Category Archives: teaching

Voice Lifted in the New Year

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As we transition from 2014 to 2015, I look back on my Voice Lifted journey in this past year and look ahead to where I hope to take my music making in the upcoming year.

My Christmas Benefit Concert on Sunday, December 7th was a success.  It was a great experience to perform in the newly remodeled Tamaqua Community Arts Center.  I was delighted to connect with the wonderful audience who came out that day, and I am thrilled that the event provided support to the Tamaqua Blue Raider Foundation as well as the Community Arts Center.  I look forward to seeing these two organizations continue to serve our community in the coming year.

2014 brought the release of my second album Voice Lifted at Christmas.  This album is now available for sale online (download or CD) at this link.  My first CD Voice Lifted is also available here.  Downloads of the music from my Christmas CD are also available at Amazon.  Additionally, Voice Lifted at Christmas is available in streaming format on Spotify.  

In 2014, I greatly enjoyed many performances at private events, community events, and at churches.  I am excited to continue these in 2015.  For those who like to plan ahead, I am announcing the date for my 2015 Christmas Benefit Concert at the Tamaqua Community Arts Center – Sunday, December 6th, 2015.  I will be announcing other public performances throughout the year, but I wanted to get that date out right away, as I have loved hearing that some people are now making my benefit concert an annual Christmas tradition.

I also plan on additional performances in the new year with my music partner Tom Flamini.  Right now, we are preparing for a February 8, 2015 performance at Providence Place in Pottsville.

In the upcoming year, I also plan to continue blogging.  I plan to do that with more regularity, as I know that writing is a wonderful source of creative expression for me, and I enjoy sharing my journey with others on the path.  Additionally, many ideas are floating around my mind for live performances and recording possibilities.

For me personally, 2014 was a year that brought many challenges and much growth, and I see 2015 as a building year.  I believe that there will be much opportunity to take all of the lessons of 2014, allow myself to start at the place at which I am, and create much from the bottom up in this new year with faith and trust as the foundations.  Many of those around me have expressed similar feelings about 2014 being a year that involved much tearing down, shaking up of things, a lot of confusion, “a year that brought us to our knees,” and a year that was like a roller coaster ride.  I am envisioning and holding 2015 as a building year for myself and for those around me, for anyone who chooses to embrace this intention.

New Year’s Blessings to all of you and to those with whom your share your hearts and your lives.

sun

Hearing the Note before Singing it

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Microphone_studio

 

In my teaching of private voice lessons, I usually focus on a particular concept at each lesson:  introducing that topic to the singer, then working with it & playing with it in vocalises/exercises, and then applying it to songs.  An important technique for voice students to practice is hearing a note before singing it.

 

While it is very helpful for pianists, clarinetists, and other instrumentalists to hear a note before playing it, it is still possible to correctly play a note on the piano or the clarinet even if you have no idea what it will sound like before you actually play it.  Since our voice works in partnership with our ears in order to produce sounds, we need to hear a note “in our minds” first, and then we can sing it.  If we don’t accurately perceive that pitch, we won’t accurately produce the pitch.  Singers have to rely on their knowledge of music theory, their ear training skills, and the notes played by any accompanying instruments (piano, organ, guitar) in order to find the target pitch and internalize it.

 

In asking my students to really listen to the note before opening their mouth and making a sound, it sometimes can feel like things are going in slow motion.  They’re not used to slowing down so much and really keying in to what they are hearing and what they are intending to create.

 

This practice, as so many concepts in voice study, transfers beautifully to “real life.”  In life, we also will create more tuneful music if we notice and really take in what is around us and then decide what we are aiming to do & visualize what that will look like and sound like.  It is a practice.  We sometimes miss our target and end up not living in alignment with our beliefs if we rush the process, neglecting to fully listen and then act with intention.

 

I invite you to join me in this practice, striving to really listen to all that is around us and then hearing our notes and singing them out with intention and passion.

Homecoming

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This past weekend, I returned to the college where I got my undergraduate degree for the college’s Homecoming festivities.  In all of the years since I graduated, I had never attended Homecoming.  I made special plans to attend this year, because my vocal music professor will be retiring at the end of this academic year.

 

One of the highlights of Homecoming weekend is an “Open Choir Rehearsal,” which is always held on the Saturday morning of Homecoming weekend.  In that rehearsal, the current Lycoming College Choir members sing along with returning choir alumni.  The rehearsal was held in a beautifully constructed building that has been erected on campus since my graduation:  Honors Hall.

 

Dr. Fred Thayer, the choir director, led the choir in some familiar pieces, such as “Beautiful Savior” and “The Benediction” by Peter Lutkin.  The choir also rehearsed “The Star-Spangled Banner,” as the group of current choir members and alumni were invited to sing this piece at the college football game later in the afternoon.

 

Fred allowed each returning choir member to introduce himself/herself and to update the group on life since college.  I could see the pride on Fred’s face as he witnessed each returning choir member sharing a few words about his or her life journey.

 

We also had the opportunity to hear the current Lycoming Chamber Choir perform. As these young sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses lifted their voices, it was evident that they were engaged in a meaningful way with the music, with each other, and with their conductor.  The beautiful sounds that filled the concert hall were sounds that were alive with humanness and connection;  these young singers are very lucky to be experiencing the gift of making music under the direction of Dr. Thayer.

 

A conductor does not simply wave his or her arms in the air to keep the tempo and remind the singers of the dynamics in the pieces of music.  A choral conductor has the privilege of taking individual voices and individual spirits and joining them in a way that is meaningful and that allows each singer’s strengths and talents to be combined in a way that leads to a collective sound that is strong and vibrant.  As voices join, friendships form, and the music strengthens those friendships and the friendships strengthen the music-making.

 

I was moved on Saturday by the special connection that exists between Lycoming College Choir alumni, even those separated in their college singing tenure by 30 years.  I am grateful for my experience singing in the Lycoming College Choir, and I wish the very best to this year’s vocal ensembles and wish the very best to their outstanding conductor and mentor, Dr. Fred Thayer.

To Teach and to Learn

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Susan - Back to School Photo - to Teach and to Learn

Yes, even as the teacher, I still get my picture taken on the first day of school. The first day of school is a special beginning, and I want to reflect in this post on my role as a teacher…and a learner.

 

I am a teacher of English as a Second Language.  I am also a teacher of music who gives lessons out of my home.  I’m also considered a teacher when I lead choirs and when I present at academic conferences.  Most frequently, I am a teacher as I go about my day-to-day activities, interacting with family, friends, and those whom I meet as I journey through my days.  At the same time, I am a student.

 

I do not take either of these roles lightly.  I think it is an amazing opportunity, privilege, responsibility, and gift to learn from each other.  It is a beautiful exchange:  to teach and to learn, to share.

 

There is so much that we can learn from each other, and we each have much to share, to offer, to teach.  We teach by example, as well as through our words.  We learn by being open and receptive as we connect with others and as we engage fully in life.

 

Life is constantly presenting us with lessons.  Some of these lessons come to us at a comfortable pace and are enjoyable for us, as we discover and grow;  other lessons are hard and painful.  If we don’t learn the lesson the first time, we can be assured that it will be repeated for us…until we master it.  …Kind of like Outcome-Based Education, which became popular in the 1990’s.

 

I am committed to teaching and learning.  I always strive to be a good teacher and a good student.  I know it is important for me to lift my voice and share myself with others.  It is, likewise, important for me to listen and learn from others who surround me.  The coexistence of these two roles provides a balance, and that is what it is to live and to learn.  Thank you for joining me in the classroom of life.