Teaching Methods

Through quite a few years of experience of teaching vocal technique and being a student myself, it has become more and more clear to me what I think works and what doesn't, as far as teaching methods. Very often I've been taught by great teachers, yet I've often wondered what their philosophy/vision regarding teaching methods really was. This has lead me to be very curious as to what it is that motivates and inspires a singer in a learning phase, just as much as the technique itself. I think you can't seperate the two... they go hand in hand. So we're dealing with the more rational, practical side to vocal technique and then the way we understand and perceive the technical information and ideas being introduced to us.

Since most modern people today are very observant, curious and positively critical persons with a huge sense of individuality, I believe it's very important to make each singer understand technical ideas in the best way possible for them. This can be tricky since we are all so different! Some understand things best with auditive examples, some via visual drawings/illustrations, some like to feel what's physically happening in the body/throat, others like to have full explanations to understand things in a rational perspective and yet others like to put a more sensing/imaginative thought into it. This is why we need many different ways of explaining the same things!

When I teach I try to make sure that the singer I'm teaching fully understands what he's doing; what he's doing when something works really well and what he's doing when something doesn't work quite so well. This is to make sure that he can actively analyse and locate little problems as they arise and then ultimately; what he can do to solve the problems. In this way the singer will start to develop his own little bag of "tools", as I call them, which he can use when he needs them.

Therefore I always encourage singers I teach to have a book where they can write everything they learn and as an extension of that I encourage the very motivated singers to record and transcribe their lessons. Many students have often said that they can do so many things right when they are in a lesson but that they can't do it at home when they practise. This is why I very often try to involve singers in their own learning process through making them "collect" as many success examples of technique as possible and afterwards analysing and writing down/recording.

Furthermore, as a very important part of the way I teach, I find it very necessary to never cross the line of a singer's integrity. I believe it's crucial that a singer doesn't feel that there are loads of reasons to why he shouldn't be a great singer. I have so often experienced that tensions, insecurity and technical problems dissappear rapidly when simple technical ideas are introduced and the singer actively feels that his voice works really well. Then he's working from a perspective of wanting to learn and sing more, not from fear or exercises that takes a long time. I truly find that Complete Vocal Technique exercises are the best way to work with this.

Learning to sing better should be fun and not frustrating!

So much has been said and written about how the voice relates to psychology. I believe this is true! However, I have taken a direction in the way I teach where I make a clear distinction between the two. I think that for many people it can be almost like therapy to sing and this is of course great, but I find that the best conditions for a healthy learning environment is to focus on the singing and good experiences with this. This is to give the singer a free space where the psychological "bonus-effects" comes as a positive result of his own work. I believe a teacher should never interfere in this process.