The quality and the length of music education are key factors in an artist’s career.
While it is very easy to measure the length of our studies, it’s very tricky to measure the quality of all those years. There are two big variables which play a role: how good our teachers are and how good we are as pupils. It’s not only a question of having a beautiful voice from the start or a stunning talent to, for example, piano playing. It’s also a question of how good and quick we are in learning, in digesting what we are taught and in eventually acknowledging that it’s time to change teacher. Some teachers are good for someone but not for everybody, some others are good but we are not ”ready” for them, some others are just bad.
Now that I have been singing professionally for 15 years, I realize that, in those years, I was often in a hurry “to get there”, “to succeed”, like very many of my colleagues. This drive is certainly important but we should never forget that our musical education period deserves huge respect, also from those who are very gifted: talent can bring us very quickly on stage singing big roles, but if our technique is not solid enough, if our mind is not strong enough to stand the pressure, we risk to “burn” ourselves, as it happens to many.
Once our career starts, time to devote to technique studying drops drastically. It often happens to listen to singers who, even in the peak of their prime, sound tired and in need of a break. But very few take a pause, because of fear of loosing contracts, fear of being ”forgotten” during their time off, and also because of lack of self-awareness.
Well now, guys, we have more time off. Wether we like it or not. It is catastrophic for many of us in economical terms. And it is also emotionally hard to keep the motivation up. But this is also an opportunity to study as maybe we haven’t done for years. So please, if you can, if you can afford it, study!