacher should learn you to become independent and
to make progress and solve your own problems without him or her.
I think you could compare it to a blind man who is guided by a dog who
knows the road better than his boss, versus a seeing person who has been
told by somebody how to drive or walk from A to B. At the end you have
to do it alone, and after some times you might even do it without
thinking. (I hope no teachers feel offended for the not very flattering
comparision with a dog, and I aslo hope Andrea Bocelli does not read
this. By the way: I have a video of Bocelli singing Don José in Carmen
and it is somehow impressive (he even catches the flower) in terms of
how someone can do things without the help of others, I even think he
sang better then (it is about 5 years old) than now.
But enough of that: the first thing you should do i.m.o. is sing for a
good teacher that for some reason is not able to teach you, to be sure
that there are reasons within you, that keep you from making progress.
Best greetings,
Dré
|
|  |
