Ian Sidden

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Build Goals

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Imagine this: you’re coming to an intersection, and your navigating passenger pronounces, “Don’t go left or straight.”

Huh? The opposite response, “Take a right,” is obviously much clearer.

Build Goals

In the first situation the passenger was trying to destroy options, but he did not show the correct option. That’s obvious in that example, but how often do we see teachers instructing by defining what they don’t want instead of what they do want? Instead, the best first step for changing behavior is to build goals. Why?

  • Students will become less frustrated when their faults are no longer objects of destruction.
  • Students will know exactly what you want and will aim towards it.
  • Students will then fix faults automatically if they are reminded what the goal is.
  • It is easier to think of one clear goal rather than try to – in real time – fix several faults all at once.
  • It’s less taxing on the teacher to build goals rather than tear down faults.

It takes some thought before speaking, but nearly every situation can be addressed by naming the desired goal. For an example, if we only define breathing by what we don’t want then we might give instructions like this:

  • “Don’t tense up your neck.”
  • “Don’t slouch.”
  • “Don’t lock you knees.”

Defining what you actually want might take more thought, but it can be done:

  • “Support your voice with your torso.”
  • “Expand and stand tall.”
  • “Feel the ground and let your knees bend slightly.”

If they don’t understand your first constructive approach, then try another constructive approach:

  • “Fill your belly up with air.”
  • “Lengthen your spine.”
  • “Find equal balance in both feet.”

Do this until you and the student have found a goal that speaks to them and achieves the desired result.

Always? Yea, Mostly

Are there ever cases where you should define things negatively? Sure. If there are problems that recur in many people, then it may be helpful to say clearly, “Don’t do that.” But it will be safer if this is paired with a reminder about the goal:

“Don’t yank your tongue back in the throat because that will prevent you from maintaining an open throat.”

It Takes Practice

This has taken me quite a bit of practice for it to become second nature, but it feels much better than trying to destroy someone’s faults. I can speak more often without fear of totally ticking off my student. I also see my students fix their own problems automatically by working towards the goal we’re covering in that lesson.

If you try this, then you may have to pause before you speak to think of a constructive rather than destructive way of approaching what you see as a problem. But your student will appreciate this constructive approach.

What is the difference between “do” and “don’t” to you? If you’re a teacher, why choose one over the other? If you’re a student, how do you feel after being instructed to “do” or “don’t”? What else do you think?

Say Something Nice about Yourself

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Say something nice about yourself.

What you are doing is extremely difficult and brave. You are changing yourself in the name of music and then sharing those changes with the world when you perform.

Yes, this process requires self honesty and clear judgment. But it does not require intense self-loathing and public condemnations of you abilities. You must be doing something right or else you wouldn’t have gotten this far.

So find that something and tell yourself about it.

Why Criticize?

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criticism
–noun

  1. the act of passing judgment as to the merits of anything.
  2. the act of passing severe judgment; censure; faultfinding.
  3. the act or art of analyzing and evaluating or judging the quality of a literary or artistic work, musical performance, art exhibit, dramatic production, etc.

I really enjoyed the responses I received to How Should We Criticize?. Thank you. Those who responded touched on the layers of complexity that are involved with criticizing. Some of the points were:

  • The relationship between the two people involved matters in how and whether to criticize.
  • People who are in a position to be criticized (ie. students) often have a conscious amount of skepticism as self-defense from dangerous teachers.
  • Fear of criticism can cause someone, who might otherwise want help, to avoid seeking a teacher.
  • Criticism can cause an emotional “hijack”, which makes learning impossible.
  • Stress in the student’s life can raise the likelihood of this “hijack”.

The overall sense I got is that criticizing is dangerous at least and harmful at worst. This is my view as well. I want to move away from using criticism towards something else, but criticism is a learned behavior and will take some time to change. To start, we have to know why we criticize to begin with.

What’s the Goal of Criticizing?

Why criticize? For my purposes, we criticize to change someone’s behavior.

But criticizing and changing another’s behavior are two different things. It’s a particular technique to achieve that goal. Criticism generally involves descriptions of faults and, as the definition describes, a judgment as to whether those faults leave a work with any merit. Suggestions for improvement are then given.

The upside is that the behavior is named, and the teacher knows that it has been discussed. If you have a limited amount of time, then criticism may be the only way to go. But there are downsides.

The value of criticism as a teaching method is questionable. For the person receiving it:

  • It can feel like an attack on them personally, especially if their current behaviors are considered “wrong”. Their reaction may have an emotional element that prevents learning.
  • Even if there is no emotional reaction, for the purposes of learning the value of receiving ready-made answers from an authority is less than figuring it out for yourself.
  • Describing the negatives of something may actually reinforce the behavior being criticized rather than be a catalyst for new behavior.1

Alternatives?

When criticism is viewed as a technique then we can begin to examine it and its effectiveness. I believe that criticism can mostly be replaced with other methods, at least in the voice studio and probably in most other places.

However, it is difficult to move away from criticism. I try, but I always manage to find myself criticizing. Even this post falls into some of criticism’s traps by criticizing criticism itself. Therefore, I do not underestimate the challenge of finding alternatives.

Nevertheless, I’ll be exploring alternatives more in the coming weeks on Beginning Singer both descriptively and in practice as much as I can. In the meantime, I would love to hear from you. Have you found alternatives to criticism? If a student had just done something that could be improved upon, how could you approach it without being too critical?

notes

1 http://www.strategy-business.com/article/06207?pg=0