I have been approached for advice, from time to time, by fellow singers who are considering doing some teaching. Sometimes it comes in the form of a panicked request for “materials” before a job interview for a teaching position. Other times it is a singer bouncing ideas off of me about whether or not teaching singing is right for them and whether, in my opinion, they have something marketable to offer. Sadly, sometimes it is a singer who has not been serious in their own training, as well as unsuccessful in obtaining paying work as a performer due to a deficit in skills, who considers becoming a singing teacher. Often they have little actual interest in teaching, but needing to get some work to keep them afloat until they get the paying performing work, they decide to become teachers. I have therefore organized a few points about teaching the art of singing, which I hope will be helpful to potential singing teachers and their potential students.
1) Most importantly, you must first be a skilled singer in order to teach the art of singing. There is an old saying, very insulting to teachers, that goes something like ”Those who can, Do, those who CAN’T.... teach”. Well, as far as singing goes, you absolutely have to be able to do it (or have been able to sing in the past if you are advanced in years) in order to teach it. Period. Full stop! Now, you may be an excellent, experienced and skilled performer who does not wish to or is unable to engage in having a singing career and still be an excellent teacher. Several esteemed teachers I know of are such individuals, they missed the boat of a performing career for themselves because of family obligations, health problems or having initially received poor training and then found themselves to old to establish a performing career, but they do possess the technique they are teaching. If you have tested the technique in the professional arena all the better.
Occasionally, I have a call from an absolute beginner who wants to train to become a singing teacher. My advice is always to train to become a singer and if you do not have a burning desire to perform then you will have a head start to being a good singing teacher. I do not subscribe to the “Music Education philosophy, which trains "music teachers". Music students are "musical souls", be they adults or children, and they respond to fluid, expressive, enthusiastic playing and singing from skilled performers. Mediocre "Music Ed" specialist teachers have, in my opinion done more to kill off enthusiasm from the public for serious music than the influence of the vapid commercially-promoted recordings with little"musical content" that are fed to young listeners.
2) Conversely, just because you can sing does not mean you can teach. Never the less, as discussed in 1) above, it is a very good start. There are many natural singers who have beautiful singing voices but do not understand exactly what they are doing to produce the sound or if they do understand they are unable to communicate it. You need to be able to do both. Sometimes singers understand how to make a nice sound with their own instrument but do not understand how different vocal instruments function or how to approach singers with different technical problems from their own. I am going to make a few high sopranos angry now, but I will say it anyhow. There are many sopranos, with high light voices that are able to make attractive sounds without learning how to sing properly. This is because it is possible for some tiny little soprano vocal mechanisms, to create what is an attractive sound to the public, when they are young, without the kind of breath support that most other types of voices absolutely must have in order to function. Often these singers have decent performing careers until their voices mature and they find they can no longer sing without retraining. It has been said by colleagues of the famous soprano who shall remain nameless, that she was an inverse breather. An inverse breather pulls up and in, instead of expanding the body with the air. A singer such as this may not understand how critical it is for other types of voices to breath correctly and then fail to address this issue with their students.(I often drive myself crazy trying to get some high light sopranos to breath correctly, but since they can get away with their bad habits some do not learn the most optimal way. I think even high light sopranos sound BEST when they breath properly like everyone else so I will never stop insisting that all singers breath well. Baritones generally get further than tenor simply on the strength of their beautiful natural voices whileknowing very little about technique. It should be remembered a singer cannot transfer his or her lovely voice to a student, only their knowledge.
3) A singing teacher must understand how different personalities and voices function. Don’t think that all you need to do when teaching others is repeat exactly how your teacher worked with you. I adjust my teaching to each singer. If a singer is a hardworking perfectionist who is very hard on his or herself, I have a very different attitude than I do with one who is a slacker. If a student has a hyper-phonation problem we do completely different vocalizes than if they have a hypo-phonation problem. Many singers who makefirst attempts at teaching voice, simple regurgitate what worked with them. So how does one learn about other voices? In the normal course of a peforming career singers observe what works and does not work with other voices and voice types. As a student, it is important to sit in on other singer’s lessons and attend master classes in order to learn about other kinds of voices as well as taking classes in pedagogy. The easiest way to do this is in a University or conservatory music program. If you are a fine pianist you can volunteer to play for singing teachers and observe, observe, observe.
So, if you think you have something to offer, how do you get started? One excellent way to gain experience is to barter singing lessons in exchange for other services. Be upfront about your level of experience. I started teaching in my late teens. At that point I had two years at university under a good teacher, it was more than five years since my first paid gig and had already won several competitions and made a recital debut at Carnegie Hall, so I was not exactly green despite my age. I exchanged singing lessons for guitar lessons. It was a great deal, I was learning on my second instrument AND getting experience as a singing teacher. Soon I was getting results and references. So I started to charge a little, but I worked exclusively on technique and taught only other musicians who knew what they were doing otherwise. Then my teacher started referring high school age students to me and was kind enough to monitor my progress with them. Then she had me take some of her students while she was away. I think I did help even my first students but I was quite aware that I had so much more to learn. I had to start somewhere, and if you want to teach singing you must start somewhere too.
If you are just starting out and do not have knowledge that is broad or deep, only teach what you know best. If you are a natural singer but an experienced performer, why not be a performance coach and have a group workshop. You don’t have to mess with any technique. A performance coach can help singers with their style, dramatic interpretation and stage presence. Just make sure that the singers who work with you are getting technique instruction elsewhere if they need it. If you only feel totally confident with one style than only teach that style and be up front about it.
Finally, the voice studio should not be a graveyard for frustrated singers who are not making it, or never made it, passing on their technical deficiencies to those who don’t know any better, although it very often is. Teach for the right reasons: because you really want to help people and because you are honestly interested in the human voice.
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