Why did you write a book to help the private voice teacher?
For quite a number of years I have been giving lectures and writing articles on studio management and marketing, and I felt that there were so many teachers not treating the private voice studio as a business, but more like “that lady down the street who teaches.”
If you’ve had a terrific background as a singer, can you learn how to teach from books, or do you need a pedagogy degree?
Becoming a great teacher is the result of constant reading of everything you can get your hands on, going to workshops and conventions, observing master classes and constantly purchasing music. I don’t think the degree necessarily makes a great teacher, nor do I think that a terrific background as a singer guarantees success.
I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education, plus a year’s study in Germany. I have nine years of public school choral experiences. Three years teaching junior high was a real learning experience, as far as teaching the young male voice.
When my husband went to Indiana for his doctorate, I enrolled as a special student. I took every course that applied to private voice studios, many vocal literature courses, pedagogy, accompanying, and voice lessons with Elizabeth Mannion, who really taught me to sing, at age 37.
Do you hand out a studio policy to new students?
At the very first lesson I hand out a studio policy, a two-page resume of my lectures, major performances, my education, the teachers with whom I’ve studied and coached, the NATS [National Association of Teachers of Singing] and Westminster vocal workshops in which I’ve participated, everything I’ve published, my public and private teaching experience and a statement about practice procedures. Right away, the parent gets the idea that I am qualified.
What’s the best way to learn how to teach?
Teach! You learn something from every student. You have to know precisely what you are listening to. The teacher’s critical ear is so important. I think of technique as constantly reaching forks in the road—and gearing the student to the left or right will make a huge difference.
Do you recommend becoming a member of NATS?
Absolutely. NATS taught me more than all of my college training ever did. I have attended and actively participated in 25 workshops and 20 conventions through the years. I’ve devoted a whole chapter in my book to NATS.
What is your relationship with your students?
I do not become friends with my teenage students. I am a mentor, but I do not become a mother. When they come back several years after leaving me, a true friendship often develops.
What if you have a student who prefers musical theater?
I teach musical theater along with the classics. I had one rock ‘n’ roll singer come to me, and we worked on technique for six months. She got to the point where she was no longer hoarse after performing an entire evening. My beginning students do not sing songs for the first six-to-eight weeks. After the first lesson, my students realize there is so much to think about and learn about their voice production that they couldn’t possibly work on a song at that point.
Would you say finding the right repertoire is one of the most difficult challenges for teachers?
Yes. The repertoire can either make or break the student. Some teachers will say, “This will be your recital piece for the spring recital.” Instead, about six weeks before the recital, I have the students prepare a list of five-to-six pieces that they have learned or are working on that they like the best. Together we narrow the list down to their two best choices. Students sing best in public when they can relate to the songs selected for performance. In general, the song repertoire must suit the student in range, in musical difficulty, in appropriateness of text, and yet continue to challenge the student.
How did you learn to find good repertoire for teaching?
When I came back from Germany in 1956, I filled my steamer trunk with secondhand music. I was always interested in finding new things for my students, because I was frustrated with what was available in volumes for teenagers. In the States, I would go with my husband to his conventions, and would go through all the music stores to find teaching music and send it home.
My husband encouraged me to invest a certain percentage of my lesson money into reference library growth. I’ve been a pack rat with music all these years. As a result, I have an enormous library of music. I became so frustrated when so much music went out of print due to illegal photocopying. My students purchase all their own music. My policy statement indicates music costs for teenagers will be close to $100 a year.
How young do you start students, and why?
Younger than I used to. I had my first fifth-grader this year, but she was exceptional. I prefer to take boys after their voices have changed. I am finding that young people are maturing much earlier than in earlier decades. They also are being challenged to do demanding musicals in middle school. Voice lessons may help to prevent damage caused by vocal misuse.
Can you explain your method of keeping records in your studio?
I devised 5×8 lesson cards, which I keep on the piano in the scheduled order of the lessons. I also keep a repertoire card for every student. I record every anthology and every piece of sheet music the student has studied with me. I keep very accurate weekly and monthly financial records for income tax purposes.
Do you actively seek out other opportunities for your students to sing, other than the twice-yearly recitals?
I joined the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). The local chapter has an October recital that is perfect for my middle-school students. We have a Musical Arts Club in our town and each April I can feature my advanced seniors. I volunteer at our church to arrange special music for the 8:15 service every Sunday of the year. This provides a wonderful venue for all of my students. I enter my advanced 11th and 12th graders in the NATS auditions in the fall, as well as in a four-state private competition for high school juniors and seniors.
How do you protect your own singing voice?
One-on-one teaching isn’t a strain at all for me. I can teach an eight-hour day and not get tired. I don’t demonstrate very much when teaching. I make the student experience the differences and not merely imitate what they hear.
I loved what you wrote in your book about calming students’ nerves.
Most of the time this is not a problem. However, I once had a singer who was out in the hallway crying one minute before the recital. I sent the mother out to tell the gal to get in there and sit down in the front row with the rest of the singers or she’d never step foot in my studio again. The singer sang beautifully and never had another problem.
I never talk about nerves. My students are so well prepared that performing becomes something they look forward to doing. Most of the nerve problems singers have comes from being unprepared or singing something which is too difficult to do well. I just say, “You are sharing pieces you really like with the audience.”
You are very honest with your students who are looking to major in music, sometimes to the point of losing them as students.
I had a student who had leads in the school musicals but really struggled with accurate musicianship. She told me one day that she was going to major in music. I explained my reservations and said I didn’t think it was the best thing for her. She stormed out, and that was her last lesson with me. She went to another teacher. She enrolled as a music major—and two years later she was a communications major! The only students I encourage to go into music are the ones who can only eat, sleep, and drink music. The others I advise, “Keep it as a sideline.”
When do you enter a student in a competition?
I don’t enter singers until 11th grade. They could enter NATS at 15, but I get tired of the situation where kids have done it all before they are old enough to know they’ve done it!
There are many kinds of singing auditions besides competitions. We have an Equity playhouse here, and three of my girls were in Annie last year. My sixth-grader sang the role of Annie last year. She did 40 performances in five weeks. We worked out her belting sounds well in advance and she never once had a vocal problem. I teach defensive singing if a student is forced to sing things out of range or loud for school or community performances.
Why did you compile so many books of song literature and can you explain in what situation a teacher would use the different books?
Richard Walters from Hal Leonard was at the 1989 NATS Convention looking for someone to compile a book for high school students and approached me about my interest. When I submitted my list of contents for the First Book of Solos, etc., to him, he was very concerned because much of the literature was unfamiliar to him. I was so grounded in my understanding of the teenage mentality that I knew these pieces would work. The series is a phenomenal success. Teachers immediately requested more of the same type of literature for grades 9-12.
One day Rick called and said the company had given permission for a Part II of the First Book of Solos at the same level of difficulty, and also a Second Book of Solos for a more advanced level. At this point, we knew that many colleges were using the books. Now my criteria for each song were: 1) Do I have a teenager who has sung it? 2) Would this suit a college freshman or sophomore? I also made sure every song in the male books had real male texts, since many previous anthologies were predominately female-oriented.
The First Book of Broadway Solos was next. I used songs from the show selections, with modest accompaniments, and without the bridges that make the original score songs so long. For sopranos, I used to use octavos in SSA (choral music) because the regular songs in the show selections were pitched too low. We put these songs in comfortable keys for all four voices so that they can be sung in a classical style for the voice studio without using belt voice.
Then teachers were asking for volumes for lower grades. What I’d been using with my younger students were primarily octavos. I compiled the Easy Songs for Beginning Singers, for junior high and middle school and very inexperienced high school students. Several college teachers have told me that they have even used this collection for voice class and non-majors. The ranges in this collection are quite limited. The tenor does not go above an F and the baritone top is C with an occasional D.
Since many teachers are teaching children, we came out with 36 Solos for Beginning Singers. It has a range of primarily D to D and can be used by both male and female singers.
After that, I compiled Christmas Solos for All Ages in high, medium and low volumes. The fact that this has easy-to-difficult solos— including the Alfred Burt carols, eight carols I arranged, some standards such as “O Holy Night,” “Christmas Candle,” “The Virgin’s Slumber Song” and even “White Christmas,”— makes it a very comprehensive book for a solo singer.
I also felt we needed a new sacred anthology which would fill the same kind of need for the church solo singer. Sacred Solos for All Ages has songs for Easter, Lent and most Sundays of the church year. It includes three settings of “Ave Maria,” many traditional solos, and a good number of out-of-print selections.
After that came a high-and-low-volume set called Daffodils, Violets and Snowflakes. These are songs for junior high girls…vignettes and fun-style dialogue songs, which often tell a little story. Adults preparing programs for elementary schools would even find this material useful
Lovers, Lasses and Spring came out next. This senior-high soprano book has 14 flashy waltz kinds of songs that people like Kathryn Grayson used to sing. Some of the songs are quite long and require much flexibility. Again, there are a number of out-of-print pieces such as “A Heart That’s Free,” “The Kerry Dance,” “The Little Shepherd’s Song,” and “The Smile of Spring.” And in July the Second Book of Solos, Part II was released, which includes more 20th century repertoire.
Joan Boytim can be reached for comment at 160 Glendale Street, Carlisle, PA 17013.
