Does A Famous Singing Teacher Guarantee Fame?
Too many singers, artists as well as students, have the misleading habit of attributing their best qualities to whatever teacher they happen to be studying with at the moment. All that his predecessor taught them is forgotten or ignored. Some even go so far as to proclaim that they’ve never had a singing lesson in their lives and are entirely self-taught. (When one famous coloratura made this absurd statement to a music critic recently, that gentleman replied, "I don’t doubt it, madame. Your singing proves it!")
On the other hand, the fact that a teacher was once a famous singer is no guarantee that he is a good teacher. The mental or psychological make-up of some persons is such that, no matter how expert they may be in their own field of work, they have not the ability to impart their knowledge. The ability to teach is a very special quality and is not granted to everyone. We must remember also that there are excellent as well as mediocre voices to be found in every studio, and no teacher should be judged by his exceptionally good or exceptionally poor students. The singer who impresses us may be that teacher’s only worthwhile pupil or he may be singing well not because he is studying with that teacher but despite that fact.
We often find a teacher whose success with a single pupil gives him a considerable, though temporary, prestige. This is particularly the case with teachers who discover and exploit a very youthful singer. Sometimes it is a child with an amazing range and a beauty of tone that is distinctly mature and "professional." Naturally the teacher receives full credit for the little girl or boy’s vocal achievements, and myriad mothers bring their own children for instruction, to say nothing of all the older students who feel that this teacher will do as much for them as he has for the wonder-child. Yet time goes on without the desired results.
Why? Why is it that a teacher who apparently could do so much for an untrained child can do little or nothing with older and presumably more intelligent students ? Why does he have one, and only one, successful pupil? The answer is heartbreakingly simple, and can be explained briefly as follows: The wonder-child’s voice was naturally placed.
This is by no means an infrequent condition. We often find children whose voices have the requisite point and focus by accident, or by nature, just as some persons have the gift of absolute pitch, or an infallible sense of rhythm. Having this correct placement by nature, almost any sort of training will serve to develop it, up to a certain point and for a limited period of time. Later, inexpert training begins to tell on the delicate vocal mechanism and the voice deteriorates. Later still, it will become wholly useless.
Certainly it must be apparent, to even the most unscientific mind, that it is the child’s unusual natural gifts which are responsible for her success, rather than the training she has received. If not, why is she her teacher’s only outstanding pupil, and why cannot he do for any of the others what he apparently did so easily for her.