NATS Executive Director, Allen Henderson, steered a panel discussion on March 10, 2011 entitled, "Choral Directors are from Mars and Voice Teachers are from Venus: Sing from the Diaphragm and other Vocal Mistructions," along with esteemed NATS members Sharon Hansen and Brenda Smith, NATS President Donald Simonson, and NATS Past President Scott McCoy. They presented an additional Interest Session that afternoon: "Choral Directors are from Mars and Voice Teachers are from Venus: Top 10 List - Complaints from Both Sides of the Aisle."
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Z Score,T Score, Percential Rank and Box Plot Graph
Top 10 Complaints Between Choral Directors and Voice Teachers
1. 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”
Sharon Hansen
Allen Henderson
Sco/ McCoy
Donald Simonson
Brenda Smith
2. 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?
3. GOAL
To build a common language
that reflects our common goal
of providing excellence in
instruction and performance.
4. Tone Quality
“The choir conductor has the
students singing straight tone
for 45 minutes straight!”
“The voice teachers keep
changing my vowels, and they tell
my sopranos to ignore my
instructions about straight tone!”
5. Individual Sound vs.
Group or Cooperative Sound
GROUP SOUND
• Homogeneous group sound
• Quasi-‐English boy choir, blended
group sound
• Full-‐bodied group sound
• 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)
7. People often look at the
exact same research and
draw widely differing
conclusions.
8. Solo Selection
“The choir director selected
my student for a solo and that
student has no business
singing the Verdi Requiem
solos as a Freshman!”
“This is a young, exciting,
ringy voice that can easily
negotiate the tessitura.”
9. Common Ground
• Include voice faculty in
auditions.
• Require voice teacher
approval before audition.
• Communicate!
10. 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!”
11. Repertoire Selection
“FABULOUS” Repertoire
vs.
Repertoire selection
according to the students
at hand
12. 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.
13. 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.”
14. Common Ground
• Communicate!
• Placing in a lower part MAY be
acceptable.
• Special instruction by voice
teacher on being successful
singing another voice part.
15. 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"
16. Rehearsal Technique
The choral director
has MANY singers in
mind at one time.
The voice teacher
works with one
singer at a time.
17. Singers Must Be Taught
• The ART of Practice
• How to concentrate
• Responsibility for vocal
technique
• Importance of resting
between periods of exertion
18. 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.”
19. 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
20. 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.”
21. Two Types of Vocal Fatigue
• Muscle fatigue
• Tissue fatigue
22. 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).
23. Avoiding Conflicting Statements
• Variety
• Cool down
• LOOK as well as listen
• Communicate
• Vocal Distress Meetings?
• Students are still learning to
manage their voices
25. 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.”
27. 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.”
28. 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.’”
29. 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.