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Date Posted: 15:51:12 04/30/06 Sun
Author: Laura
Subject: Voice teachers

I've always wondered why some voice teachers prefer students who have a good voice but can't read music as opposed to a student who maybe doesn't have the best voice quality, but is an excellent muscian. My applied teacher and I were talking about this the other day and I just wondered if anyone had experienced this or had any thoughts on it.

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Replies:

[> Re: Voice teachers -- Benjamin Lupo, 20:26:06 04/30/06 Sun [1]

If I had to guess, I would probably say that may be easier to teach a student with a "good voice" to read music easier than it would be to do the opposite.

Not to say that this is always (or even often) the case, but I can see how that could be percieved.


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[> Re: Voice teachers -- Cory, 08:54:50 05/02/06 Tue [1]

I would have to agree with Ben. I would think that teaching a student to read music especially if he has had experience singing would be much easier than teaching someone to sing well. With teaching music its just memorization and learning to apply whats on the paper. With teaching to sing you have to develop muscles and technique that would take much longer because not only do you have to learn it but than you have to repeat it over and over for months to really develop it.


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[> Re: Voice teachers -- Rita, 10:10:42 05/07/06 Sun [1]

Personally, I believe that you can teach any student to read music as long as they are willing to learn. Also, these students with "okay" voices can make great strides as well, as long as they are dedicated. It's about the training they receive and how they apply it and work towards it. I was one of those students, who could barely ready music and had an okay voice but music was my passion and I wanted to work with it for the rest of my life. I was lucky that the faculty here took a chance on me and let me prove myself. I came in with literally nothing and in the short amount of time I was here I improved tremendously because I put the effort in. I'm no where near being the best singer in the department, but I do believe that I can hold my own, and that's all based on the efforts I've put into it. I may never be a professional singer, but that isn't the point of lessons is it? Isn't it about being the best musician you can be? That's going to vary due to peoples ability levels. We are not all prone to being the next Puccini or whatever. I think, regardless of the student's vocal ability, they should be able to receive the training they need in order to become a better musician. Just because they aren't the best voice you’ve ever hear doesn't mean that they're place in music is meaningless...


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[> Re: Voice teachers -- Chad B, 13:54:00 04/01/07 Sun [1]

Rita had a lot of good points to make, and I agree. I, personally, have taught and directed choirs both highly proficient and those who sing only on the shirttails of their peers. I would prefer to have a mixture of both because I feel they compliment each other nicely. A student who cannot read music but sings wonderfully can learn to follow the music while those with lesser quality voices bring the more technical elements into play and sort of feed off each other. I don't think anyone should be less favored than other based on their ability to perform. Music is for everyone. We do not get to pick our talents nor our abilities but we can enjoy it all the same.


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[> Re: Voice teachers -- Jessalyn, 20:19:23 04/15/07 Sun [1]

I think its easier to teach someone to read music who has a natural raw talent, as opposed to someone who can read well, but doesnt have a beautiful timbre to their voice.


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[> Re: Voice teachers -- Hayley Pletcher, 20:20:34 04/23/07 Mon [1]

Although both cases have their ups and downs, I think that it would be easier to teach someone to read music who already has a "good" voice than someone to produce a good voice quality who has great musicianship.


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[> Re: Voice teachers -- Beth G., 07:24:24 04/28/07 Sat [1]

Maybe the teacher is thinking on terms of how much time they have. The student who can't sing is going to take up much more time than the student with the raw talent and can't read music because reading music is much more concrete than being able to sing. There is much more involvment in learning to sing than discriminating between an Ab and Bb.


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[> Re: Voice teachers -- Jayme Orians, 08:58:07 05/02/07 Wed [1]

I tend to think that this would be because music can be taught and has been taught in the past in oral tradition. Music used to be taught and can still be taught without notation. Thus a student with a good voice can be taught music without needing to read notation and a student with a less desireable sound would require a lot more work.


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