Mike asks...
david,
by what criteria are you judging 'chiaroscuro'? do you use spectral analysis for such an estimation? do you adjust for voice size and room size? if you are going by listening with your own ears, how do you know you have the same standard throughout the four years of a typical student's time with you? ***************************************
Mike, I don't feel that everything in singing can be objective. Obviously, the concept of chiaroscuro that I am looking for is going to be subjective. It will be my opinion, but in this case (since they are my students, and I am the one grading them) that's all the counts. I do take into consideration younger and/or less experienced singers. As a general rule, with freshmen and sophomores (or singers with less experience) I will multiply their score by 2.125 (and don't ask me how I came up with this number) instead of just 2. As to whether I have the same standard for chiaroscuro for the whole time a student is with me...I don't have an answer for that. I am sure that there are things that change my perspective on singing and what is an appropriate tone for students. It is for reasons like that one that I try to make my grading slightly more objective.
********************************* mike continues...
i'm not arguing against fairness, i am arguing against the notion that true objective judgments can be made about an activity that is appreciated subjectively. and oddly, i encourage you to keep looking.
mike **********************************
And I appreciate your comments and encouragement. I don't think true objective judgments can be made about singing either. I think that parts of the singing process can be objective, though, and I feel as though I owe it to my students to be as objective a teacher as I can be. Just to reiterate, I would never try to apply something like this as the sole basis for deriving a student's grade. There are intangibles, and mitigating factors that must come into play as well.
Again, thanks for your comments!
David Grogan East Texas Baptist University Marshall, Texas
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