Vocalist.org archive


From:  "katherine94040 <modulate58@a...
Date:  Wed Jan 29, 2003  5:38 pm
Subject:  Re: The Language of Singing

Congratulations to Sandra for finally finding the right teacher and
hanging in there! Aren't the rewards of learning to sing with
freedom phenomenal? I am also going to print out your post for one
of my students, a 36 year old tenor who had years of bad teaching. He
wanted to sing more than anything, but had been made to believe his
talent was limited. He is now on the right track and promises to be a
beautiful lyric tenor. He, like you, is patient and trusting and
deeply committed. He says he doesn't care how long it takes as long
as he can sing someday, somewhere. What an awesome responsibility I
think it is to teach. I feel as though I have the student's whole
life in my hands sometimes.

I agree with Mr Hanson: The language of singing/teaching must be
clear, precise, scientifically accurate and above all, effective. I
do not believe that images are, for the most part, particularly
helpful. Telling a student to make the sound point toward the top of
his head or to squeeze out the breath as from a toothpaste tube are
directions that no person of normal intelligence could follow, so it
is no wonder they do not work, not to mention they defy physiology.
It behooves us to "get it right". Reading Sandra'a post shows how
important that is.




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