80/20 RULE

The reality of being a vocal coach is that it is like a so-called "80/20 rule". Have you heard about that? 80% of something gives you 20% of something else. I've heard that 20% of your efforts give you 80% of your income. I've heard that applied to a few things. We'll get back to that 80/20 rule in a second. There are vocal coaches who use the full names of their students in their advertising and in their books. They SHOULD be very proud to have had the honor and privilege of working with those people. A successful "track record" is wonderful; it can't be denied. I am not disputing it. I will say this, though. Some people think that all the students of a vocal coach are GREAT because of the vocal coach. The reality is that the majority of the students of the famous coaches were successful and famous BEFORE they studied with the famous vocal coach. They (99% or more) had singing careers dispute problems and issues with their voices. I found the best brass teacher whom I think was the best in the world. I traveled over 500 miles to get to this man. It was worth the drive. I had already been playing professionally. I had some playing issues not unlike issues singers have. I was a pro, but some things were not easy. I had excellent range and excellent endurance but had some problems with extending my range and with some of the finer points of playing. I knew this but the audiences never knew it. He and I spent a few Saturdays together through the years and on the last one he showed me exactly how he analyzed an embouchure. We shared a pizza that day. On the first lesson I ever had with him he told me that my progress was going to be the result of practicing what he had taught me. He said that 80% of the results would come from my doing the work and 20% would be from what he had taught me. There is that 80/20 rule again. The point here is that he did NOT take all the credit. He knew he was an expert. His books are used to this day (probably by people who do not fully understand then) but even though he was pedantic and even dogmatic, he gave credit to the musician. I had a younger student ask me about a famous vocal coach the other day. She asked where he was located. I will say that she was not making the progress that she should make but I will also say that she was practicing 15 minutes or less a day and inconsistently at that. Her progress has been slower than I would like, but she still has progressed. The famous vocal coach would tell her that she needs to practice 3 or 4 hours a day. I have heard him say that. For a high school kid, up to the eyeballs in honor classes, there are not 3 or 4 hours a day to spare on practicing. She has the talent to be a professional but not the time and certainly not the passion. It definitely is a combination of hard work and long hours BUT on practicing the right things the right way at the right times and also knowing HOW to practice, which will produce the fastest and the biggest results. The credit really goes to the singers who "take the ball and run with it", ignoring the other players in the field (obstacles) long enough to get to the goal. Here is an interesting video of a singer/trombonist in famous group called the Four Freshman. The singer/trombonist is the late Bob Flanigan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETo_XFEGl24