Lori Ardovino - President, Higher Education Division Help Students Be the Best They Can Be
How do we help our students to become the musician he or she wants to be? We do it by simply allowing them to do it. How do we do this? We help them to formulate a clearly defined goal. For a musician, the goal will be partially be in the form of an aural image. When striving to teach tone, what approach do you use?
1.Formulate specific muscle placement or have the student strive for the desired sound by using whatever is natural, OR
2.Should the student repeatedly listen to a piece until the sound of it is permanently established in the ear?
Both are true. Individual personalities will also factor into this, but learning is most likely to succeed when both approaches are utilized. Having said this, sometimes the natural or intuitive part of musical learning often is overlooked. The more advanced students many times try too hard and overanalyze their playing without realizing it.
I find myself sometimes telling a student during a practice session things like: “Fill up with air, use the diaphragm, support”, and “head up, good posture, relax the jaw, top lip firm, corners in”, and so on. They may sound like wonderful suggestions, but this persistence may have negative effects. Too many instructions can easily turn into distractions, inhibiting, rather than endorsing. Yes, there is a “correct” way to play and instrument or to sing opposed to an “incorrect” way.
The
problem is, too music attention to particulars can be distracting to both the student and the teacher. I find that many times when working with a new student, I want to “fix” everything at the same time, and this is counterproductive. The student cannot concentrate on one thing and be
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expected to correct the other. I say these things because I am guilty of trying to fix “too much too soon”. The final goal is to help the student to be the best they can be. Okay, so how do we approach it?
Focus on sound – the primary area that needs attention. This may take years to develop the desired sound. Attaining an accurate aural image of the tone quality desired is what everyone seeks, and it will come in time.
Listen to recordings and attend live performances – attentive listening will help the ear grasp the desired tone and retain it.
Practice sight singing – this is a valuable skill that is introduced during the freshman year. We use this so we can hear the music in our ears before we play it. If the student cannot aural perceive the pitches on the page, how can they form a clear aural image? Tone does not happen without pitch.
Go easy on verbal instructions – A way out of this dilemma is to translate verbal commands to aural images. The student will relax more instead of having that constant reminder of the teacher’s instruction.
Remember the good moments – When the student has that moment when everything is right, tell them to remember that feeling. If you can remember what it felt like to get the sound you’ve been seeking, the muscles will hopefully find a way to reproduce that same sound and feeling. Don’t try to think or describe, remember.
The most important factor in any undertaking is to have a clearly defined goal. We are here to help, but how it is achieved is totally up to the student.
Whether you sing in the choir, dance in a musical theater production, play an instrument in a band, have a passion for opera, or lead worship for your church, the University of Mobile Center for Performing Arts has the program for you!
If you desire a university that prepares you to make a difference in today’s culture, UMobile is for you!
center for performing arts The course of study is music - the four-year journey is the real education!
To schedule an appointment to audition:
cpaauditions@umobile.edu or call
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