Anyway, I have been doing something different on a Tuesday night for the last 4 weeks: presenting a singing workshop (okay, well, not SO different) for Vivacious Voice. Students sign up for an 8 week introductory course in singing, which ends in a concert on week 9 where every student must sing a solo. Now I have, for a long time, challenged the decision to teach people to sing in private. When I was a student, the course was designed in a way that NObody would sit in on our lessons, except an accompanist at examination time. Now I have (eversince I started teaching at the College) made singing lessons sessions that are open to other students to attend and watch. My reasoning was that it would help the singers get over their fear of performance. These public singing lessons were done in conjunction with weekly master classes, which meant that my students never have a private moment with me.
Now my decision to do this has been challenged: not only by my peers but especially by students who come from other teachers. They refuse to sing when people are in the room....initially. They then get over themselves and learn to accept my terms and conditions!
The point of all this useless information:
I am starting to believe that private lessons just delay the learning process. It encourages laziness! Now why would I say this? Well....if a student needs to learn a song for a lesson, and they don't they only lose face with their teacher. But when teacher forces them to get through the song in front of their classmates......
So my new babies at Vivacious Voice. They are quite a cool bunch. Ranging in age from 18 up to 40 years old. Een haan, sewe henne en 'n moffie! Shame, poor Geoff..... They have improved so much as a group over the last 4 weeks. Wow! All proof that a much faster improvement can be seen within a group dynamic than one on one singing lessons! I'd like your views on this please....
On a lighter note
Over and out.....
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