Selecting a teacher . . . How to judge . . . The mechano-physiological school . . The "natural" method .. . Fallacy of "natural"
singing . . . The old Italian method . . . Correct voice placement
THE problem of finding the right teacher is the most important one that any student faces, for the success of his future career will depend in great measure upon his having acquired a fine and dependable foundation. What complicates the problem is the unfortunate fact that, while there are innumerable teachers—good, bad, and indifferent—the beginner is rarely able to judge one from the other, or to choose the one who would be best for him.
Personally, I feel that only a teacher who has himself been a professional singer should be considered. We do not go to a cornetist for piano lessons, nor to a violinist if we wish to play the flute. Then why go to an organist or an ex-accompanist for vocal lessons? Everything pertaining to tone production, placement, resonance, attack, breath control, and all the myriad other matters that make up good singing must be shown the student by personal demonstration; he cannot acquire them by abstract theorizing. Surely, then, it is beyond argument that only a teacher who is or was himself a singer is competent to offer such instruction!
Usually a student chooses a certain teacher because he has heard one of that teacher’s pupils and has been favorably impressed by him. A good idea, as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. Since the outsider has rarely any way of knowing whether the singer he so admires learned all that he knows from that particular teacher, or whether he acquired it bit by bit from half a dozen others, he cannot permit himself to be influenced unduly by that singer’s performance, however excellent.
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