Question about desired teacher. What if you want to change your choice after the audition?

College Majors Music Major
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Good morning, music parents! I have a Q about changing the first choice teacher (after the audition, but before any possible acceptance) who your kid listed on his or her application. We had a big audition this weekend at a school that encourages students to book trial lessons with up to three instructors. This isn’t my world, so my son asked his school and his precollege voice teachers for advice. We got three names, and listed them in order according to advice from his current teachers. (Note: I am not going to give the school or the teacher names, as I just don’t think it’s necessary.) My kid’s first trial lesson was with the first choice teacher, who called my kid by the wrong names (wildly different names that were not even close to my kid’s name!) throughout the lesson. According to my kid, he talked about his formula for dealing with tension in the upper range, and then didn’t correct my kid when my kid made a few purposeful mistakes to see if he would be corrected. At one point the teacher asked my kid what other schools he was looking at and winced and rolled his eyes when he mentioned one of the schools. The teacher ended the lesson a bit early. This teacher did email my kid later to apologize for not knowing his name, saying that he was having a very busy day. Which I don’t doubt! I know audition weekends must be a lot of work for instructors! As an aside, several of my kid’s friends put this teacher down as a first choice as well, and several had trial lessons with him. Two of them had great experiences with the teacher and really hit it off. Two had “meh” experiences, and one other had a poor experience. All had listed this teacher as first choice on their application.

The second choice voice teacher was nice, but my kid felt he wasn’t the best fit. But he did like the teacher.

The third choice teacher was a revelation. My kid said he has never met a teacher who loves singing as much as this man seemed to. He was helpful, he gave my kid some really helpful advice on the upper register tension (which was nothing like the formula given by the first teacher), advice that actually really helped my kid to access the high notes in a more relaxed way. And when my kid made some very small “accidental” mistakes, the teacher immediately and with great humor, caught them. My son came out of this lesson saying he would follow this teacher anywhere.

Here is my Q: We have no idea if my kid is going to get into this school (though if he did, and he got this third teacher, he would go). Do we wait to see if he gets in to ask for this third teacher? Or, are teacher studio openings taken into account when acceptances are given, in which case, should we say something about changing our choices? (MY kid feels that this first teacher would not accept him into his studio, and this may compromise his chance of getting into this school.) And if so, who do we say this to?

Just wondering if we do nothing, or if we risk annoying the admissions person and emailing. (My kid is a bit scared of this last option, seeing he has already emailed her twice over the course of the prescreen/application/audition period and he is worried he may be labeled as a PIA if he emails her again.)

Any advice would be so, so, so appreciated!!! Thanks, everyone! Hope you’re all enjoying the audition process!

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Ahhhh—I found something by really digging. There is a change of teacher choice form to fill out and fax/email back if it is after the application period. I’ll do that. But would love to hear anyone else’s experience with trial lessons, teachers, etc.

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it is hard to choose a teacher for 4 years after one short lesson. Even teachers touted as great teachers may not work for all students. I do think the student can tell whether they do not click in that time. It is a very good indication of a good fit if he left feeling like progress was made.

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Absolutely–it is hard. There were a few other things that set my kid off, such as the teacher checking his phone, etc. He just felt the teacher was “phoning it in.” So the first impression was not positive.

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Oh, and the third trial lesson teacher actually watched my kid’s prescreen videos before the trial lesson and was able to discuss (during the lesson ) the growth that had happened in the months between the prescreen videos and the actual audition (kid sang the same songs for both prescreens and auditions). That blew my kid away.

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Hi @MomOfSingers . That third teacher seems amazing. I understand your son’s reluctance to “rock the boat”, but it really seems as if they clicked and it would be worth making sure that the school knows it. Would it work for your son to email that third teacher and tell him how much he liked the lesson, and also tell him that he is going to resubmit his form to list him as his top-choice teacher? That way, maybe that faculty member will go to bat for him as well.

Just thinking out loud here – this is not an area of applications that we ever dealt with.

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Hi @MomOfSingers - At some schools, teachers are matched to students shortly after the acceptance date of May 1. The teachers may rank the singers that have accepted. A given teacher may or may not know how much space they will have in their studio. It may depend on how many grad students are coming into the studio, for example. I would have your student sleep on the lessons for a bit and then fill out the form if he wants to make a change and - as @MMRose suggested - let the first choice teacher know they are the first choice.

It’s hard to explain what makes for a “good fit,” but a voice teacher needs to communicate in a way that the student can act upon, and an experienced teacher will have a variety of methods to try. Good communication, good organization, planning and focus, same sense of humor, liking young people, being present for most lessons (not always off singing), someone who will boost a student’s confidence when they are down - these could all be important attributes. I agree with @songbirdmama - a trial lesson may provide enough to know when there is not a good fit.

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Thanks, @songbirdmama @MMRose and @buoyant ! That’s exactly what we’ll do. Wait a short bit, send in the change form, and let the “new” top choice teacher know. So happy to know there is a way to handle all of this! Thank you!!

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Interesting thread as my soprano D did not have to put down a list of teachers before auditions. Of course we did lessons at all her schools of interest to make sure she liked the overall style of the school. FYI for the school she ended up at (a conservatory) the incoming freshmen all had to sing in front of the entire conservatory vocal students and the professors choose their students based on that performance. Just to say every school is very different how the student/teacher thing gets worked out.

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VP teacher selection can really vary from school to school…as I have found out. It is not uncommon to enter a VP UG program without a teacher. At a school with a good sized faculty, they will work that out in the first weeks of school. My D did have a UG teacher when she entered her school (met her one-on-one the first week of school); however many UG did not. The head of the voice dept works quite hard to get students with the right teacher…and in a big school change can often be done without hurt feelings particularly in the UG world. I’m glad that @buoyant answered as she would know best for Eastman.

A few other “unsolicited” comments on VP:

1.) Believe it or not, VP students are so young. Vocalists don’t always have the sense of their instrument that maybe a violinist does (playing since age 5). So I think for VP the teacher selection is not viewed as critical (as for other instruments) so it is not always asked on applications. Also teachers can “hear” things in voices…like a budding Mozart voice etc…which a student or parent may not be aware of. So some direction from faculty isn’t necessarily bad.

2.) Some UG students go through rapid growth. Fachs can change. Boys in particular are coming into their voices finally. So a target teacher is great…BUT do look at the FULL faculty at the school. It is not uncommon to change or use other faculty members in those 4 years. Teachers leave. Teachers take personal leaves (my D teacher was out a semester due to back surgery). You want a strong “faculty”…just in case.

3.) VP is a very, very, very small world. The first teacher may not be good for certain students. He may have been having a bad day. Or he could simply be “the absent-minded professor” who is musically brilliant with wonderful connections. The absent-minded professor would not be a good match for my task-master kid…but he could end up being an advocate within the faculty or for summer programs or beyond. Of course, he could be an arrogant jerk too…with great connections! My point is: give him the “benefit of the doubt”. I believe that you said he sent an email to your son…which was “kind”. In VP, you do keep running into the same people. So hopefully your son can “appreciate” him while still communicating his interest in the other teacher. Who knows what role this “distracted” teacher could play in her life in the future.

I’m glad to hear it went so well.

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So, so true, @bridgenail!!! It a very small world filled with many very different people who are connected in many different ways! Just seeing all the kids and parents at each audition who know each other, or who are friends of friends, is really fun.