THE BEGINNING STUDENT

The Beginning Student

   What’s the quickest, surest way to get competency from the “rank beginner” voice student. These students are from all walks of life: children, high school kids, adult recreational students. They may even be professional actors or dancers who find they have top learn to sing competently for an impending performance. At any rate, the teachers at Utah conservatory have been working with the “community student” and the “professional track” student for some years. Yet, the challenges of the “community student” to the voice teacher are unique. Usually, they are “recreational singer,” that is, they are looking for enjoyment of a new skill that enhances their quality of life, reduces stress, and accomplished some personal goal, yet, their quest in not the central focus of their vocational goals. These students are part of our new “consumer mentality.” They are looking for maximum results from their “professional trainer” without a whole lot of leisure time to study at the “professional track level.” If they spend their time exclusively with vocal drills and exercises, they feel progress is too slow, as they have not “product” to show for it. Conversely, if they only work on their favorite songs, they may not experience the essential basics of technique that the drills and technique have to offer. At any rate, we usually find that they need to feel quickly that there is a change in their abilities for the better.
   These issues have brought us to put our heads together and pose the question: What have we, as a faculty, seen as the consistent methods, strategies and techniques that contribute to solid progress and competency for the rand beginning student, particularly the student who practices less that 45 minutes a day? And, when they do practice, they are usually double-tasking.
  We have noticed that the pursuit is in “synergistic principals.” 
   Here are some of our guiding strategies:

Insist on Perfect Posture:

Why?  Because perfect singing posture get the student out of his/her own way.  It will prevent the student from overcompensating in other areas.  This includes: feeling tall and loose; sensing broadness on both sides of the sternum with a high torso; teaching skeletal alignment, feet balanced and shoulder width apart, a feeling of “roundedness” and a “synergistic balance.”

Breathe with the Student in Solidarity:

Proper breathing can be led by example.  As we all recognize that correct breathing is foundational and synergistic to the rest of the singing process, the example of our breath with the student will help to re-pattern their habits.  We recommend the instructor put her on own hand on her own abdomen while the other hand plays the scales.  Let the student always see you breathe move and they will do the same.    Some basics: Keep the energy low, talk about the “pelvic floor” and the feeling of breath energy flowing through the body and into the floor, allow no tightness to come into the posture during the breath, practice long slow breaths, pant, “plie” with the inhalation, or prop the students entire back side, knees bent, up against the wall, and have them bend down while inhaling. Encourage them to practice low slow breathing while laying in bed with a dictionary on their abs, or when walking or driving.

Support!

The fastest way to get new students to progress is to really get them to support, even if the high sub-glottic pressures might cause them to over-sing a bit.  We find that the over-singing can be quickly resolved by just noting to the student that their voice is doing a little more work than it needs to, and that they can release their voice through more air flow.  We are so afraid of damaging beginning voice students with over-singing, that they go for months, even years, with unembodied, wimpy tones, never really finding out what their “real” voice sounds like. Conversely, teaching the student about the apoggio and its ability to build the voice is the key.  The sub-glottic pressure can first be felt with bubbles and lips drills, then a little feeling of pressure with arpeggios on “ZZZZZ,” followed by the [u] vowel and then some sirens.  Sirens get them to feel the way that the air pressure can raise their voices without any vocal work.  Last, and perhaps the most controversial, we find that the student who know how to shout, can transfer than sensation to the torso strength that it takes to sing on the breath.  We recommended lots of speech-to-singing exercises.  We even recommend that students monologue, loudly, their pieces, and then sing them.  

Lesson Structure:  A Balance approach in a small amount of time

Basic drills and exercises (5-10 minutes)

Sieber or Concone (5 minutes)

Classical Style Song of teacher’s choosing (5-10 minutes)

Contemporary song selected by Student with teacher’s approval (5-10 minutes)

Taping the lesson as a pattern for practice

Keep explanations concise so that the student in singing for the majority of the lesson

Keep focus on actual learning time (reference)

Stay Socratic and positive

Avoid critical evaluations

Attention:

Extrovert the student’s attention

Put attention on communication

Get the student to non-threatening performance opportunities: master classes, friends at lessons, rest home, etc.  The students who perform make the best progress.