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From:  "David Grogan" <dgrogan@e...>
Date:  Thu May 2, 2002  7:24 pm
Subject:  RE: [vocalist] Other ways to make voice more objective...?


Mike asks...

david,

by what criteria are you judging 'chiaroscuro'? do you use spectral
analysis for such an estimation? do you adjust for voice size and room
size? if you are going by listening with your own ears, how do you know
you
have the same standard throughout the four years of a typical student's time
with you?
***************************************

Mike, I don't feel that everything in singing can be objective. Obviously,
the concept of chiaroscuro that I am looking for is going to be subjective.
It will be my opinion, but in this case (since they are my students, and I
am the one grading them) that's all the counts. I do take into
consideration younger and/or less experienced singers. As a general rule,
with freshmen and sophomores (or singers with less experience) I will
multiply their score by 2.125 (and don't ask me how I came up with this
number) instead of just 2. As to whether I have the same standard for
chiaroscuro for the whole time a student is with me...I don't have an answer
for that. I am sure that there are things that change my perspective on
singing and what is an appropriate tone for students. It is for reasons
like that one that I try to make my grading slightly more objective.


*********************************
mike continues...

i'm not arguing against fairness, i am arguing against the notion
that
true objective judgments can be made about an activity that is appreciated
subjectively. and oddly, i encourage you to keep looking.

mike
**********************************


And I appreciate your comments and encouragement. I don't think true
objective judgments can be made about singing either. I think that parts of
the singing process can be objective, though, and I feel as though I owe it
to my students to be as objective a teacher as I can be. Just to reiterate,
I would never try to apply something like this as the sole basis for
deriving a student's grade. There are intangibles, and mitigating factors
that must come into play as well.

Again, thanks for your comments!

David Grogan
East Texas Baptist University
Marshall, Texas





  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date  
19002 Re: Other ways to make voice more objective...?Reg Boyle   Thu  5/2/2002  

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