What qualities should a Great Teacher have?

Your choice of teachers, in your life, shouldn’t be made lightly. Teachers are formative. They mold you. They take a little bit of their way of seeing the world and build it in your psyche. If you’ve ever been told you could’t do something by someone in a position of authority, and those words reverberated around in your head for too long, you know what I mean. The things our teachers say to us stay with us.

I have been immensely fortunate to study with some wonderful teachers. I have also had the gift of studying with some lovely humans that were not incredible teachers. While many of them didn’t teach me much on a concrete level, their humanity and intentions allowed our work to still benefit me in some way. I don’t regret my time with any teacher, but today I evaluate my teachers much differently than in the past. What quality do I value most highly in my own teachers? Regardless of their particular bedside manner, and in spite of what formal training they have or lack,I believe every great voice teacher should have the ability to transform your relationship to your voice and what you are able to do with it.

I have had teachers do this for me using a host of methods (and in other areas of study, not just singing). I simply don’t let myself study with someone if they don’t bring this character trait, in some capacity, into every session. It’s not personal. I just don’t need a teacher to offer life advice or try make me feel better (though I will certainly take both of those things if they come along with the package). I need a teacher to make changes. To strategize for me. I need a teacher to revolutionize how I evaluate my own voice - and do that in every single session. Anything else that comes with that is simply a bonus.

This goal of transformation is something that I believe is relevant at every stage of singer development. The results of how teachers have impacted me is genuinely staggering. One of my earliest piano teachers set me up for major success by instilling in me impeccable technique as a 5 year old. It still amazes me she could teach me to play as well as she did, and I genuinely believe I built a career as a theater pianist on her work. I had a teacher that gave me immense confidence simply by having high expectations of me at all times and assuming I would follow through. I didn’t always follow through, but he always believed I could, and that expectation did wonders for my sense of what I was capable of. I had a teacher that helped me maintain my love of singing by never lying to me. That may sound like odd praise, but this created immense trust because I knew when he was encouraging my process and when he was celebrating my product - and those two things are definitely not the same. Another teacher helped me sing without pain by somehow knowing exactly how to train my particular instrument at that particular time. I had an acting teacher who showed me what it was not to over teach, and to let the process do the work. I had an Alexander Technique teacher show me, by example, how to truly craft a learning experience in a way that was thoughtful but also spontaneous, where every class felt created just for us. I had a Voice and Speech teacher that so fully believed in her own work that we experienced unexplainable results that sometimes seemed beyond comprehension.

Each of these teachers brought something unique, and was, and is, a force in their own way. Many of the above teachers I would already categorize as master teachers, and the rest are well on their way. Being a master teacher doesn’t mean you know everything or have hit a state of perfection. Quite the opposite. I found that as I got to know some of the teachers I looked up to the most, I found they were constantly questioning everything they did. Evaluating. Considering alternative approaches. You know what else was also true? They were completely confident in the moment of action. They knew, with certainty, that their decision was a solid one - even if they were still willing to admit, later in the process, that it might not have been a perfect one. Great teachers, I believe, have to have the  ability to simultaneously hold the fundamental truth that they could be wrong while still taking assertive action.

Here is my current list of qualities I value in my teachers

• Honesty, and the fortitude to use that honesty when it can be constructive.

• Strategy. A plan. An understanding and attempt to organize their knowledge to bring efficiency to their work.

• Focus on a single “next step” without ignoring the larger direction we were headed.

• Passion that fuels commitment, and commitment that fuels passion. I believe you need both.

• A strong technical foundation in whatever specific discipline they are teaching.

• Openness to instinct. The best teachers tap into something that even they can’t exactly articulate where the ideas come from. I fully believe teaching is an act of creativity in addition to everything else required.

I aspire to all of those qualities. Do I achieve them at all times? No. But I use moments like writing this to remind myself of what my core teaching values are. I encourage you, as a teacher or student, to see if you find any of these teaching values strike a chord with you? Are their other qualities that immediately come to mind? What would you add to this list?

I would love to hear what they are, as this is a continual conversation. I’m thankful to all of the teacher’s I’ve had in the past. Every teacher taught me something. Even if I don’t celebrate every moment I had in a classroom or lesson as extraordinary, I celebrate the profession as extraordinary. Good teachers commit to and risk a lot. It’s not an easy task. It is highly rewarding at times, and immensely humbling at other times. I feel incredibly lucky to do what I do, and am thankful for everyone that shaped me into this person. As the saying goes, we all are “standing on the shoulders of giants.”

- Jacob Thomas Carr (Founder of HOWL & Teacher)

Singers are Vocal Athletes

“Failing sometimes is useful: This is hard for the perfectionists among us, but if you’re never falling short, you’re not training at the right level. Potent practice can feel uncomfortable because you should be interacting with music that is right at the edge of your current capabilities. Some experts in motor learning think that a 50 percent success/failure rate means that you’re practicing at the right difficulty level.”

-Andrew Byrne (NYC Voice Teacher & author of The Singing Athlete)

Around twelve years ago, I met a fellow voice teacher, John Barth, who introduced me to an idea that has become core to how I teach.

“Teach a lesson the way a coach works with an athlete,” he said. One of his undergraduate teachers, the world recognized pedagogue Richard Miller, had frequently referred to the “vocal athlete” in his lessons. John had also been a competitive baseball player for 12 + years growing up, and completed over a dozen triathlons as an adult. Inspired by Miller as well as his own experience, he went on to incorporate ideas from sports coaching into his own teaching.

The similarities between singers and athletes are striking. Both need a high degree of muscle coordination to execute precise physical adjustments. Both have to repetitiously train in order to consistently hit their targets when in the field or on stage. Both have to perform well under pressure and deal with nerves, adrenaline, and the variation of their physical state and how that impacts their work.

Unfortunately, most singers are not training like athletes. It’s common, in my experience, for students in B.F.A. programs to report that they are barely practicing at all (outside of simply learning new material for class). If we genuinely espouse the idea that singers are vocal athletes, this is a substantial oversight, both on the part of curriculum creators and the students. Athletes would never dream of skipping out on working technical fundamentals. That is, not if they are serious about their professional career. Why do so many singers treat practicing this way?

How is practicing different from simply learning new music (and how is it the same)? What is the appropriate way to structure your practicing? How long should you be practicing for?

Over the years I’ve established some helpful guidelines to follow in building a practice routine. See below three quick tips:

1. Practice in short bursts. (15 minutes is a good length) as you are able to maximize focus and hone in on a specific task. Since often you will be pressed for time, this approach helps ensure you actually spend time practicing when you otherwise might not.

2. Make sure you have a specific goal. (it’s not necessary that you reach your goal in your session - only that you have one to guide your work). Ideally, this goal should be functional, not aural. What does this mean? Don’t sing to sound good. Sing to work a particular weak area in your voice. When athletes train, they do drills, performed very precisely, slowed down, for no one other than themselves. It’s not a performance. It’s work. But, that’s why it works. Will you occasionally need to alter your goal to adjust to what your voice is telling you? Absolutely. But start with a goal that can then be modified.

3. Aim for as high as a 50% failure rate. The research on hitting a high failure rate is telling. Those with experience in weight training understand the idea of “maxing out.” While singing is more about coordination than brute strength, I estimate singers don’t push themselves nearly enough when practicing. Understand that “pushing yourself” means finding a skill that isn’t easy to access and focusing on that specific function. Most of you sing loudly with no issue, so pushing yourself often means honing in on something in a more precise way - not making a bigger sound! I’m also a proponent of singing for 60 - 90 minutes at a time so that you can learn how to pace yourself. If you’re concerned about fatigue from doing this too frequently, commit to resting from speaking for 3 - 4 hours after a long practice session. Speaking often contains more inefficient vocal habits than singing.

I know it’s difficult to prioritize your time this way, but do yourself a favor and don’t skip the one thing that has been concretely shown to improve your abilities. Want to learn more? Visit our homepage and subscribe to our mailing list for weekly practice tips delivered straight to your email.

- Jacob Thomas Carr (Founder/Voice Technician)