It is imperative that one understand the physiology of the vocal mechanism. It is the only way you can insure the safety of your students voices. The ear is a wonderful thing, but unless one has eyes and experience to see the telltale signs of vocal abuse, small glottal attacks and stops, tension in the various areas of the upper body and jaw, one cannot cannot help students without putting them at risk. There are many excellent singers who are horrible teachers. They have know understanding of the actual mechanism of the voice and only have their ear to blindly lead the student to attempt exercises they were taught by someone who also had no idea what they were doing. Vocal Pedagogy is a serious specialization that should be approached as such. It had little to do with Choral Conducting, Sacred Music, or Music Education, with all due respect to those who got their Masters in those areas. A good place to start is "The Mechanism of Singing" by William Vennard. It should be in any good College Library. "Research in Singing" by John Large is out of print but should be in a good library if the college caters to Vocal Pedagogy at all. Additional authors of good resources are Richard Miller, Joan Wall, and their are videos of the voice actually singing that should be viewed by every singer and teacher. Pardon the soapbox, but I have been remediating damaged voices from voice studios, pop and rock singers, and teachers for a very long time. If your going to teach private voice, do your homework! Earl G. Presley, BMEd, MM, MTS http://www.geocities.com/egpburk@sbcglobal.net/egppage.html Deborah <singsoprano2003@y...> wrote: Hi everyone,
First I would like to apologise for asking so many questions but I still have alot to learn.
I was wondering among the singing teachers out there what in their veiw was important training for singing teachers.
I am very keen to be the best one I can be and I am curious what sort of experience and training the teachers on the list have had.
Best Wishes
deborah
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