treading the line
Two quotes from my teaching today (I am very proud of these, they show my tough love approach to teaching select choirs):
When one student asked me if we could sing along to a recording I have of a piece we're learning: "Erica, you just asked me to break your legs and give you crutches."
On Bruckner and stagger breathing: "Bruckner was good at big, slow, and profound. Every word you sing must be a big, lush block of sound, and it has to connect to the other blocks. If you don't connect the blocks, I'm going to take away your blocks, put them back in the toybox, and walk away."
When one student asked me if we could sing along to a recording I have of a piece we're learning: "Erica, you just asked me to break your legs and give you crutches."
On Bruckner and stagger breathing: "Bruckner was good at big, slow, and profound. Every word you sing must be a big, lush block of sound, and it has to connect to the other blocks. If you don't connect the blocks, I'm going to take away your blocks, put them back in the toybox, and walk away."