Sending our Students to Other Mix Teachers

Weekly Teaching Tip – March 17, 2014
by Dominika Plonka

When I was a young teacher I used to oranize at least one vocal workshops per year.
I invited some other mix teacher, who taught my students and gave me
some advices how should I work with them.
Now I am a mentor, teaching younger teachers, but I still tell my
students to take some lessons from other teachers from time to time.
Every year I organize a big vocal workshop, I cancel 2 weeks of
lessons to take care of this event, and all my students go for the
workshops instead of taking lessons from me.
I think it’s an important part of improving mix singing and I would
advice every mix teacher to cooperate with others.

Here are the reasons why we should send our students to other mix teachers:

1) When I was younger teacher I didn’t realize how quickly the
exercices do work. I had a situation that I was working on a
person pulling chest for a few months, but when the singer came to my
mentor – the diagnosis was totally different: no more
pulling chest, but e.x.flip, or too light in upper register…
So I didn’t realize that I have already solved the problem of pulling
chest and I can already change exercices to this singer and make progress.

2) The other teacher will tell your student the same theory, but using
different words. Each one of us has his own ways to explain different
things, but for some people our ways can be better, for others – not
clear enough. If someone else explains mix singing to your student,
It may help the singer in better comprehension of the topic.

3) Sometimes student doesn’t trust you enough, doesn’t know if you
are working in the good way. Why you teach him singing light, when he
would like to yell, and why can’t he do this anymore?…
When your student will hear the same opinion from other person, he is
more convinced to the way of work that you have proposed to him.
Your students also get more trust and esteem to you, when they hear from
other teacher that you are working in a proper way with their voices.

When we are invited by other teacher to teach his students, we have to
realize that some singers don’t come for regular lessons, but they
are coming for an event. We should encourage these singers to keep
taking regular lessons from the teacher, because it will guarantee
them much quicker success in improving good singing.