Question 16

 How do you find the right teacher* if you want to study singing?

The question is posed correctly: the student* looks for his teacher himself! Only he can decide whether a teacher is "the right one" for him!
First of all, the following question should be answered: do I want to become a singer or do I want to get a degree?
This will determine the choice of music colleges to which one will apply.
There are wonderful teachers: they come from pedagogy and/or have had a successful singing career.
There are no rules. It is a matter of going on a search and finding THE right teacher for you.
The following points may be helpful in your search for a singing teacher.

There are real "dream" singing teachers:

• HE is about the students.
• HE works student-centered, considers each student as an individual personality and gives the student the opportunity to create his/her own safe space as needed for his/her singing and human development.
• HE teaches singing technique and repertoire tailored to the individual young singer and his/her stage of development, and shows him/her ways to his/her own interpretation.
• HE teaches in a mindful, appreciative, holistic, solution- and resource-oriented way in dialogical cooperation.
• HE sees regular vocal technical work as the basis and in close connection with artistic interpretation.
• HE activates the potential of each individual and thus helps him/her to independently solve possible problems and to achieve set goals.
• HE considers vocal hygiene and vocal health as an important basis for an organic vocal development.
• HE works out practice strategies together with the student and supports him/her in developing his/her own ways of practicing and studying repertoire.
• HE regularly attends continuing education/training, values collegial exchange and considers supervision to be a matter of course.
• His own (pre-)singing reflects his knowledge and confirms his competence in teaching.
• His students are in tune with themselves and their singing and find ways into the singing profession.

They (unfortunately) also exist: the nightmare singing teachers:

• It's all about the teacher
• They put themselves and their person in the foreground and define themselves by their students and their performance
• They work mainly like a répétiteur (with or without his piano playing skills), noting mistakes (e.g. intonation, rhythm, diction, phrasing, precision...) without showing ways to improve or solve singing problems. Singing technique is not important to them
• They teach "their" method which, in their opinion, is the only and best method and do not allow any other view
• They do not respond to the individual needs of the students
• They do not notice when a student gets tired in voice lessons, nor do they offer any suggestions for solutions, but blame the student for student failure
• They do not notice that the student might have a voice disorder or even does have one, downplaying the student's concerns and coercing the student to continue singing even though the student clearly states that (throat) pain occurred during singing lessons
• The student is left to his own devices to practice and optimize learning procedures. It is even implied that he does not practice long enough when the results achieved do not meet the teacher's expectations
• A dialogue does not really take place
• The teacher is the "master" and needs no further training
• Through manipulation, the student becomes a functioning singer who obeys the teacher and becomes a copy of the teacher, neglecting the development of his or her own individual traits
• The teachers can show or audition little, do not practice and possibly have a voice disorder themselves
• They work with pressure and try to force the development speed of the students.

The two opposite poles of "dream" and "nightmare" teachers will certainly not be so starkly pronounced in reality. There is more likely to be a swing in one direction or the other. For this reason, it can be important to inform yourself well before you start your studies, to seek contact with students and lecturers and thus to find out whether it is worthwhile to apply for an entrance examination.
If student and lecturer aim at the same goals and find the same teaching language based on mutual understanding, surely also different views about "the how of the way to the goal" can lead in dialogue to a solution and thus to the achievement of the goal.

*I do not gender