A fresh start to a new semester, a new soprano walking into your studio, a belter who is just beginning to wield her instrument… what do they have in common? They are all starting with a clean slate. Where to begin? As I have said before, you need to know what you want to learn to know which direction to aim. In generations past, great vocal pedagogues like Vaccai and Lütgen might hand their students a book of etudes to study (and these can be very useful even today). Presently, there are no shortage of systems that claim to help singers find their best voice (the YouTube ads are endless!). Practically speaking, there is no one method or right way. For every voice, there is an artist…a human that needs to be nurtured. As the voice is a function of that specific individual, so should her course of study.
Though decades in the studio have taught me that there are perennial and common maladies, each singer is truly unique and no one is a copy of another. In short, each path is different. To honor those basic human differences, is the highest priority of every vocal pedagogue. So… where does one begin?
Obviously, we want to train those technical foundations (breath, posture, diction, resonance..), but how can we translate physiological concepts into real world performance? Start where you want to end – with the repertoire. In the beginning that means assigning thoughtful music that has a real goal of building technical concepts in practice. Be realistic and age/level appropriate. If you want to help a young singer understand the beginning concepts of breathing while teaching him how to learn a song, start with something simple – a folk song. If you want a singer to understand that first level of forward mix space in Musical Theatre, start with an overt character piece that has limited range and a quick tempo. Assign and move through music with a strategy. Know repertoire. Be a voracious listener and researcher in every genre you teach and analyze everything. With every piece of music you work with, outline the technical requirements for a successful performance. As you do this, you will begin to see that pieces/songs have varying degrees of technical challenge. This is true in EVERY genre (not just classical music). Apply these analytical principals to every piece of music in every lesson and work to build complexity over time in the repertoire that you assign.
Be sure to order technique work in lessons around the specific challenges of the piece(s) you are working on in a given day. Vocalizes should not be random, but have a real purpose. They should get you to the application which is the actual piece of music that the singer is working to master. You may incorporate exercises that are not relevant only if they are speaking to a long-term goal of that singer which is NOT specifically required in the piece for the day.
Resist the urge to shortcut the process. You may hear a wonderful young soprano who has a nice vibrato and immediately think she would sound great singing that Puccini aria you heard someone sing in undergrad. RUN from that instinct. That 17-year-old is not physically mature enough for that aria (in most cases, that girl in your college studio probably wasn’t ready either). The same is true in Musical Theatre rep. Just because your 19-year-old developing baritone has a great bottom register, doesn’t mean that Javert should be in his book. Stay relevant, be conservative with your choices and your guidance. Good repertoire choices given in a timely manner that respects the physiological and artistic maturity of your singers are the bedrock of solid technical training and guidance.
Begin every singer-teacher relationship with a long-term goal. Make sure that every piece of the vocal journey is bringing you one step closer to that goal. Be absolutely sure that each piece/song a singer is singing fits with that plan. The path won’t always be a linear expression and the goals will often shift as the singer discovers new skills, colors and passions. As this happens, so too will the repertoire shift. But with the right foundational choices, students will have the technical skills to be flexible and will be able to navigate their musical journey without losing their vocal acumen.
One final thought… though our repertoire choices need to be functional to build skill, never lose track of the fact that a singer has their own tastes and proclivities. You need to have buy-in from them in order to have success. Make sure the big goals are driven by their goals. Give them choices and agency and maybe even incorporate some “fun”picks for them. Because even the most dedicated singer can lose the spark and joy in singing if we are not nurturing the artist in them along the way.