| Date sent: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 11:51:05 EST Subject: Open letter/was: Re: Vocalist Topics/lengthy To: DANIaka007-at-aol.com, vocalist Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
In a message dated 1/28/00 9:55:30 AM, DANIaka007-at-aol.com writes:
<< i THINK that teenqueen is right. I really really really Like Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and people like them!!!! I think they VERYVERYVERYVERYVERYVERY talented and worht SOME credit...even if you don't like them at ALL!! >>
Dear Danielle and other young singers and posters,
You and TeenQueen are as welcome to your opinions as anyone else on this list or anywhere else in the world. No one here is upset by whom you like or don't like. You very well may not admire those whom others admire. That is called being human. This list, as I understand it, though, is not for that sort of discussion -- but rather for more intense conversation about singers' technique, etc. -- whether pop, broadway, classical recitalist, or opera.
The reason I am writing this to the list and not just to you privately is that many of us here are singers AND studio teachers AND school teachers. I teach students in a school, as well as private students in a studio. Every day I have whole roomfulls of singers from ages 12 to 18. All of them are "regular" kids. They have their own opinions about everything...and of course they have opinions about music and singing. My focus with them is to use their own voices with as healthy a production as possible, whether they are singing alone or with a group. Some of them adore the same singers that you do, but they come to me with questions about how those singers do what they do, and I am honest with them. I ask them to observe what happens when some singers perform, and to see when they are tense or seem to be pushing too hard. These kids are smart -- just like YOU -- and they know what to look for. At the same time, I am an adult who remembers what it was like to be younger. I respect their choices in music, as I do the way they feel about clothes or books or movies or religion or politics. But my work is singing -- as it is for the folks on Vocalist. Therefore: when our work is singing, and our objective is good, healthy, in-tune singing, that's what we talk about. I can enjoy listening to someone who occasionally does something wrong vocally, but I know enough not to imitate. That is what this discussion is about. In class with these students, I would never get into an argument about who is whose "favorite". What would that prove? As budding adults, my students need to learn tolerance for others' opinions and discernment where their listening is concerned. I'm proud of their growing maturity in those areas. They are creative and talented. They ask terrific questions, and asking questions is a good use of this list, as well.
Talk about diverse tastes -- My daughter is 20 years old and is studying to be an opera singer...but I know that her CD shelves are filled with Ben Folds Five and old Joni Mitchell CDs, as well as with Renee Fleming and Sumi Jo. My belief is that she learns from all that she hears.
Here on Vocalist teachers and singers can ask and answer questions about singing and repertoire and performance and all the related topics...and those of us who sing and teach for a living can read to our hearts' content when we come home from those pursuits. Perhaps it is because of that philosophy of thinking (learning and studying and teaching) that many think that saying who "likes" and "dislikes" whom without going on to make it a technique, repertoire, or performance discussion seems somewhat unproductive here.
Wishing you and all young singers who post here much luck in your singing, listening, and enjoyment of music!
Sincerely, Lynda Lacy, Soprano, St. Andrews Episcopal Cathedral Director of Choral Activities, Jackson Prepartory School *(out for ice today) Jackson, MS LYNDA313-at-aol.com
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