Vocalist.org archive


From:  Isabelle Bracamonte <ibracamonte@y...>
Isabelle Bracamonte <ibracamonte@y...>
Date:  Tue Jan 23, 2001  6:37 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] to push or not to push (development).



I think this is where trusting your teacher is really
important. Sometimes you need to be challenged, and
it's not always going to be fun, and it certainly
won't always be easy, and you won't always sound good.
That's part of the process of learning to be a great
voice -- having the discipline and patience to go
through frustrating plateaus and times when you're
singing something you hate, when you know you sound
like nails on a chalkboard, singing one phrase over
and over again until you feel like you could SCREAM,
and making no visible (to you) progress for weeks on
end.

Then, a couple of months later, your voice suddenly
rounds a corner and voila, it's all easier and you
have added a new building block to your voice. Then
when you go back to your earlier literature, you
realize how much progress you have made and you
understand why your teacher gave you that assignment.
Yes, it would have been easier to spend that time
happily singing the stuff you do best, but it might
not have taught you that particular skill that you
needed.

If you trust your teacher to know what's best for your
voice, then you just have to agree that singing isn't
always easy, and to honestly try your best even if you
don't like it. I mean, I have a great Eb (Eb5... my
high Eb is terrible). Does that mean I should sing
only an Eb until the rest of the voice becomes easier?
No... you learn to sing an F by singing an F.

I would never (well, I have, and that's why I would
never again in the future) take a challenge piece out
into an audition/competition/recital/master class, and
in the beginning stages I wouldn't even practice the
hard stuff unless my teacher tells me to do something
specific with it, but you have to trust him or her to
know that what you've been assigned to sing is the
next step for your vocal development.

Isabelle B.

=====
Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...
ibracamonte@y...




__________________________________________________
Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/

emusic.com