Question 20

 Do singing teachers have to believe in the student?

The job of a singing teacher is to teach skills - to the best of their knowledge and ability. Every student should be treated equally. I find it difficult to give preferential treatment to individual students. And to "believe" in all students to the same degree is probably beyond the capacity of any teacher.
According to the definition of the Oxford Languages dictionary, "believe" means: "to consider possible and probable, to assume, to think ... believe".
Personally, I would like to leave "believe" in the church and with religion. For me, "to believe" does not belong in an education either. As a teacher, I can teach the basics of singing and the singing profession on the basis of my further education and training and the experiences I have had during my many years on stage. Whether and how a singing education leads to a career cannot be "meant - believed - imagined." That depends on the conditions of the "market" and the ability of the singing graduate. Developing skills and giving realistic feedback are part of being a teacher for me.
In the course of a further education course, I met a sports coach who made a very clear distinction: as long as he was a group coach, it was about working optimally with each young athlete in the context of the group. As soon as he was coaching just one athlete, he did everything he could to enable that athlete to perform optimally. This work was much more time-consuming, therefore went deeper, was really "personal training" and was also rewarded much differently. The one-to-one support alone meant that the athlete saw himself as the centre of attention.
Personal training can hardly prevail in vocal training, if only because of the cost. I also think that it is not necessary, because the singing student feels his confirmation through his singing and his development and receives it through honest feedbacks.
The demand that the singing teacher must "believe" in his student I think is presumptuous. A good teacher will always stand by his student. Everyone has to sing for themselves. To "believe" that you will be taught everything by a teacher - as in school - and that you simply have to work through the given plan, will unfortunately rarely lead to good singing. Studying, practising and finding one's own balance that leads to results that make professional singing possible is something every singer has to do for themselves. A colleague once said, "that she can only lead the animal to the watering hole; it has to drink itself."

Sincerely,
Yours

Petra Lang