Taking Students out of their comfort zone

Weekly Teaching Tip – August 13, 2012

While teaching this past week, I was constantly reminded that one of the best things we can do as teachers to help singers improve is to take them to places where they are not comfortable. It doesn’t help a singer much if they only spend time where they are already comfortable and where they already sound good. In order to progress they must move outside of their comfort zone.

Michael Goodrich said it this way. “When I run somebody’s voice through a specific vocalization regime it takes them into different areas of the voice they’ve never been in, different experiences they’ve never had and different parts of themselves they’ve never experienced. And that’s the most important point.”

It’s important to always challenge our students and not be afraid to expand their range and their potential by getting them out of their comfort zone. This way their improvement is accelerated, and when they come back to things they used to think were difficult, it will now seem easier to them.