Vocalist.org archive


From:  Fiona Chow <fionat@i...>
Fiona Chow <fionat@i...>
Date:  Thu Aug 16, 2001  6:31 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] teachers expectations


> I am not necessarily waiting for her to teach me this it was just that the
> first teacher insisted upon doing the walk thru process with me. Recently I
> prepared a song and in one section got the pitch wrong as well as the rhythm
> wrong and my teacher flew off the handle for preparing it incorrectly.
> Anyhow, I really like the responses you all are giving me.

I have been, at certain times, a teacher AND a student (not in the
same lesson, obviously). I think the responsibility of the student is to
get the notes, etc. as right as possible, within your capability. This
differs from singer to singer. I will admit that I have shown up at
lessons with music that is learned, but learned in a hurry and I'm sure
that shows. My teachers all know I am capable of learning music quickly,
but that I also am more than capable of learning it RIGHT. :). I felt
guilty for those times and thankfully they were few and far
between. Voice lessons are expensive as it is and usually one doens't get
enough so if you're spending it on notes/diction (that you can look at
before hand in a book) then you are not making effective use of time.

As a teacher - when a student comes in and the music is not as
well prepared as I think it should be (and again, this varies from student
to student) there may of course be technical reasons. For example, in a
meslimatic passage, if there are wrong notes, it may (hypothetically) be
because said student is singing too heavily. Yelling at a student or
showing great displeasure is not the way to go. However, if it's been 6
months and the same piece is not properly learned, then it is time to sit
the student down and find out why, or to make expectations clear.

There is another thing that I have (sadly) encountered as a
student. That is the incompetent singing teacher who him/herself DOES NOT
KNOW THE RIGHT PITCHES/RHYTHM/DICTION to teach. The teacher whose piano
skills are so lacking, and whose musicianship is so poor that music
notation makes only a small amount of sense to him/her. I have seen
teachers like this unfortunately, yell at the student in impatience for
not knowing the music - and when the teacher tries to help, is unable to
of course, b/c of lack of know-how. I have found this scary and frankly,
I'm not sure if such people should be teaching singing because I do
believe teachers of singing should be also musicians (is this an elitist
thought?). I hope this is not offensive to anyone. I have also seen
teachers teach totally incorrect diction, and totally incorrect rhythm,
and it never ceases to amaze me - I just think it's wrong. There are
classes to help singers/teachers in those predicments - it seems to me
totally irreponsible to be teaching students something incorrect,
or becoming frustrating as a result of one's own shortcomings.

In a more harmonically difficult piece, in the lesson with the
student I will play the piano part (as accurately as possible) so the
student can hear the harmonies b/c, granted, some students are not great
pianists and if they can pick out a melody line, that is already a good
start. In this kind of a piece, going through it once or twice to double
check that notes are accurate, is not a waste of time b/c the piece IS
hard. That's acceptable.

Just my opinions. :).

Fiona


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