Membership Expired Kat Hunter
Membership ExpiredForum Replies Created
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For most bel canto teachers I’d say (coming from Tosi/Garcia/Caesari/Reid camps) mix isn’t a “sound”, it’s an equilibrium to ideally be in most of the time. It’s the voice’s balanced home base. Not too chesty, not too falsetto-y, not too flippy. Just right.
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I don’t think mix is confusing at all. Mix is the thing that happens when it’s not a flipped falsetto, nor is it a pulled chest voice. It’s what takes place when there’s a free, strong and resonant full sound above the bridge/passagio. You’re literally “mixing” the firm fold adduction found in chest voice with the CT stretch (and a “resting” larynx) to create a connected head voice (ie. mix). Coming from the bel canto camp, mix is just about the only thing we teach (of course in lessons I throw in other things too, but on a technical level this is it for me).
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Definitely!
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I would call this “teaching mix” . Granted it’s a pretty heavy mix (I’m sure you’d probably work towards thinning it out a little more so it’s not so extreme feeling), but it’s still a mix to my ears. So I’m surprised that you don’t think you’re a teacher of mixed voice!
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Hey Wes,
I think you have to feel what’s right for you, but I don’t like letting people off when they’re sick. Sometimes if it’s a short term illness and it looks like they could come in for a makeup lesson later in the week I’ll do that so they don’t have to pay for lost time. But generally I still expect people who fall ill to pay for their time (although they’ve prepaid, so I usually get to skip this conversation), reason being:
1. If they’ve booked it then no-one else can have it. This is especially the case for evening times, which are usually booked out. And also I want to have a life, so if I’d known in advance that I’d have the evening off, I could have planned a nice dinner or something. Think about it from their perspective; if they were expecting to do an overtime shift at work, and cancelled all plans accordingly and then showed up at work and were told they didn’t need to come in after all, they’d be pretty pissed off. I think this is fair. But also because evenings are so popular, if I know in advance that someone isn’t coming in, I can successfully offer it to someone else.
2. If they know they can “get away with not paying” if they tell you they’re sick, then what’s to stop them taking advantage of that in future? Where’s the consistency. If I’m holding other people to the policy come hell or high water and let them off, then it doesn’t bode well. Of course as Matt indicates, it’s helpful to be flexible when it’s really necessary. But consistency builds trust and respect.
However, I have it so that my cancellation policy is only 75% of the lesson fee (which is prepaid), which means that either they get that 25% as a refund or as a discount off their next lesson. Framed like that, I’ve not had anyone have a problem with it.
