On Tue, 2 Jul 2002 08:42:15 EDT buzzcen@a... wrote:
>>Many of the teachers there have just not taken the time to familiarize
themselves with the materials before going to the workshops. On a personals
note, I was not all that overwhelmed by the work he did with the singers; it
was OK but not great.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and to express it here. My problem
is your apearing to impute negative intentions or work ethic on the part of
others who liked it and got more out of it than you did. Even if the teachers
weren't familiar with him - one isn't born knowing this information. One has
to start somewhere. Did you personally interview every participant to
determine whether they made your grade and that their reason for participating
was acceptable to you? And even if they came to the "faith" late, isn't late
better than never? Someone who's discovered a lack they're attempting to
remedy shouldn't admit it and take steps to remedy it because people like you
will bad-mouth them?
If I may make an analogy. I am recognized as an excellent writer in my
day-job life. However, I take every opportunity to learn more about writing
better and more effectively, because writing is a discipline and an art in
which one can strive for perfection throughout one's life but never come close
to achieving it.
So, though I'm well-versed in basics of written communication, I take the
writing class from time to time, and become very excited when the teacher is
good, or communicates a basic principle in a particularly creative way - the
way Strunk and White do in the famous book.
So perhaps to many of the vocal pedagogy participants you refer to, being in a
Richard Miller workshop is like an English teacher's attending a seminar with
the late E.B. White on teaching writing. Their hero-worship and enthusiasm
wouldn't necessarily mean they didn't know how to teach English!
>>I get as much out of many of you on the list as I would Richard Miller...
he's just another opinion.
I'm glad you get so much out of the list. That leads me to guess that you're
somebody (like my husband) who takes in information best by reading it on the
printed page. (My husband in college hated sitting through lectures, while I
got a lot out of them, and he got a lot more than I did from reading assigned
texts. We made a good team when we took the same class together.) More power
to you - it's an efficient way to be able to learn!
As for me, I've also gotten a lot out of the list, but if I didn't
concurrently have people to help me apply it, much would go right over my
head!
Peggy
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
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