The singing teacher : an instructor or a counsellor

The teaching of singing could be considered as a mixture of bridging physiological and psychological gaps. The instruction as to the physical technique of singing may be straightforward, but the attainment of the goals is often conditional on emotional or psychological state of the student or the teacher him or herself. No doubt, the same problems are encountered in the tuition of all musical instruments, but as the mechanism of the instrument is housed within the body of the singer, problems specific to singers are distinctive.This paper addresses one of the most common problems associated with the teaching of the voice, the role of the singing teacher as a counsellor, and whether this role is appropriate or not.