In conclusion, I would like to say a few words upon a subject which is seldom mentioned but which, I am convinced, has much to do with any student’s success or failure as any of his personal qualities or defects. This is the attitude of his parents or financial sponsors toward his training. If a teacher tells a parent that the important foundation work—correct voice placement, without which no voice can do its finest work—requires from two to three years of careful work on the part of both teacher and student, the parent is aghast. He cannot believe it. The teacher must be a bandit! Of course, it is admitted that painters, sculptors, writers, dancers, artists of any other kind must study intensively for years before their work can expect public acclaim, but singing . . . ? Ah, that’s different!
There is an old adage which says, "Time respects nothing made without its aid," and certainly this is true of the singing voice. That such a voice must be built and developed, as well as trained, is not taken into account by the fond parent. If his son or daughter cannot make a brilliant debut after one year’s training, "there must be something wrong with the teacher," in which case the student is withdrawn from that studio and enrolled elsewhere, with someone who dishonestly promises quicker results.
Since a successful pupil is a teacher’s finest advertisement, is it reasonable to suppose that this teacher would prefer to hide such a pupil in the obscurity of the studio any longer than is strictly necessary? Yet many a parent is convinced that the teacher is deliberately holding John or Mary back simply because he wants to wring as much money as possible from him, overlooking the fact that after every successful pupil’s debut a teacher acquires a dozen new students to fill the graduates’ place.
In order to hold the pupil’s interest and retain the parents’ good will, even the teacher of soundest integrity is obliged to compromise. Not only is he unable to insist upon a high standard of singing, but he must permit the immature young voice to learn, as quickly as possible, the trashy "popular" songs with which he may impress some agent who will find him some sort of singing job and thus appease the vanity of the fond parent.
This parental ignorance is one of the major reasons for the success of those many incompetent teachers who say very little of their own qualifications, but who fraudulently advertise that they place their pupils in professional engagements after only a few months’ training. That their statements will not bear thorough investigation does not occur to the gullible reader. The latter merely reads these false statements and, feeling that "it must be true or the paper wouldn’t
print it," decides that a teacher whose pupils advance as fast as that is exactly what he wants.
Since no young, undeveloped voice can stand the strain of public singing under adverse conditions, and since few singers continue studying after professional work begins, it is easy to see why so few promising voices last long enough to fulfill their promise.
The solution to this is simple. Let the student’s parents or financial backers cooperate with his teacher as fully as possible, or at least to the extent of letting him proceed without constant hindrance. The psychological effect of such cessation from petty complaint and faultfinding would go further than any other influence in hastening the glad day when Mary or John could begin the much-hoped-for career, and the career itself would have a far better chance of life!
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