let’s have some nearly-the-end-of-march-break* funness
1. favourite blog post: The 5-Minute Connection: Teaching the Whole Student by Marisa Gray Atha
Friends, this is a BEAUTIFUL reflection on how and why we teach the whole singer, and includes some practical advice about how to connect with that whole singer in the first five minutes of their lesson.
[I mean, if that blog post didn’t make you want to send flowers to YOUR voice teacher(s), maybe do a quick pulse-check.]
2. favourite FB live: How to Handle Rejection with Joyce DiDonato
I. can’t. even. with how great this FB Live is**. Send it to your students, even if they’re not classical singers and don’t know who Joyce DiDonato is (maybe include a link to her website so they get the picture? I mean, she’s kind of like the Idina Menzel of the opera world, #amiright?***). If you don’t have twenty minutes, just listen for the first twelve (although, I DARE YOU TO RESIST WATCHING THE REST OF THE AWESOMENESS THAT IS THAT VIDEO).
look, if you didn’t want to learn how to handle rejection, you should have adopted a dog. those slobbery beasts have no standards whatsoever. they’re so gross.
3. favourite article: The Teacher Curse No One Wants to Talk About by Christopher Reddy
I know, I know: CURSE. Really? It’s not like your invitation to the ball was dropped in the woods by the horse-back riding messenger on their way to deliver it to you so you show up at the ball and curse ALL THE TEACHERS IN THE WORLD and DOOM THEM TO ETERNAL(ish) SLEEP ON THE EVE OF THE PRINCESS’S SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY, right? Just ignore the clickbait title and get right to the article. (You know, if you want to know how you’re cursed.)
[Also? There’s a Friday the 13th in April. RELEVANT. THAT IS SO RELEVANT. If you want relevant stuff, write your own blog.]
4. favourite YouTube video: Angelica Hale Singing Girl On Fire on America’s Got Talent ****
Okay. I get cranky when young children sing things they shouldn’t sing and try to sound like adults while doing it. I think we all know that about me by now.THIS? Is not that. Let me count the ways this is not that:
- appropriate rep (oh man, do I LOVE me some girl-power tunes)
- sounds like a kid
- even vibrancy
- beautiful tuning (for pop singing. don’t you classical singers get all up in my face about the tuning – THAT IS SOME FANTASTIC POP TUNING RIGHT THERE)
- no evidence of developing tension patterns
YAAASSSS. #thefuturelooksbright
that girl was amazing. and i would like to chew on her sneakers. or the laces at least.
5. favourite webinar: 2018 Fall Voice Webinar Series #1 – Tremors and Quakes: Involuntary Movement Disorders of the Larynx with Mark S. Courey
This is a LOT OF SCIENCY MEDICAL STUFF … but if you’re into that? You’re gonna’ love geeking out on this. (Thanks to Cate Frazier-Neely for the heads up!)
Have a great week and …
You can teach your face off … I can help!
*It’s Friday of the March Break (aka Spring Break, aka a week off school at the end of the winter that a lot of people take advantage of to go somewhere warm or to go skiing but that we are using to renovate our house. We are not fun people.) here in Ontario, Canada.
**#trueconfession: I’m kind of a little bit in FULL ON LOVE with Joyce DiDonato. She seems like a very fun person.
***I have absolutely no idea who to compare Joyce DiDonato to in the CCM world. Like, zero. (Clearly, I am not a fun person.)
**** Yes. I am aware that this video is from, like 2017. I just saw it for the first time this week. I think people have stopped sending me videos of kids singing for fear of how grumpy I am, in general, about this kind of thing. (Because: not a fun person, obviously.)
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