<p>My child may need to change her only voice teacher with two more auditions left. Is this advised? She has always been in a private lesson and they want to switch to 2 private lessons and 2 groups lessons per month. I never heard of this and she feels she does not want the group lesson. If she does not accept the group lesson she will need to change teachers. She has about 5 months until college. Any advice?</p>
<p>I am a voice teacher, and I know that singers learn a great deal about how their own voices function and sound by listening to others develop their singing. Encourage her not to be hasty about this. I had the conversation yesterday with a mature opera singer, who was never a music major and in a studio with other students of singing, about how much she had missed in developing her own ears. We talked about athletes who are benched because of injuries and how much better they understand the game when they return to active play. </p>
<p>It is not in your daughter's best interest to change teachers for such a short span. Each teacher comes at things a different way, uses different vocabulary, and will inevitably change her thinking. She needs security and confidence with what she is doing, not new ideas, assuming that she is doing well with this teacher. The fall is soon enough to change. She will find in a college music program that there are studio classes and joint learning opportunities which are absolutely invaluable. I commend her teacher for offering this opportunity now. Good luck.</p>
<p>It can take a while to first find and then build up a level of trust with a new teacher. Knowing that the situation is only going to last five months will make it even harder. Group lessons can actually be a helpful addition in many cases. Can you work out a compromise with the current teacher that will allow your daughter to have individual lessons at least until the auditions are over? Since most schools announce results by April 1, that should not be more than another week or two in any event. Once the auditions are out of the way, your daughter should not need quite as much individual attention from the teacher. The proposed change could work out well all around.</p>
<p>If she really feels strongly about continuing weekly individual lessons througn the summer and winds up going to a school within an hour or two of home, she might explore the option of taking private lessons from the college teacher until school starts up in the fall.</p>
<p>Thank You for the advice. It is hard when you have no musical background and no way to advise your child. She adores her teacher and was feeling stressed at this news on top of all the college stress. Thanks again.</p>
<p>I would strongly advise that she stay with this teacher. First of all, it would be silly to change teachers at this stage as it takes several months, at least, for a teacher to really get to know a student and begin to make an impact. You might as well not have her take lessons than change teachers for such a short time. Secondly, group lessons are a very good idea. I assume the format for these will be those of a studio/master class and will involved each student singing, accepting comments and criticisms from everyone, and finally being coached by the teacher. This provides many fine opportunities: it provides valuable performance opportunities in front of people who know what they're listening to, it allows your daughter to recieve peer criticism, and it will allow her to observe the teacher working with other students. I've found that I learn most from watching how others make and then correct mistakes, problems, etc.</p>
<p>MahlerSnob: Thanks for the advice. She has decided to stick with the teacher and give it a try. Yes, it will be a studio class. I appreciate all the advice on this matter.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone who has advised your D to stick with the teacher. Group lessons can be a very positive thing for older students. </p>
<p>At the end of my sophomore year as a piano major, my teacher moved. The teacher who was hired to replace him did not believe in private lessons. All of the piano majors who were assigned to him were put in groups of three or four. All of us resisted the idea at first. We were uncomfortable with the idea of our peers hearing us at lessons when we were still in the process of learning our pieces. It seemed quite different than performing in studio sessions when we were close to mastering our music. All of us learned to love the group lessons. We were encouraged to critique each others' progress. In fact, we were always expected to offer constructive criticism before the teacher opened his mouth. We learned far more about technique by observing each other than we could have learned in a private lesson. Our listening skills improved. Our ability to analyze what went right and what went wrong in a performance improved dramatically. The studio lessons are in fact where I learned to become a teacher. Another real bonus was that we learned much more literature than we could have in a private lesson. None of us played the same pieces, but we became intimately familiar with each other's music. My playing improved more during my junior year of college than during any other period of my life. I have to credit my professor's teaching method.</p>
<p>I'm glad that your daughter has decided to stick with her teacher. I hope that she will enjoy the experience as much as I enjoyed my time in a group experience.</p>