Vocalist.org archive


From:  Sandra White <sandra@i...>
Date:  Sat Sep 9, 2000  5:01 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Frequency of Lessons




leskayc@a... wrote:

>
> This comment gave me this thought-do you tape your lessons?

> Leslie

Leslie,

Yes, I do tape my lessons, and I, too, have found it to be very beneficial. One
thing my instructor tells me is it is important for a singer to learn to hear
and
critique their own voice objectively. It always surprises me when I hear of
singers who can't stand to hear or see themselves taped. I have learned to be
careful about going back too far into my past lesson tapes. Generally, I don't
go back any further than my last lesson or the one before it to practice things.
I find that if I go back further, I'm inclined to move backwards in my
progress,
not forward.

Also, a caution with taping lessons is that if I rely on the listening to tapes
too much for practicing, I end focusing on trying to duplicate the sound on the
tape, as opposed to duplicating the sensations I felt during the lesson while I
was producing the desirable sound. I don't know how to describe the distinction
articulately, but it is an important distinction in my mind. The first (trying
to duplicate the sound) has me focused on hearing sound come back to me and
tends
to direct my awareness outside of my own body. The second (duplicating the
physical sensations) keeps me more connected with body and seems to be a quicker
and more reliable path to learning to duplicate a desirable sound consistently.
I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but I had to stop trying to
exclusively "hear" my way to better singing.

Sandra


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