Who in voice lessons is doing the work? Who is making the progress?  Who is doing the learning? Who has the most information about how the student’s voice is feeling? I have been listening to sentiments from myself and other students over the last 10 years and realizing so many reflections on voice instruction imply that a teacher is in charge of all doing all of the vocal learning to the student and that the student is responsible for none of it. 

 



​"I can never warm myself up as good as he warms me up in lessons."

 
"She can be really mean in lessons, but that helps me stay motivated."

 That last one is my own, but I hear the sentiment in a lot of different ways - My teacher’s really amazing so I know it must be my fault when I get frustrated. It also accentuates the my-voice-teacher-is-a-celebrity-in-my-life factor, because if someone is really talented and elite they are allowed to be mean to you because it is just an honor to be in the room with them.
 
What other professionals do we give this kind of credit and power? Athletic coaches? Classroom teachers? Physical therapists? Pscychologists?
Even the phrase “he warmed me up” is giving a lot of strange credit to the person sitting at the piano playing scales. Would you say about a track coach that they ‘ran you’ or that they set out a course and then you went on the run?
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Is part of this co-dependent dynamic the nature of the one on one relationship in the voice studio? Do we give choir directors or group voice instructors  the same dose of 'she made my voice into what it is today'?
 
Can an instructor really ‘rebuild’ a student’s voice or technique? Is it possible to erase all of someone’s previous experience and then take credit for everything that happens thereafter? And who is doing the building/re-building, the instructor or the student?
 
Is there something comforting for students to put their learning and progress completely in someone else’s hands? You “warm me up”, you tell me what to sing, you tell me my voice type, you tell me when it’s good, when it’s bad. Is this appealing to some, or just part of the culture we all accept?
 
Do you have any stories of voice teacher pedestal-ing that you’d like to share? Did you ever feel like you had the right to question the power dynamic between you and your instructor? What made you continue taking lessons in that situation? What was your perception of your contribution to your learning, progress and assessment in and out of lessons?

~Laurel M.

I've been curious about the use  of emotive sound responses to trigger a desired vocal anatomical posture. These emotional triggers are collected from several teachers and methods that I'm sure many of us use and have used with success. It is the thought of many instructors that these triggers are used to encourage one or many of these three physical responses:

1.A desired pharyngeal width or laryngeal heighth
2.A desired  'effort' in the level of breath pressure
3.Allowing the vocal folds to stretch 

These emotional triggers seem to stimulate success in the singer when thought of during the preperatory inhale or when creating the  sound itself.


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Continuing the Discussion
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Can you think of any others not on this list?

 Do you have a favorite? What makes it your favorite?

Do you ever have difficulty creating a bridge from one of these sounds/emotions to actual singing? 

What are the advantages/disadvantages to using these emotional triggers to get the pharyngeal posture/breath effort you're looking for rather than talking about it in physical terms?

~Laurel M.