Sharon  Hansen  Allen  Henderson  Sco/  McCoy  

Donald  Simonson  Brenda  Smith  

 

Choral  Directors  are  from  Mars  and  

Voice  Teachers  are  from  Venus:      Top  Ten  Complaints  

From  Both  Sides  of  the  Aisle  Or  “The  Farmer  and  the  Cowman  Should  Be  Friends”  

Choral  Directors  vs.  Voice  Teachers

•  A  history  of  complaints •  Are  these  complaints  substantiated?  

•  Are  we  actually  approaching  the  same  ideas  with  different  language?  

•  How  are  NATS  and  ACDA  working  together?

GOAL

To  build  a  common  language  that  reflects  our  common  goal  of  providing  excellence  in  instruction  and  performance.

Tone  Quality

“The  voice  teachers  keep  changing  my  vowels,  and  they  tell  

my  sopranos  to  ignore  my  instructions  about  straight  tone!”

“The  choir  conductor  has  the  students  singing  straight  tone  for  45  minutes  straight!”

Individual  Sound  vs.  Group  or  Cooperative  Sound  

INDIVIDUAL  SOUND  •    Soloist  develops  best  individual  

sound  that  she  can  •    Soloist  uses  everything  that  an  individual  voice  can  show  (power,  

vibrato,  range,  dynamic)  

GROUP  SOUND  •      Homogeneous  group  sound  •      Quasi-­‐English  boy  choir,  blended      

group  sound    •      Full-­‐bodied  group  sound    •      Cooperative  sound  

Questions

Do  we  know  it  all?

OR

Are  we  on  a  journey of  discovery?

People  often  look  at  the   exact  same  research  and draw  widely  differing

conclusions.

Solo  Selection

“This  is  a  young,  exciting,  ringy  voice  that  can  easily  negotiate  the  tessitura.”

 

“The  choir  director  selected  my  student  for  a  solo  and  that  student  has  no  business  singing  the  Verdi  Requiem  solos  as  a  Freshman!”

Common  Ground

•  Include  voice  faculty  in  auditions.

•  Require  voice  teacher  approval  before  audition.

•  Communicate!

Age/Size  Appropriate  Repertoire

“The  choral  conductor  thinks  one  size  fits  all.  The  repertoire  in  the  top  choir  this  semester  is  all  over  the  map  in  terms  of  styles  and  periods.    One  voice  does  not  fit  all  styles.”

“The  voice  teacher  is  teaching  every  student  in  his  studio  exactly  the  same,  whether  the  student  has  a  naturally  large  instrument  or  a  small  one.    

They  all  are  learning  huge  Verdi  arias  this  semester  for  their  juries.    Most  of    these  students  

are  not  going  to  end  up  at  the  Met!”

Repertoire  Selection

“FABULOUS”  Repertoire vs.

Repertoire  selection  according  to  the  students  at  hand

Common  Ground •  Experience  great  master  works •  All  have  preconceived  notions  of  what  

those  are. •  Some  masterworks  are  appropriate  for  

some  students,  but  not  all  great  masterworks  are  appropriate  to  all  students  at  any  one  time.

•  Whether  students  can  adapt  to  tonal  requirements  of  some  repertoire  should  be  a  matter  of  discussion

•  Neutral  third  party  involved  when  inflexibility  exists.

Voice  Placement

“S/he  placed  my  soprano  in  the  alto  section.”

“The  student  has  the  range  necessary  to  sing  the  lower  part  

with  ease.  She  will  gain  in  musical  development  and  can  contribute  to  

the  ensemble’s  success.”

Common  Ground

•  Communicate! •  Placing  in  a  lower  part  MAY  be  acceptable.

•  Special  instruction  by  voice  teacher  on  being  successful  singing  another  voice  part.

Rehearsal  Technique

“They  don’t  understand  my  limitations  on  rehearsal  time.”

"What  do  choral  conductors  mean  about  ‘limitations  on  time’?    They  have  our  singers  for  4  hours  every  

week.    We  only  have  60  minutes  with  them  weekly.    In  the  end,  it  is  the  

solo  performance  that  counts"  

Rehearsal  Technique

The  choral  director  has  MANY  singers  in  mind  at  one  time. The  voice  teacher  

works  with  one  singer  at  a  time.

Singers  Must  Be  Taught

•  The  ART  of  Practice •  How  to  concentrate •  Responsibility  for  vocal  technique

•  Importance  of  resting  between  periods  of  exertion

Dynamics

“They  just  sing  loud  all  the  time.”

“Voice  teachers  are  asking  my  students  to  sing  too  

aggressively,  their  voices  stick  out  in  my  choir.”

Two  Issues

Being  asked  as  a  group  to  sing  at  a  dynamic  level  that  is  barely  sustainable  by  a  single  voice

Being  asked  to  sing  at  high  dynamic  levels  while  

minimizing  vibrato  and  holding  to  “pure”  vowels

Vocal  Fatigue

“My  students  come  from  rehearsal  and  are  totally  worn  out  for  their  lesson.”

“The  voice  teacher  keeps  telling  several  of  my  sopranos  

just  to  mouth  the  words.”

Two  Types  of  Vocal  Fatigue

•  Muscle  fatigue

•  Tissue  fatigue

D.D.  Michael/Lyons  Voice  Clinic

•  Like  our  bodies,  our  voices  have  individual  strengths  and  weaknesses.

•  Some  vocal  mechanisms  are  made  of  “cast  iron”,  some  are  made  of  “porcelain.”

•  Cast  iron  is  NOT  BETTER  than  porcelain.    A  delicate  vocal  mechanism  can  be  a  good  thing.

•  Don’t  compare  one  person’s  vocal  endurance  to  another’s.    

•  Louder  voices  are  not  necessarily  more  talented  (nor  do  they  necessarily  have  more  stamina).

Avoiding  Conflicting  Statements

•  Variety •  Cool  down •  LOOK  as  well  as  listen •  Communicate •  Vocal  Distress  Meetings? •  Students  are  still  learning  to  manage  their  voices

Vocal  Fatigue

Poor  planning  on  our  part  DOES  create  vocal  emergency  on  our  

students’  parts.

Terminology

“Voice  teachers  tell  my  students  I  am  asking  them  to  sing  too  quietly  in  the  piano  passages,  and  with  too  little  vibrato  in  the  loud  passages.”

“My  singers  are  always  asked  to  ‘tone  it  down  ,’  taking  the  ‘soloist’  

out  of  the  voice  by  reducing  the  singer’s  formant  and  inhibiting  

their  natural  vibrato.”

Terminology

•  Misunderstanding  of  acoustics  and  resonance  is  pervasive  from  both  sides.

•  Nasality •  Formants

Vocal  “Gold” “I  hear  the  choir  rehearsing  the  same  phrase  over  and  over,  wasting  vocal  gold  through  needless  repetition.”

“If  singers  are  vocal  athletes,  I  need  to  work  on  timing  and  stamina  like  a  sports  coach  

would.    If  we  have  to  repeat  sections  to  get  everyone  on  task,  

it  simply  must  be  done.”

Outside  Activities “The  choir  tour  always  rules  and  my  students  have  to  miss  

NATS  auditions  and  other  competitions.” “The  high  school  musical  was  scheduled  the  same  weekend  

as  NATS/MTNA/Music  Club  auditions  preventing  my  students  from  participating.”

“During  opera  staging  and  tech  week  I  basically  lose  two  weeks  of  productive  rehearsal  because  my  singers  are  simply  worn  out.”

“I  hear  from  students:    ‘We  are  having  a  NATS  competition  and  so  I  cannot  sing  in  choir  today.’”

Outside  Activities

•  HS  directors:    Involve  voice  teachers  of  your  students  in  annual  planning.

•  Annual  planning  should  involve  ensemble,  opera,  AND  voice  teachers.

•  Consider  a  cycle  for  major  works/larger  operas,  etc.

•  Be  prepared  for  the  inevitable  “special  opportunity.”

•  Most  NATS  and  choral  events  are  planned  well  in  advance.

THANKS!

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