Overall, I have banned the words “good” and “bad” because neither tell you what to continue working with and what to try to fix. I also try to always use only positive directives. We’ll identify both what behavior we want to replace and then what we want to happen instead. Focus is then on what we WANT to happen, rather than what we don’t want.

These are questions I have routinely asked my students, but thanks to a conversation I had on Google+ with Wendy Stevens,composer/pianist/teacher, in response to her blog post, “Never Ask This,” I’ve changed my approach even more.  My husband had once asked me why I asked “Does that make sense?” so often, but it didn’t hit me how easily students cop out of answering that question until Wendy wrote her post.

Since Wendy’s post, I’ve been MUCH more aware of how I phrase things and how I ask students to respond.  Much of the time I try to say, “When I say XX, what does that mean to you?”  I also ask students how they would like me to write down something in the lesson notes; I take notes on my computer during lessons to copy & paste into lesson reconciliation on MTH at the end of each lesson.  Each student also has their own file, so I can easily call up what we’ve done since their first lesson.

What kinds of questions do YOU ask your students to try to make them think and personalize your teaching?

Why do we spend so much time worrying about what we don’t want in life (& singing)?  I learned SO much from my three days with Shirlee Emmons at an Arizona NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) workshop in 2007  that it is still influencing my thoughts of how I approach life and teaching.  Her book Power Performance for Singers, co-written with sports psychologist Alma Thomas, focuses on how to think so that we perform better.  Unfortunately, we lost Shirlee in 2010, but her thoughts and words are still a daily inspiration to many throughout the singing community.

One of the biggest thoughts I learned from Shirlee that I try to focus on, in singing, teaching & life in general, is that “We don’t care what we don’t want.”  Basically, let’s not focus on what went wrong, let’s focus on what went right and how to repeat it.  To that end, I ask questions of both myself and my students: What happened?  What worked?  What could you do to make it better?  Where did the sound go?  How did it feel?  How did it sound?  What were you thinking about?

The exact questions I ask differ, depending on the basic learning style of my student.  Sometimes we have to focus on feeling.  Sometimes it’s a color.  Sometimes it not thinking at all & just letting the sound happen.  But then, I ask questions of how we got there & we try to replicate it a minimum of 3 times (the amount of time it takes for the body to learn a new action).  But, while I am exacting (my students know that something they’ll hear from me time & again is “That was good, now give me more!”), I also always try to say things in a positive language.  This means that I focus on what we have and where we’re going, rather than what went wrong.  If we reinforce the correct physicalization in the voice, then ultimately the bad habits fall by the wayside without us having focused on them & given them more weight than they needed.

Because the voice is part of the automatic nervous system, what we think has a HUGE impact in how the sound is produced.  The other side of the “think positive” equation (besides creating a more supportive environment) is the fact that studies have shown the brain doesn’t “understand” a negative directive.  This means that when we tell our students “Don’t gasp,”  the brain hears “Gasp.”  The negative (don’t) is not computed at the same time as the directive.  So, I try to state the same thing in terms of what we DO want (a positive directive), such as “Inhale slowly, directly off of the sound so the muscles engage easily.”  Now, that takes a bit more time to say, but it’s clearly exactly what we want – if I had just said “Don’t gasp,” then I would also need to say what we do want.  We don’t care what we don’t want – it’s a waste of our time and energy.  State clearly what we want, figure out how best to get there, & think THOSE lovely thoughts.

Concern yourself with where you’re going & what you want (and how best to get there!).  Anything else is a waste of your time and energy.

As private studio teachers, what are we here to do?  Of all people, we surely know how hard it is to make a living in the arts.  What are our expectations of our students’ future?  Do we tie our students’ success into our perception of our own worth?  Do we only teach the students we see as “talented” or will we teach anyone who has the desire to learn?

Future expectations:  What is our goal for our students?  Is not the student who truly desires to improve and works their tail off to gain incremental ground in understanding as important as the student who shows the potential (and the will) to have a career in music?  What about our avocational students who are in lessons just because they enjoy the time taken each week for music, even if it is the only time they touch their instrument?  Should we not take the time to enjoy their time?

Talent: What do we do when we find a “talented” student who just refuses to work?  How do we respond?  Do we get frustrated with them?  How do we help to encourage them to practice/improve?  Is this even our job – to identify and encourage talent?  Even with a “talented” student, what criteria do we have that helps us to identify that talent?  What right do we have, ethically, to tell a student that they have talent, versus not encouraging another student to such a high degree?

Conversely, what about the student who shows little to no ability on their chosen instrument?  What is our obligation to that student?  Especially if the student states their goal of becoming a professional musician, what is our ethical responsibility in encouraging the love of music while discouraging the dream of becoming a professional?  How do we balance these two dichotomies?

Do we identify our professional success with our students’ success?  What defines this success?  Is it, for the student who has struggled to match pitch, singing an entire song on pitch?  Is it how many students we have accepted into higher education music performance degree programs?  How do YOU define success in the studio?  Is it the same for each student, or do you take into account each student’s personal goals when defining student success?

We also have chosen to make a living teaching.  The ethical razor-wire balancing act between our responsibility to our students and our responsibility to our business is something we must assess from time to time, ensuring that we are honest with both ourselves and our students.  We have an ethical and fiscal responsibility to both encourage musical study and to be honest about what we see as student potential.

What questions are you wrestling with today?

The six categories of song, as posited by Levitin, are: Friendship, Joy, Comfort, Knowledge, Religion and Love.  Songs of Friendship are songs of camaraderie, togetherness and creating a functional large group.  The selective advantages (Levitin talks of evolutionary advantages) of being in a group that works together for a collective whole are obvious.  Society as we know it could not exist if we were unable to get along within larger collectives of people.  A big way of getting a group to work as a unit is through music.  Think of the last time you were at a baseball game and everyone sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”  The entire stadium is able to work together as a unit.  Also, “Music has historically been one of the strongest forces binding together the disenfranchised, the alienated.” (61)

Songs of Joy release oxytocin in the brain.  “Oxytocin has just been found to increase trust between people.” (98) This, obviously, would help in creating a group of people who can work together to create a larger society.  Levitin quotes new research that suggests that music, especially joyful music, affects our health in fundamental ways.  Music also modulates levels of dopamine (the “feel-good” hormone) in the brain.  Levitin suggests “we have the relationship with music we do because those of our ancestors who found it enjoyable to be musical were those who were successful at passing on their genes.” (109)  He continues on to state, “Fundamentally, we have joy songs because moving around, dancing, exercising our bodies and minds is something that was adaptive in evolutionary history.  Stretching, jumping, and using sound to communicate felt good because our brains – through natural selection – developed rewards for those behaviors.” (109)  Joy helps us to connect to what matters in our lives and helps to recall that connection when we need reminding.  Joy songs also help us to communicate our emotional states with others.

Songs of Comfort are fundamental to growing up.  Mothers the world over sing lullabies to their children.  What teenager would have made it through high school without the consolation of music (even if, to others, the song would not be of comfort)?  Music helps to bring a consistent energy to a room and again, bring cohesiveness to a group working together.  Many children learn to self-comfort by singing to themselves songs that their mothers sang as lullabies. “Singing can soother and comfort infants in ways that other actions cannot, and this is in part because of how different auditory stimulation is from other senses.”  (126) Sound travels through space and is an indicator, even when there is no visual or physical contact available.  Lullabies share structural similarities, as well. (126)

Songs of Knowledge are ubiquitous in all societies.  How do children learn their alphabet (The Alphabet Song)? How do children learn songs of physical knowledge about their world (“The Wheels on the Bus” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”)? How do children learn to work together (“Everybody clean up, clean up, clean up”) and take care of their belongings? How do children learn to count?  Memory songs involve learning sequences (“There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”).  Most of these songs are learned through oral tradition – children at young ages do not yet read.  Schoolhouse Rock is a fabulous exemplar of remembering complicated information made easy by being set to memorable music.  “The mutually reinforcing, multiple constraints that help us to remember song lyrics are principally rhyme, rhythm, accent structure, melody, and clichés, along with various poetic devices such as those we saw in Chapter I, including alliteration and metaphor.” (156)

“The criticality of time and place is a hallmark of ritual songs.” (204)Songs of Religion are found throughout world religions.  My family recently changed churches, specifically because the music was not speaking to us.  At the first service at our new church, I found myself crying because I was able to emotionally connect to the music during the service.  ”Ceremonies with music reaffirm the propositions, and the music sticks in our heads, reminding us of what we believe and what we have agreed to.  Music during ritual is designed, in most cases, to evoke a “religious experience,” a peak experience, intensely emotional, the effects of which can last the rest of a person’s life.  Trance states can occur during these experiences, resulting in feelings of ecstasy and connectedness.” (222)  Music is able to motivate repetitive action and to bring closure, lessening the human tendency to obsess over the unknown.

Songs of Love again help to communicate emotion.  When someone hears “their song,” it brings to mind a specific time, place and emotion.  Even many years later, people are able to travel back in time through memory, when a certain song is heard.  The reason this would be selective for human evolution is that it recalls times when two people felt very close, even if at the moment they are not in close emotional resonance.  “Love for one’s partner and children evolved, culturally (and perhaps biologically), into the capacity to love life and fairness, goodness and equality, and all the ideals we associate with society.” (263)  Through music, we are able to symbolize something that is not there – be it a loved one who is out of our sight or recollection of an emotion we may not immediately feel.  Music also serves as an “honest signal” (279).  Our brains perceive information received through musical means as more honest and true.

Levitin concludes with “Although the important functions of music can be described in these six categories, the specific ways that people from different musical cultures have found to make music are very diverse.” (281)  This book lays out a compelling case for the evolutionary (natural selective) reason that we are hard wired to be musical beings (as evidenced by neurological studies – see Dr. Levitin’s 2007 book This is Your Brain on Music).  I found his arguments to be very persuasive and the book to be entertaining.  Although it deals with what could be a dry subject, it is well written, has many interviews with musicians (from Sting and Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell and David Byrne) and historians, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists.  One of my favorite quotes from the book involves music of Religion:  Levitin’s friend, Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla, states “So what if there’s a center in the brain that makes people think of God? Why wouldn’t there be? Maybe God put it there to help us to understand and communicate with him.” (196)

I highly recommend this book for insight into sociological and evolutionary reasons we are hard-wired for music.  Music is in everything we do as human beings, and this book explores how we may have gotten to be that way.  The only thing I felt lacking in the book was that the musical examples are very North American-centric.  The book is clearly written for those living in North America, with familiarity with popular culture (song selections mentioned in the book can be heard at www.sixsongs.net), and I would have really liked to have had a broader world view presented.  But, overall, I really enjoyed the book and found it thought provoking and informative.

Levitin, Daniel J., The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature. New York, NY.  Dutton/Penguin.  2008.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/World-Six-Songs-Musical-Created/dp/B002RAR126/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

Visit www.sixsongs.net for the musical examples that are prevalent throughout the book.

Health matters.  As a singer, the body IS the instrument. If the muscles are weak, if energy is low, then the voice doesn’t have a chance.

Increasingly, I have found myself telling my students that taking the time to exercise is as important as practice time. In fact, I’ve told them that if they only have 10 minutes a day, they should spend that time working out rather than practicing.

Take time for cardio.  Work the abs. Even more, work the BACK strength.  Especially in singing, the abs should be strong, but if the back muscles are weak, the abs collapse from lack of resistance.  Strong leg muscles support the torso, creating a balanced body.  A balanced body frees up the abdominal muscles to support the breath.  Strong intercostal and oblique rib muscles, created through twisting exercises, allow for increased control of the descent of the diaphragm.

I have heard many excuses (including from myself):

• “I’m too tired to exercise.” My response: Take 30 minutes of sleep time and exercise.  You’ll have more energy than if you sleep an extra hour.
• “I can’t do the workout I want.” My response: Start slow.  The Wii Fit Plus is a GREAT place to begin.  Try an easy yoga workout for stability and stretching.  Then, as you get stronger, continue to challenge yourself in your workout.  Don’t get complacent.
• “I don’t have the time.” My response: Take the time.  If you truly want to be a singer, you need to exercise and have a strong body. How much TV do you watch? Do you get up & move around during the commercials? How much time do you spend on Facebook?  Take 20-30 minutes DAILY for cardio. Yes, it’ll come from somewhere else, but how much do you want it?
• “Exercise doesn’t really make a difference.” My response: Yes. It does. Your body is your instrument. EVERYTHING you do to your body, you do to your voice.  Singers are athletes as much as those who participate in sports. A singer must be able to control the muscles in the body in the same way an elite athlete can – the smallest bit counts.

Second, what you EAT matters.  The days of “the fat lady” singers have come to an end. The best singers in the business exercise on a daily basis. Because we use our epigastric muscles so much in breath support, singers are more likely to have acid reflux caused by weakening of the esophageal sphincter (we’re pressing on it every time we engage our support muscles).  Acid reflux is a contributing factor in MANY voice disorders. Laryngeal Pharyngeal Reflux Disease (LPRD) frequently has NO felt symptoms and is only diagnosable via videostroboscopy. Yet, LPRD can take out your range and drastically decrease your vocal stamina, while increasing your susceptibility to vocal disorders.  The timing of your food, what kinds of food, and the amount of food can affect reflux.  Also, those who carry more weight have more “stuff” pressing on the esophageal sphincter, increasing the probability of reflux.

GET HEALTHY.  I have previously written on my journey with vocal disorders. I am now 21.8 pounds lighter, exercising DAILY (30+ minutes) and I am singing better than I have in years.  My voice is 100% reliable, even when I’ve had too little sleep, and I am able to warm up very quickly. I am doing my best to practice what I preach and be an example for my students.

Here is my challenge: 30-days, 900 minutes of exercise.  That’s 30 minutes a day.  Who’s up for it?

This makes me really appreciate my students as they come into the studio for the first time.  Or even the 50^th time.  How can I make this experience the most positive possible?  How can I help them to overcome their fears of singing in front of someone who is SUPPOSED to critique them and tell them what they’re doing wrong?

1) Make them laugh: bring some silliness to the lesson, no matter the age of the student

2) Stay with positive directives: always focus on what we are working to achieve. Take the time to identify what needs work, but the focus should be then “This is what we’re going to do to replace that habit/sound.”

3) Share some of your struggles, BUT make sure that you’re telling them in order to help THEM, not as therapy for you. Talking should not be the largest portion of the lesson, unless the student needs it; making music should always be the focus.

4) Be flexible in your approach.  Students have very different learning styles. I find that I have to change the words I use and even the approach to correction depending on the student.  I have one student who likes it very blunt – just tell it like it is, then give her the tools to correct it. She’s been studying with me off & on for 15 years.  My student who has only had 4 lessons in her life needs a much more delicate approach and much more imagery and less obvious pedagogy.

5) Make sure you know your facts and share that knowledge.  ALWAYS base everything you tell your student upon sound pedagogy.  Many teachers like to tell students what to do, but often forget to give them the HOW and WHY.  I have found, even with beginning students, that the old school way of correcting a sound (especially in my field of singing) without repeating it at least three times, results in students who go home to practice and get completely lost/frustrated.  If I make sure that the student really understands why we made the change and then how to make the change, the student tends to progress much more rapidly.  Yes, at times it gets a little technical, but using imagery (that the student comes up with) helps a lot – making sure that the student understands the pedagogical goal and the purpose behind the imagery.

What kinds of approaches do you take in the studio to ensure student success and increase enjoyment?  What rate of progress do you expect from your students?  How do you gauge the effectiveness of your teaching?  Please share in the comments.

• Go to their performances, even if it takes extra time (I recently drove 150 miles round trip for a 30 minute performance – see picture of the band The NevaeH
  

  The NevaeH Live at the Pima County Fair

  playing live at the Pima County Fair, opening for Anberlin; my student is the lead singer and main songwriter; we spent the next lesson dissecting the performance and finding places he has improved and what he still needs to work on)

• Always be honest with your students
  • Always be kind to your students
  • Always be encouraging with your students
• Let your students know your professional opinion of their potential
  • Give them the information THEY need to make progress
  • Help them to understand their expectations and how realistic those expectations may be
  • Help students to understand the true level of professionalism required (if that’s their goal) – then, give them the tools to achieve that goal
• Stay on task in the studio
  • Especially towards the end of the year, students like to talk rather than work – gently guide them back to the task at hand
  • Give individualized practice goals at the end of each lesson
  • When students have practiced, acknowledge that they worked on the goal you set last lesson
• Give your student a break if they really need it
  • Do a “sight-reading” lesson
  • I like to have my students pick out a Broadway songbook, often of one composer, and just read through – they may have heard of some of the songs, but often many are new
  • Go to YouTube and watch videos of performers – CRITIQUE the performances in a nuanced way that specifically points towards goals you have for THIS student (it helps to spend some time and create playlists that you can quickly access)
• Always be on time and prepared for lessons
  • If you’re running late, let the student know (text messages work very well)
  • If you need to cancel, give as much lead time as possible
  • If you made a mistake, own up to it – “What was I thinking?” is one of my favorite phrases when I’ve made a scheduling error
• Enforce timeliness in lesson times
  • I have recently switched to 50-minute lessons in hour slots – this allows me to have some “slush” time between students, have a chance to use the facilities/grab a snack, I can take time to do some administrative work (such as email lesson notes via Reconcile on MTH), as well as give my voice a much needed break
  • YOU also, keep to the schedule & your students will as well – I’ve also started scheduling lessons at 10 AFTER the hour, rather than on the hour, it’s a great psychological tool for getting people there on time
• Most of all, LOVE what you do – that will rub off onto your students

What do YOU do for your students?  What ways have you found to support them in their endeavors?

Last year, though, I had three high school seniors preparing to go on to vocal performance degrees, as well as one community college student, preparing to go on to her junior year in vocal performance in college.  The repertoire we prepared was vastly different from the repertoire I’ve been teaching for the past several years.  I discovered that I missed teaching Schubert, Fauré, Debussy, Puccini and the more advanced Broadway songs.  I love teaching the basics to beginning students and knowing that they will have a strong pedagogical basis for their future study, but the artistry and technical level is, of necessity, limited.

So, I applied for an Adjunct Voice position at one of the local colleges.  I am LOVING it.  I’m teaching private lessons, class voice, and Italian diction.  The level of songs and the technique that I can expect is at such a different level.  I love it.  I am still greatly enjoying my high school students, and will continue to have a reduced studio, but I am really enjoying teaching my college students.

I have gone through several times when I’ve thought about going back to school for my DMA, but now it truly feels like the right time (14 years later).  I applied and completed my audition on February 26, 2011.  I am looking forward to renewing my knowledge of advanced literature, exploring my voice in more depth, and passing this knowledge on to my students.  The “chain of custody” of knowledge is being expanded, and I’m excited.

Another consideration has been that, especially in this economy, having my DMA should make me more employable if, by unforeseen circumstances, we need to move locations.  Building a private studio is exactly that, building.  It takes time.  Having the experience and the degree will make it so that if we move, I will be more likely to be able to bring in the income that is needed for my family in a timely manner.

What considerations have you thought of when making the decision to go back to school? To not go back to school?

So, on January 13, 2011, I went to an ENT to have my cords looked at.   I was shocked when the doctor told me that I had small bilateral pre-nodules on the leading edge of the vocal folds.  I have always had “cords of steel” and been able to pretty much sing through anything.  This diagnosis of pre-nodules really made me re-think how I was approaching my voice.

What are pre-nodules? Here’s the layman’s version: the vocal folds are covered with the same skin as the outer layer of the skin on the outside of your body (squamous epithelium). Nodules are similar to calluses that form from repetitive motion.  If, when you notice that a callus is forming, you change your behavior, the callus can go away pretty quickly.  This is similar to the situation of pre-nodules on the vocal folds: it’s what is the beginning of the formation of a callus, but the skin has not yet hardened. Because I knew my voice and knew that what was going on was NOT just because I was exhausted, I got myself to the doctor quickly.  

What causes nodules? Nodules are most often a vocal disorder of vocal misuse.  But, in any voice disorder, there are generally a confluence of factors that contribute to the diagnosed disorder.  In my case, I had many factors that contributed: 1) On top of my private studio teaching and my regular performance schedule, I began teaching in a university setting in September 2010 (including 13 private students and class voice) which drastically increased my voice use, 2) in December my daughters became ill, & I ended up with very little sleep for 2+ weeks while continuing the crazy schedule that is a singer’s life in the Christmas season, 3) because I am able to be loud, I was speaking too loudly at home to my daughters, 4)  I was singing in the Turandot chorus, which for mezzo-soprano is on the upper end of the tessitura (it hangs D5-F5), 5) I was working learning how to belt while my voice was tired, not the style in which I’m most highly trained, 6) I had an undiagnosed case of Laryngo-Pharyngeal Reflux Disease (LPRD).  All of these factors combined to create what I had felt was just a “tired voice,” but ultimately resulted in something that COULD have been very drastic.

How are pre-nodules diagnosed? The rule of thumb is, if the voice does not work “normally” for TWO WEEKS, after an illness, get to the doctor for a diagnosis.  When it comes to the voice, self-diagnosis is not going to cut it.  I ended up seeing several doctors, in my search to get enough information.  The first doctor I went to (on January 13, 2011) did a intra-nasal mirror exam – he put a flexible tube through my nasal passage to look down onto my cords.  He told me that I had pre-nodules, the constant post-nasal drip down the back of my throat was NOT allergies, but LPRD.  My treatment was for me to lower my vocal use, go on the “Anti-reflux” food regimen, and come back in 8 weeks.  I was so schocked that I, who had just completed 24 class-hours of training in voice disorders and the singing teacher (ONE weekend before), left the office without saying “That’s not enough, I need more information.”  As a result, I DID cancel my faculty recital on January 20, 2011, but I also decided I needed to see another doctor who would be more pro-active with my care and treatment.  The second doctor that I saw put me on a 6-day predolisone steroid pack to reduce swelling in the larynx, gave me a prescription for prilosec, and sent me to a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) to get “scoped” and a full diagnosis. (see picture).

What is the treatment of vocal fold pre-nodules?  First, I purchased a portable voice amplifier, called a Chattervox. This allows me to speak in a normal tone of voice while in a classroom situation – especially helpful since I’m teaching Italian Diction in the classroom this semester, as well.  For two weeks, because I also got a respiratory infection during this period of time and was coughing quite a bit, I also used the Chattervox in the studio during private lessons, so that I didn’t have to raise my voice to be heard over my singers.  This helped to lower my “vocal dosage:” the amount of work I do with my voice every day.

I also quit one of the semi-professional choirs I was in, giving me one night off per week (and I did NOT put any private students into that spot, so as to give my voice a rest).  Finally, during the worst of my respiratory infection, I took two days of total vocal rest (not talking at all).  That was the hardest, but I needed to get my voice back in a hurry, and that was the best way for me to not further exacerbate the problem.

I spoke with my mentor in the area of voice disorders, Dr. Karen Wicklund, and she gave me several speaking tips: elongate my vowels and reduce my glottal onsets (just as we would when singing).  Also, pay really strict attention to my speaking voice for two 15-minute, SCHEDULED, times daily.  After a few weeks, extend the time to two 30-minute sessions.  After this, it starts to become second nature and I only have to check in with my voice and how I’m using it every once in a while.

I take Prilosec twice daily: ½ hour before eating in the morning, before going to bed at night (2 hours after eating).  I watch my diet.  Things that help ameliorate LPRD are: last morsel if food into my mouth 3 hours before I lie down, last sip of liquid 1 hour before I lie down (either for the night or for a nap in the middle of the day), avoid certain foods (carbonated beverages, caffeine, tomato, chocolate, spicy food, mint and alcohol).  This has immediately gotten rid of the constant post-nasal drip that was obviously causing irritation of the arytenoid cartilages of the larynx (the final step in closing the vocal folds cleanly).

I have also gone back to voice lessons with my own voice teacher – I also had a DMA audition on February 26, 2011 (originally February 19, they were kind enough to push it to the second audition date for me).  There are certain voice exercises that help to release tension in the cords (yes, I WAS overworking the cords because they weren’t coming together cleanly) and allow the edges to come together cleanly and freely.

The result of this aggressive awareness of how I’m using my voice is that on February 16, 2011, I was scoped again and (see video Vocal fold exam February 16, 2011) the bilateral (both sides) swelling on the leading edges of the vocal folds is no longer noticeable.  I completed my DMA audition on February 26, 2011, feeling like I had the full range of my vocal repertoire.  I have tried belting a little bit, and it’s still not quite there – I’m going to be very careful as I go back into that technique to make sure I am well warmed-up and am not using excess muscular tension either within the larynx or in the neck muscles outside the larynx.

If I had allowed the “tiredness” to continue for much longer, the standard time of recovery for nodules is six to eighteen months of speech therapy and often no singing.  This would have been disastrous for all aspects of my career – voice teacher, performer, voice student, mom….  By knowing my voice and what was absolutely NOT normal, I was able to get diagnosed and change habits so that I am no longer scared that I will never sing again.  Since I have now been injured, I will have to be more careful in the future, but I consider myself back to normal (while still continuing the modifications I started).

Always be aware of your voice, how it’s working and if it’s been a while since it’s felt healthy.  Be careful of blaming everything on exhaustion – it CAN turn into something more serious that needs attention.  Your voice is your livelihood, if you’re a teacher (even an instrumental teacher) and I recommend taking the care with it that any professional athlete would.

2) Am I helping my students to learn how to practice rather than just spin their wheels?  Is practice time focused and well-utilized, planned out in advance – is it effective?  How regular is the practice?  Is the physicalization of the repertoire becoming ingrained into their body?

3) Am I being careful of my singers in this season of illness – keeping them on a forward trajectory, yet not causing them to feel they have to “sing ill” and therefore possibly injure themselves?

4) Am I being truly honest with my students on my thoughts about their potential?  Are they in the right place and singing the right repertoire to put them where they want to go?  Do I need to ask for more?  Do I need to back off expectations?

5) Am I practicing what I’m preaching? Do I take care of myself when ill?  Do I take regular lessons and practice regularly?  When’s the last time I learned new repertoire really well, just for the fun of it?

6) How can I expand my horizons, learn more so that I can teach with a broader spectrum of knowledge?

7) How am I networking with other teachers so that I am constantly “upping my game” as a teacher?

What questions are you asking yourself as you begin this new year?

Photo: Question Mark Squircle http://www.flickr.com/photos/xurble/376588066/ by Xurble (Gareth Simpson)