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CONCEPTS OF EAR TRAINING 185
duce a full, free tone is a great help to one who cannot, in that it provides a listening model worthy of emulation. Good vocal models are the best teachers. [147, p. 162] When they are lacking in line vocal equipment themselves, teachers should at least insist that their pupils often hear fine singers. [Ibid., p. 115] The remaining opinions on this subject are represented in the following statements:
1. Recorded renditions of selections by recognized artists are useful as "objective criteria" by which the student may judge his own vocal development. [Buswell 85; Glenn 205]
2. "To supplement your regular work on tone production . . . listen critically to first-class phonograph or radio music." Then try to sing the same songs that you listen to. [Karapetoff 510; Wilson 674, I, P-5]
3. Records of lyric singing are to be preferred as models of well-produced voices. [Butler 88]
4. "We build up our concepts of vocal tone, good or bad, in part by listening to models.** [Be Bruyn 130]
5. "The ear must be trained to recognize the beauty that is heard in the tone of the artist singer/* [Thomas 608; Earhart 153, p. 15]
6. The phonograph may be used "to set up a model tone ... in objectifying stages of vocal progress/* [Seashore 509, p. 92]
7. The pupil should also be taught to listen discriminatingly to the piece of music he is learning to execute, either vocally or instrument-ally. [Mursell 412]
8. The singer can learn much by listening to the violin. [Braine 61]
IMITATION AS A FACTOR
Imitation is defined as an "assumption of the form of something regarded as a pattern or model/* (W) It is also "the conscious or unconscious patterning of . . . acts, feelings, attitudes, achievements . . . after some model/' [Dictionary of Education 706] In vocal training, the teacher often serves as an exemplar of vocal technique, illustrating with his own performance the .archetypes of singing artistry that he wishes the student to follow or imitate. This represents an early stage of vocal instruction in which the student, by listening, strives to pattern his own expression after the performances of some worthy model. Out of 20 statements gathered on this subject, 12 endorse imitation as a teaching device; 8 condemn it. |
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