To Everything, Turn, Turn, Turn 2

For everything there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under heaven.

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up.

Ecclesiastes 3:1,3

Yesterday was my second day of teaching at a local high school specialty center for the arts.  Last week I met my new freshman class and gave them their syllabus, their first practice log to record the time they spend working on their songs, and their first worksheet – looking up definitions of various professional solo voicings (basso, mezzo-soprano, coloratura soprano, counter-tenor, etc.).  I provided the web address for an online music dictionary, and went through every aspect of their new class before handing out their individual solos.

When the bell rang yesterday, in strolled my over-confident, slightly smug group – laughing and smiling and general very pleased with themselves. I said, “All right.  You owe me a finished worksheet and a completed practice log.  I’m coming around with your new materials for this week.”  All but one pair of eyes stared back at me in confusion.  Completed worksheet?  What worksheet?  “Oh…..that?”? “ I thought we just needed to do that when we had time.”  “I didn’t realize you meant me to actually do this!”  “I’m sorry, I couldn’t find my mother this morning to get my practice log signed,”  and on, and on, and on.  It was time for a little breaking down.

I only spoke for a few moments to the entire group, but the smugness evaporated in thin air, and few eyes would meet mine.  I am, although they don’t know it yet, my students’ best advocate, and will do almost anything to help them succeed.  I do not, however, accept bad work, excuses, and laziness. If they thought this would be an “easy class” in that way, they needed to think again.  One young man who turned in the worksheet had filled the entire thing out from the dictionary of his own 14-yr-old brain, marking his own voicing as a countertenor.  When I questioned him about that choice, he confidently said that his voicing was between tenor and bass.  When I revealed that a countertenor was, in fact, an adult male who sings like a woman alto/mezzo-soprano, he made a very quick retraction.

I will spend this entire school year building these young people up (to the best of my ability), but there will continue to be times when I will have to bring them down a notch or two.  There are few things worse in the world of singing than an artist with an ego that makes him/her better than anyone else and beyond acceptance of criticism or help.  God willing, these youngsters will grow into confident musicians with humble hearts.

Prayer Needs for Today

Judy and Al for continued healing after surgery

Joel for level-headed thinking at college

For the young men and women on the military front lines