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." Download the Handout from the second presentation from this page and discuss the topic on the PowerPoint PDF download page at http://www.slideshare.net/OfficialNATS/201103-top10-complaintspresentedbynatsatacda-7218269

1. Top Ten Complaints From Both Sides of the Aisle 3/10/11
Choral Directors are from Mars
Choral Directors vs. Voice Teachers
and
Voice Teachers are from Venus: • A history of complaints
• Are these complaints
substantiated?
Top Ten Complaints
• Are we actually approaching the
From Both Sides of the Aisle same ideas with different
Or “The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends” language?
Sharon Hansen • How are NATS and ACDA
Allen Henderson working together?
Sco/ McCoy
Donald Simonson
Brenda Smith
GOAL
Tone Quality
“The choir conductor has the
students singing straight tone
To build a common language for 45 minutes straight!”
that reflects our common goal
“The voice teachers keep
of providing excellence in changing my vowels, and they tell
instruction and performance.
my sopranos to ignore my
instructions about straight tone!”
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2. Top Ten Complaints From Both Sides of the Aisle 3/10/11
Individual Sound vs.
Group or Cooperative Sound Questions
GROUP SOUND
• Homogeneous group sound Do we know it all?
• Quasi-­‐English boy choir, blended
group sound
• Full-­‐bodied group sound
INDIVIDUAL SOUND
OR
• Cooperative sound
• Soloist develops best individual
sound that she can
• Soloist uses everything that an
Are we on a journey
individual voice can show (power, of discovery?
vibrato, range, dynamic)
Solo Selection
“The choir director selected
my student for a solo and that
People often look at the
student has no business
exact same research and
singing the Verdi Requiem
solos as a Freshman!”
draw widely differing
“This is a young, exciting,
conclusions.
ringy voice that can easily
negotiate the tessitura.”
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3. Top Ten Complaints From Both Sides of the Aisle 3/10/11
Common Ground
Age/Size Appropriate Repertoire
“The choral conductor thinks one size fits all.
The repertoire in the top choir this semester is
• Include voice faculty in all over the map in terms of styles and periods.
One voice does not fit all styles.”
auditions.
• Require voice teacher
“The voice teacher is teaching every student in
approval before audition.
his studio exactly the same, whether the student
has a naturally large instrument or a small one.
• Communicate!
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
Common Ground
• Experience great master works
• All have preconceived notions of what
those are.
“FABULOUS” Repertoire
• Some masterworks are appropriate for
some students, but not all great
vs.
masterworks are appropriate to all
students at any one time.
Repertoire selection • Whether students can adapt to tonal
requirements of some repertoire
according to the students should be a matter of discussion
at hand
• Neutral third party involved when
inflexibility exists.
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4. Top Ten Complaints From Both Sides of the Aisle 3/10/11
Voice Placement
Common Ground
• Communicate!
“S/he placed my soprano in • Placing in a lower part MAY be
the alto section.”
acceptable.
“The student has the range • Special instruction by voice
necessary to sing the lower part teacher on being successful
with ease. She will gain in musical singing another voice part.
development and can contribute to
the ensemble’s success.”
Rehearsal Technique
Rehearsal Technique
“They don’t understand
my limitations on The choral director
rehearsal time.”
has MANY singers in
"What do choral conductors mean mind at one time.
about ‘limitations on time’? They
have our singers for 4 hours every
The voice teacher
week. We only have 60 minutes with
them weekly. In the end, it is the works with one
solo performance that counts"
singer at a time.
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5. Top Ten Complaints From Both Sides of the Aisle 3/10/11
Singers Must Be Taught
Dynamics
• The ART of Practice
“They just sing
• How to concentrate
loud all the time.”
• Responsibility for vocal
“Voice teachers are asking
technique
my students to sing too
• Importance of resting aggressively, their voices
between periods of exertion
stick out in my choir.”
Two Issues
Vocal Fatigue
Being asked as a group to “My students come from
sing at a dynamic level that rehearsal and are totally worn
is barely sustainable by a out for their lesson.”
single voice
Being asked to sing at high “The voice teacher keeps
dynamic levels while telling several of my sopranos
minimizing vibrato and just to mouth the words.”
holding to “pure” vowels
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6. Top Ten Complaints From Both Sides of the Aisle 3/10/11
Two Types of Vocal 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.”
• Muscle fatigue
• Cast iron is NOT BETTER than porcelain. A
delicate vocal mechanism can be a good thing.
• Don’t compare one person’s vocal endurance
• Tissue fatigue
to another’s.
• Louder voices are not necessarily more
talented (nor do they necessarily have more
stamina).
Avoiding Conflicting Statements
Vocal Fatigue
• Variety
• Cool down
• LOOK as well as listen
Poor planning on our part DOES
• Communicate
create vocal emergency on our
• Vocal Distress Meetings?
students’ parts.
• Students are still learning to
manage their voices
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7. Top Ten Complaints From Both Sides of the Aisle 3/10/11
Terminology
Terminology
“Voice teachers tell my students I am
asking them to sing too quietly in the • Misunderstanding of
piano passages, and with too little
vibrato in the loud passages.”
acoustics and resonance is
pervasive from both sides.
“My singers are always asked to • Nasality
‘tone it down ,’ taking the ‘soloist’
out of the voice by reducing the • Formants
singer’s formant and inhibiting
their natural vibrato.”
Vocal “Gold”
Outside Activities
“I hear the choir rehearsing the “The choir tour always rules and my students have to miss
same phrase over and over, NATS auditions and other competitions.”
wasting vocal gold through “The high school musical was scheduled the same weekend
as NATS/MTNA/Music Club auditions preventing my
needless repetition.”
students from participating.”
“If singers are vocal athletes, I “During opera staging and tech week I basically lose two
need to work on timing and weeks of productive rehearsal because my singers are
simply worn out.”
stamina like a sports coach “I hear from students: ‘We are having a NATS competition
would. If we have to repeat and so I cannot sing in choir today.’”
sections to get everyone on task,
it simply must be done.”
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8. Top Ten Complaints From Both Sides of the Aisle 3/10/11
Outside Activities
THANKS!
• HS directors: Involve voice teachers of
your students in annual planning.
Download this presentation and a
• Annual planning should involve
ensemble, opera, AND voice teachers.
handout version and continue the
• Consider a cycle for major works/larger conversation at:
operas, etc.
• Be prepared for the inevitable “special
opportunity.”
http://acda.nats.org
• Most NATS and choral events are
planned well in advance.
allen@nats.org
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