A final word integrating Faith and teaching/learning
Integrating our Faith into our learning: A personal word to Christian teachers and students
Voice teachers of music major college freshmen experience the gamut of disparate preferences and prejudices by incoming voice students. A majority of them have already established unhealthy habits that must be undone. Therefore, one of the first messages the students hear, and one which I hope they come to apply with increasing understanding and appreciation is that as children of God, not belonging to themselves, they now have to become stewards of the voice, indeed, of the body.
In becoming good stewards they have to lay themselves open to
1) new information,
2) new sounds, against which students often have built in biases,
3) new feelings and vibratory sensations as new habits are gained and old ones are set aside. There is an interesting parallel to growing up spiritually. St. Paul said of spiritual growth in Christ-like knowledge and love, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”(1) The paradox, however, is that when comparing the Christian life to growing vocally, the Christian life is one of living by faith in God’s revealed truth and not by feeling or sight. Vocal development takes place best in an environment of identifying right feelings, rather than relying on one’s own ear. So the catch phrase for voice students is that the life of faith in voice (singing) is ‘trust the feelings’!
A second message that I hope youthful singers quickly accept is that God has made their voice unique. This is to say that just as no two fingerprints or snow flakes are known to be absolutely identical, each voice is also individual. When the Psalmist confesses that God “formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb,”(2) he does not merely admit to God’s omnipresence and omnipotence. He implies that each person is distinct for verse 14 goes on to say “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”(3) A second reading of that verse may be “for I am fearfully set apart.” The principial application is that as the student’s voice develops s/he is encouraged to accept it as God’s design … and not attempt to become a replica, an imitation, of some popular star. This is an essential message for youth that are conditioned to believe that “success” and “popularity” and their accompanying trappings must be achieved through an impersonation of their vocal role models.
An obvious alteration that must take place in the student is to choose new, different vocal role models. Introducing this objective has to be made without delay. The implication that a student’s perception of what is excellent is something that must be adjusted is frequently an assault on his pride. Everyone likes what they like. But through a teacher’s encouragement in cooperation with a student’s teachable spirit perceptions can and should be guided and altered. I use the word encouragement intentionally and advisedly because the nature of learning skills is not primarily gained by the teacher praising mediocrity or faulty artistry. The greater part of a student’s learning is brought by the process of the teacher revealing faults, and giving corrective measures. The cabinet maker’s apprentice does not learn his skills without constantly being made aware of his weaknesses in faulty design or poor technique at the lathe. Jesus Himself undoubtedly learned the carpenter’s craft under Joseph through such guidance. In the same way that Scripture affirms that Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun, chosen as musical leaders, were skillful in their craft, students of singing should in some measure exhibit deference to the direction in their craft by those whose skills, knowledge and aesthetics have been cultivated long prior.(4) This is not an excuse to propose a teacher’s dictatorial control. It is rather an admission that having one’s personal preferences meddled with causes consternation in us as humans, and the teacher does well to allow time with encouragement to nurture the change.
A student’s aesthetic perspective usually needs to be widened in scope. Some students come with a well-developed sense of the excellent. However, their scope and horizon is often cripplingly narrow. A talented 19 year old soprano, whose own instrument is light and lyrical with coloratura capabilities denounces with vehemence the sound of renowned soprano Renée Fleming. Another freshman medium-voiced singer expresses disgust at the rendition of “Come Unto Him” from Messiah, by Irish-born soprano Heather Harper – judging the tone ugly, and praises the performance of American soprano Arleen Auger.(5) Such adolescent prejudices have to be peeled away over time. For this reason, this instructor includes into the mix of repertoire appropriate choices of song from the genre pool that has most appeal to the student while widening the student’s listening and singing experience with literature suited to developing both technique and musicianship. If this subject matter seems far a field from larynx stabilization, experience suggests that a student’s aesthetic orientation aids or hinders the learning of good technique. Young students are then assigned listening requirements that augment their aural perceptions of good vocal tone … even though their first introduction in that direction may be Michael Bolton’s My Secret Passion CD or something similar.(6)
Ultimately, tensions that inhibit the production of clear, beautiful, flexible and expressive tone, reduces the capabilities and often shortens the career of the singer. In the extreme, such ongoing tension will cause dysphonia and can do irreparable damage to the voice if left uncorrected.(7) Singers, as stewards of God’s creation, be warned.
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(1) 1 Corinthians 13:11 ESV
(2) Psalm 139:13, ESV
(3) Psalm 139:14, ESV note
(4) 1 Chronicles 25 records the immense musical developmental plans laid out with the direction and blessing of God under the rule of king David.
(5) Heather Harper can be heard on a Philips disc and Arleen Auger on an Archiv Production disc of Messiah. Although their timbres are different and distinct, each is excellent in tone and musicianship.
(6) Popular singer, song writer, social activist Michael Bolton produced a “classical” recording in 1998. In this recording he joined forces with the likes of Renée Fleming and Luciano Pavarotti. Opening the door to the literature sometimes enables openness to technical changes also.
(7) A pedagogical “aside” is appropriate at this point. Having written so decidedly against the ongoing practice of singing with the larynx held in an elevated position, the teacher and student is warned that corrective measures that produce the extreme in the opposite direction are also to be shunned. A depressed larynx produces tensions of a different sort that also greatly limit the singer.