How To Build Confidence? (Singing Teachers)

[Guest Teacher]

Hi Kat

No she isn’t able to sing them at all, I decided to do something a little different with her and discovered that it isn’t just about confidence but also about being so frustrated with herself that she shuts down.

I spoke to her about it at the end of her lesson last week and we had a much better lesson this week. She said she wasn’t as frustrated and that she came in with a more determined attitude. So yes confidence is an issue with her but more than that she just get’s so frustrated with herself that she gives up trying for a while. I have given her the tracks and things that she needs and told her to sing scales at home so hopefully she will practice. However, much like Eliza is finding she has never practiced before as she has never sung in front of her family before. I’ve challenged her to sing for them but no luck yet.

[Guest Teacher]

Eliza! Great Idea about the practice room. I always love going somewhere with soundproofing and really going for it.
It’s a great idea suggesting things like that to students and lots of students especially Uni students don’t want to sing at home because they are worried what their mates and people around them will think.

Might try this tactic myself, however, some of my singing students won’t be able to afford it outside my lesson which does add another debate to “What to do when students won’t practice?”

[Kat Hunter]

Haha yes, this practicing thing is a whole new topic!

[Monika Welch]

Hey guys, I totally agree with Eliza about encouraging them to potentially book a room to practise and even more importantly- being silly during the lessons. I too have a couple of students who lack confidence and I have taken the approach of distraction, which seems to have worked pretty well thus far.

During our vocal warm ups, I ask them to perform a physical exercise (gentle head shake from side to side, or lifting up shoulders and letting them fall just before doing a lip trill, etc). What I have found is that they then shift their focus from thinking about ‘producing sound / singing’ to performing the physical movement, which in turn results in the vocal exercise being performed in a much more relaxed manner.

[Eliza Fyfe]

Bang on!