Fighting the Good Fight

One of my teaching philosophies is that teachers do more than educate about their subject. As a voice teacher I find that I do more than just teach my students to sing. I teach them responsibility, I coach them on how to meet their life goals, I listen to them when they are having troubles in school or in their social lives. I ask them about their families and their interests.

One of the lessons I find myself teaching over and over again is one about self value and expression and how it relates to those around them. Being a teenager doesn't make this easy to figure out. Even at 28 years old I continue to work on my own confidence and how I treat my competition.

It's not any surprise that high school age girls would find it challenging to feel confident among their peers. Their culture is steeped in competitive energy. With tv shows like the voice, x-factor, and american idol, they're constantly watching people their age take a very public verbal beating for being less than stellar.

Singing competitions are a blessing and a curse in this regard. It's a great tool for a teacher to push their students towards and end goal. It's also great to get feedback from fellow voice teachers about how your students are doing. However, sometimes it brings out the claws. Unlike sports where competitive energy and adrenaline can be channeled into physical activity, singing is an individual sport with a somewhat subjective criteria for judging. What ends up happening is that you get girls that smile and chat with each other in person and plot each others demise behind closed doors. It's no wonder that they're afraid to sing in front of each other!

I remember my choir director telling us that personal success doesn't have to be at the expense of anyone else. I have found that girls don't always have anyone point this out to them. Confidence isn't the product of dominance, it's the product of hard work. The harder you work, the more you have to be proud of. If our society didn't put so much emphasis on "winning" this might actually be the case more of the time.

There's a lightbulb joke that goes:
Q: How many sopranos does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: One to do it, ten to say they could have done it better.

One of the things that I have learned and continue to learn is that my competition are also my colleagues and sportsmanship isn't just about shaping a good character. If I was to behave in a passive aggressive manner to every girl that got a solo when I didn't there wouldn't be many girls left for me to sing with. Being a diva does not get you very far in this business (or any other business either) in spite of what you might hear about opera singers.

It's my hope that when my students leave my voice studio they leave having come closer learning this lesson not just because they'll be better singers but because they'll be better people.