A couple of years ago, I reviewed a book called Voice Secrets: 100 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Singer by Matthew Hoch and Linda Lister. The book is made up of short essays designed to provide guidance to singers on a variety of subjects. Although I believe most of the advice reflects common sense rather than “secrets,” the essays are good reminders of how to organize our time and efforts in ways that support growing as singers and musicians. (And who says common sense is all that common, anyway?)
One of the essays is titled, “Be an active participant—go to your lesson with a plan.” In it, Hoch and Lister offer four techniques that will help you get the most out of your weekly lesson.- “Go to your lesson with a plan!” The authors suggest making a short list of goals for each lesson, which may include working on specific songs, identifying certain technical issues that come up in those songs, or asking questions that have arisen during your previous week of practice. Even if the list has more items than can be addressed in one lesson, it can serve as a guide for your next week of practice.
- “Come to your lesson with the attitude and realization that you have done everything you can possibly do on your own.” Here they discuss how it is a waste of your lesson time (and your tuition dollars) to have notes and rhythms plunked out when that could (and should!) be done on your own, especially if a practice recording has already been provided. As they say, “This behavior stifles learning, makes your teacher grouchy, and impedes your improvement.” I agree on all three points.
- “Record your lesson and refer to it throughout the week.” Again, this helps you make the most of your lesson time when you can frequently review that lesson via a recording. If a correction is made during your lesson, your job during the week is to implement that correction to make sure the same mistakes don’t happen over and over.
- “Arrive ready to sing. This means arriving warmed up, fed (if you don’t sing well on an empty stomach), hydrated, and well rested.” Of course, this is an ideal (Well rested? Ha!) but one for which we should still strive. At a minimum, it is helpful if you have already done some vocalizing before you show up for your lesson. That way we can skip the “warm-ups” and jump right into voice-building exercises and technical work.
Remember that you spend way more time with your voice each week than I do. I am better able to provide guidance if you have done your part by working hard throughout the week to implement what is addressed in your lessons. That way, we can maximize our limited time together and help you achieve the next stage of learning and development more quickly.
What are your goals for this week of singing? What are your goals for the semester?
Now go practice.
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| My lesson plan? Head up to the mountains to clear my mind and my lungs! |
I definitely agree with all that was said about coming to voice lessons prepared and ready to work. I find it tedious having to go over rhythms or notes for long amounts of time to be completely honest. So being able to do that work on my own and come to voice lessons with that done is great for me. I think this week, my goal has been to just learn the basics of my songs and familiarize my voice with them a little bit. There needs to be some fine tuning, but that'll come with more time and practice. And then my goals for the semester are to keep working on my head voice and to really understand how to change my voice in terms of style and become more aware of how I need to use my voice to achieve the best storytelling for that style. I don't know if that made any sense, but it makes sense in my head lol... Anyways, that's all I got!
ReplyDeleteI agree that I need to come to voice more prepared, most notably I definitely need to eat before I come to lessons since I know I don't sing as well on an empty stomach. I think I am stronger at coming to my lesson with a question about what happened during the week. Since my voice is changing so much, especially now that I had the surgery, I feel like I always have questions about whats happening, part of my goal for the semester is to really feel whats happening, listen to myself, and come in ready to improve. I also need to maybe listen to myself more carefully on the recordings so I know for sure how I'm singing now may be different from the recording. My goal for the semester is to bridge my passagio, maybe that's ambitious to try to do it in one semester but if I don't aim high I won't improve as much. Looking forward to see how I grow this semester!
ReplyDeleteI think the author of that essay was correct in stating come prepared. Wether it lessons, classes, rehearsals or auditions I always feel more confident and relaxed when I am fully prepared and everything seems a little more enjoyable instead of me stressing if I can 'fake it' or not. I am curious to try and do what the author suggested and mentally note goals for myself before the lesson. I already make notes of what I need to fix and work post a lesson,but I don't think iv'e ever come with any specific smaller daily goals prior.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of goals, my goal this week is to give more attention to breath and where I'm breathing from and if I find a difference in breath support. As well as being aware of how I'm holding my jaw and seeing if I can encourage it to have a little more space. And then of course become very familiar with the new music and lyrics.
For long term semester goals I want to become more comfortable with higher songs and 'become better friends' with the soprano side of me. But also explore my chest voice more and see if I can bring it up higher into a more chest dominate mix that I have only recently discovered. And I'd love to tackle some challenging songs, that's always fun.
(Third times the charm)
ReplyDeleteGoal setting was something I really struggled with as a freshman (and especially in High School) but I soon discovered that careful goal planning is a good way of measuring growth and effort. (As well as increasing efficiency.) I also discovered that my lessons were a time for me. Meaning it was about my process and my preparation, no one was going to tell me exactly how to do what anymore; we were going to run though my excises and maybe some material but if I had specifics I wanted to make sure got done that was on me. And I've improved with that, a lot of it had to do with relaxing.
I have a new Journal every semester and five major goals. One of them is to get maintain an A in vocal class, and give a knock-out Jury. (Defined by a solid, planned delivery and improvement on past critiques) Sometimes I write out a detailed plan for my goals, these "secrets" are things we're already encouraged to do in class, but upon seeing them I realize if I write them down I'll be more likely to integrate them fully into my practice and make them a part of my mindset. So, my Goal this week: work on practice mindset by developing a solid plan I can use for every single week, using my practice schedule, this blog post, and the syllabus as my source material.
I absolutely love this post. It has totally made me rethink of how I should go to my lesson. Usually I have questions set up before going to my vocal lessons, but I never realized how annoying some of my questions are. Now it's not that my questions are disresepctful it's that I have asked really small questions that do not require me to ask the professor. It's these small things that make me laugh at myself. I will still have questions but I will have questions that will bring about an amount of information that is suitable for the setting. I think something that could be added to the list in my opinion is to have a ready to go attitude. This probably happens to everyone who has lessons, but something I noticed is the better the mood the better the lesson. Though it is diffucult to have a bad day when you go to Brian's class an up beat energy goes a long way.
ReplyDeleteI have always done a good job at being prepared for lessons most of the time! But we all make mistakes. This semester is very tough and filled with nothing but work. Between school, work, and rehearsals I am losing some sleep and relaxation time for myself. But I have set a goal for the semester to really located where my voice is when working so much. My goal is to try and figure out how far my voice can be pushed and to learn when to not push it! With that my goal is to really work on my line and body mapping to try and strive for perfection in that technique.
ReplyDeleteI am super sick this week and so I am putting myself on vocal rest as much as possible. But my goal for the week is to memorize all of my songs for the semester.
I agree with the importance placed on coming into lessons with a plan. I like to know what I need to work on throughout the week for the next lesson, and what I need to bring to class. For example, along with practicing regularly, I know I need to bring sheet music for song ideas to class so we can progress quickly and decide on what songs to focus on for the semester. My goal for the semester is to stay on top of practices and add songs into my book that will help round it out, and provide options for various types of musicals/auditions.
ReplyDeleteI am so grateful that I read this post when I did! Coming into the MTP this semester and starting all of these new, different classes has been amazing, but it has also been a little difficult in terms of adjusting to a new kind of schedule. So far, I have had 2 voice lessons, and right now, I am starting to adapt to what and how I need to prepare for each lesson. I’m not going to lie: it’s been kind of a struggle trying to remember to practice warming up every day, since I’m not very used to it. However, I think I am getting a hang of my practicing schedule, so hopefully, it won’t be as big of a problem in the future. I loved reading this post, because it reminded me of all the things that I need to continue doing (just in a different kind of setting: singing!). Because I am just starting out with voice lessons, I think my overall goal for this semester is to always be prepared for my lessons. That includes practicing daily, continuously going over my music, and taking care of myself health-wise. For this week, my goal is to finalize my practice schedule. That way, I will be able to accomplish my long-term goal more effectively. This was such a great post to read as my first blog post and as a new student to the MTP, and I cannot wait to see where the rest of the semester will take me.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that I wasn’t the type of person who was good at setting goals. Upon review, I think this is because I was seeing people who had all of their goals neatly written down in bullet journals with all their steps to achieve them. As much as I wish it, those types of layouts just aren’t how my brain works. In my own way, though, I have been setting goals and working to achieve them for most of my academic career; it was just a more internal, cerebral process. That being said, one of my goals for this semester is to establish a more balanced mix. I’ve recently figured out how to separate my registers and control their uses in different situations, but I need to figure out how to combine them efficiently. I would also like to start making myself stick to a more consistent practice schedule. I know it’s a matter of making the choice and then forcing myself to stick to it, but I wasn’t able to do it last semester. I hope that’s a change I can make with the start of the new semester.
ReplyDelete-Fynn White
I actually never thought about coming in with a set list of goals before a lesson. I am definitely a singer who struggles with specifics things through my journey with a song. It seems to me that in each song of mine I have at least one spot the I always tend to mess up. If I sing the song thinking about technique I will mess that one part up, or if I think about that part, I just get very messed up. I think a goal list would be very beneficial for me with this issue. If i remind myself at the beginning of each lesson , and through the lesson actively try to fix my problem areas, it would create a better lesson with being able to work on more rather than me reoccurring problem areas. I have also realized that when I rehearse during the week on my own, I focus way too much on the quality of my voice and not so much as fixing the problem areas as much as I should be doing. That is something that I am actively trying to fix with my own growth and rehearsal times. After reading this article, I feel well reminded of what I should be doing to make my own practice as effective as possible.
ReplyDelete-Caden Tudor
I thought that this post had excellent reminders for the new semester. Reading through them got me really excited to start singing and practicing! I haven’t had my first lesson yet, but these are definitely things that I want to keep in mind this week and throughout the semester. My goal for my first lesson is to have a more accurate and definite understanding of my range. In preparation for my lesson, I have been trying to warm up my voice throughout the week, and I look forward to getting into a more routine exercise throughout the next week. I think that a very important note made in this post is the point to arrive to class ready. Mornings can be very hectic, and I often times forget to eat breakfast as I’m rushing out the door. In addition to this, getting enough sleep is also very important. I'll make sure to prioritize good sleeping patterns and eating habits in order to come to all of my lessons fully prepared.
ReplyDeleteThis post is a really good post to me personally, because I don't always take the best care of myself. I have an insanely bad sleep schedule, which I have been trying to work on, and this post has reminded me just how important it is for me to focus on having a good sleep schedule. I have also never recorded my lesson nor have I been ready with a plan for myself, because I always though, my voice coach will know what I need to work on. This post has brought to my attention that, while they might know generally where I need work, only I really know what my voice needs practice with. I plan to work on sleeping better, remembering to record and listen to my voice lessons throughout the week, and pay attention to my voice's needs and come with a plan in mind to each of my lessons.
ReplyDelete-Brandon Ernst
DeleteFrom Evan Vincent:
ReplyDeleteI personally have never been one to set short term goals for myself, which is so weird. Now, thinking about it, I realize how negative this is on myself. Because I never set *realistic* short term goals, I never feel like I accomplish anything. Setting a goal for each lesson is a great idea, and can even help me come in more prepared (which is a “semester goal” of mine. We know I’m not the best at being prepared.) this being said, my main goal for the semester is to PRACTICE. I always slack on practicing and never fully commit to my practice schedule, but this semester I am trying and it’s working out better than expected!