In a message dated 11/11/00 12:03:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, ingo_d@y... writes: ingo_d@y... writes:
<< Is there a point when you begin to enjoy your sound? I've only been taking lessons for a year now, so maybe I'm rushing. >>
I think that would depend on a lot of things, and everyone is different. It happened for me shortly after I began with my last and wonderful teacher --- before whom I went through four others through my teens to early twenties. He joined the faculty of our college, and several of us changed from a teacher we were unhappy with to the new and well-known (at that time as a performer -- later more as a teacher.) At the same time, there was another new teacher to whom other voice majors were flocking, and his students made great strides. I heard dramatic improvement in my classmates' vocal quality. (One of his students was Flicka vonStade.)
There were good changes in my vocal production / placement which I was aware of after one lesson. There were other good things that happened to my singing which took longer, such as legato and floating and dynamic control. After those improvments, I really began to enjoy hearing myself even more.
While saying that a teacher can make all the difference, let me hastily add that maybe you are critical of yourself in an unproductive way. Is it the total vocal sound which is bothering you, or is it discrete technicalities you could be addressing specifically? Do you recognize, for example, when you produce a given vowel sound inappropriately?
Have you discussed this with your teacher? Have you listened with your teacher to a recording of yourself and discussed it with him or her? Most important, have you made improvement under this teacher? Since it has been a year, if you feel you have made zero vocal progress, and/ or, if someone you trust, in a position to discern, feels the same, maybe you should start questioning some friends and acquaintances who are studying with people who have made a difference for them.
I understand there are some people who are wonderful singers who do not like to listen to recordings of themselves for whatever reason.
Just a few thoughts I hope have helped, Doris Long Thurber
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