Vocal Music Advice

This is not a popular subject, because anyone who is called or known as a charlatan has to live down a tainted reputation.  However, with regard to voice teaching the subject has to be addressed.

The term charlatan refers to someone who falsely claims to have special skill or expertise.  Applying it to our area, it is someone who advertises himself/herself as a voice teacher who does not have the education, knowledge or skills required to teach in this area with a modicum of credibility or integrity.

Regrettably, it is fair to say that there are many “voice teachers” who are really charlatans.  A number of these are singers who have either had a concert career or made recordings, whether it be in opera, country music or on the rock scene, and therefore, feel justified in putting themselves forward as teachers of singing.  Others who frequently fall into this camp are college graduates who were either voice performance majors, or who at some point in their college career studied singing with a voice teacher, but who at no point had any specific instruction in vocal pedagogy.  These are the teacher “wanna-bes”.  Then there are others who simply have the “desire and ego” to lead, conduct and teach with no formal preparation at all other than lessons on one instrument.

Such organizations as the National Association of Teachers of Singing exist to ward off the above kind of fraud, and bring to the public some semblance of credibility and integrity.

A young man in his late teens who, I’m sure, had honorable intentions, but who had little vocal training asked me for advice on how to coach a student of his with a perceived vocal problem.  This teenage “teacher” helps his church music program by conducting their ensemble.  It would be well for me to share with you my edited response to him.

The kind of question you ask … is not something I can credibly answer without hearing [your student].  I would not do you a service (nor would anyone) by guessing the real scenario.  I don’t know her age, her vocal maturity, etc.  …Forgive me, but I’d also not do you a service, for, as far as I know you are not qualified to teach someone else, since I do not have evidence that you’ve had courses in vocal pedagogy or have been under the tutelage of a master teacher who has witnessed in you a talent/aptitude for listening, diagnosing and correcting vocal problems.  Another way of saying this is that my attempting to actually help the person you are coaching based on your description and your experience and without hearing her myself is not wise and probably unethical.

Let me explain it with an anecdote.  I went to college in Philadelphia – a huge and wonderful cultural center.  I was in college for six years earning two bachelor degrees, one of them in music – vocal performance.  I had performed in many recitals and successfully completed the junior and senior recitals and performed the solo roles in some major oratorios.  (I preferred oratorio to opera then.)  The year after I graduated I worked and saved money to go to graduate school (in music).  But during that year I also studied voice with a renowned (famous) voice teacher paying a lot of money to do so.  Now, I had by this time received an earned degree in music, vocal performance.  But when I admitted to my teacher that I was teaching voice to a handful of high-school students, her unhesitating response was “You charlatan!”  While I took her reaction in good humor at the time, I have, with advanced education and experience, since come to see and agree with her perspective knowing more the reasons for her instant assessment.

So, I think it’s great that you have the desire to become a voice teacher.  But, know that it takes a good deal of concentrated instruction – much of which is necessarily not procured solely from books – over a period of years of preparation and oversight from a master teacher.  I know this is not the answer you had hoped for.  However, I would not do you or the person you are coaching a favor by attempting to answer your question under the current circumstances.

I hope you can receive what I’ve said, knowing that it is for your ultimate good.

Typically, a credible voice teacher will not only have studied singing for several years—at least four and usually many more—with a voice teacher, s/he will also have taken courses in vocal pedagogy, mastering an understanding of the nature of sound especially as applied to the voice, posture, breathing and support, phonation, registration, resonation, articulation, the speaking voice, coordination and vibrato.  A voice teacher will have spent time under a master-teacher honing his/her listening skills and abilities to accurately diagnose a vocal problem and devise appropriate remedies during a time of apprenticeship.  Not everyone who learns to sing also has the ability to teach singing!  When consistent success is observed by the master-teacher in the apprentice, then and only then, can the young voice teacher receive written recommendation as a voice teacher by an experienced one.  The “nubee’s” studio will usually consist of a homogeneous group of students, until experience warrants students of wider age ranges.

My warning is not meant to discourage those of you who want to teach.  My purpose is two-fold.  1) Watch out for quacks, frauds, and well-sounding “teachers” who really do not know the craft.  Some are only in it as a means of income.  2) If you want to become a teacher of singing, invest the time and effort to acquire the knowledge and the skills to assure that you have integrity that can be approved by all observers – particularly by those with experience in the craft.  Your students will be the ones to reflect beneficially, or detrimentally, on your preparation.