The language of teaching

Teaching how to sing is a combination of science and gut instinct.  When I first hear a singer, I quickly can assess a student's abilities and ways to improve.  However, each vocal topic has different solutions; furthermore, HOW the teacher says something is as important as the technique or solution itself.  A teacher has to be extremely careful on what they say.

For instance, take a student who has a tongue that retreats back into mouth, which often produces an over-darkened tone.  The easy, direct solution is to simply ask the student to sing with the tongue more forward.  But there is a problem with this: some students will actually create more tongue tension with this solution!  So a more circuitous route must be taken; asking the student to sing 'more forward' or 'brighten' the sound, or asking the student to use more breath support.  Each one of these alternative solutions addresses the tongue, but often result in a far more satisfying sound than the more direct route.

DWS