Vocalist.org archive


From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Fri Apr 14, 2000  1:56 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] fanfare for Heroic, Harmonious Hanson


Dre de Man wrote (excerpted):

> Well Jennifer, I did something else a few months ago
> (and I know that everybody is going to jump at me, but
> since you asked): I stopped taking singing lessons,
> started practising with a very good pianist....
> Believe it or not, but since then my singing improved
> greatly....
> But the most important thing: practising with my
> pianist makes me happy, because I am making music,
> instead of being told: 'this is not right and that is
> not ok and so so on'....
> And to become really naughty or nasty: I hate
> exercies! I am so happy I don't have to do them
> anymore! That stupid humming! You feel like a cow! I
> have honestly never learned anything from exercises....
> Despite all that: Of course, you will be right;
> somewhere out there should be somebody that could
> teach me a lot, since I also learned a lot from Mr.
> Hanson's remarks....

Dear Dre - my impression upon reading what you wrote is that you have had only
one voice
teacher, and you and that teacher did not connect or have any rapport. It's
great that
you are making progress on your own, but I hope that after a while you'll seek
out someone
else and give another teacher a chance to reach you.

There's not much better in life than working with a wonderful teacher. I've
been through
what you've been through myself, but with piano rather than voice. I never
liked playing
exercises and scales until I finally stumbled across a teacher who made me love
them,
because they were all for a purpose that I understood, I was given achievable
goals for
every exercise, and I wasn't assigned new exercises until I'd achieved a goal.
Playing the
exercises for my teacher wasn't a chore; rather I couldn't wait to show her
what I'd been
able to accomplish during the week. What a difference the structure made - so
much more
interesting and rewarding than playing scales or Hanon/Czerny etudes endlessly,
by rote!
And the teacher's positive, supportive personality made every lesson a joy,
even when I
wasn't playing something as well as I wanted. When something wasn't working,
she was
always able to show me a way to resolve the problem, in a way that made feel
this "This is
something I can do!"

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...

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