Music Monday - Practice

A couple of weeks ago I was shocked when a tertiary singing student confessed to me that she had never done any singing practice. Never. Not in the 15 months I have been teaching her and not at any point during her secondary schooling, which is when she started formal singing lessons. What was even more galling to me was that I hadn’t realised. This student is naturally talented and learns new song repertoire easily. She had recorded her lessons with me, including exercises to teach and reinforce new aspects of vocal technique. In my turn, I had observed that her progress with new vocal technique concepts was slow; however her strong natural instincts for ‘selling’ a song, as well as a naturally robust vocal instrument had enabled her to get away with it to a certain extent. Her confession came in response to my observation (at this particular lesson) that she was taking a long time to develop a secure head dominant mix.

In our frank discussion which followed, the student confided that she had always had a lazy attitude towards work, but more than that, no one had ever told her how to practice. That really set me thinking.

With my young beginner singers, I always make explicit instructions- “do this exercise 5 times each day”, “sing through the song then go over the problem phrases”, “check in the mirror to see that you are….”. The younger students have a journal in which to write instructions and record their practice times and at each lesson there is discussion about how they have fared since the previous lesson.

With tertiary / adult students, I have, until now, verbally suggested the recommended number of repetitions of new exercises and techniques, but I have assumed that these were practised at home. Clearly this has not always been the case. 

Since that lesson, I am now quizzing students in more detail. Instead of a generic “how has your practice gone since the last lesson?” I am asking, “How many times did you do the … exercises?” etc.

And what of the student who started this? Well, in the past week she has practised in detail twice. Not yet ideal, but baby steps towards a more effective artistic practice routine.