Imagine!
Imagine John Lennon’s song might have been a political statement, yet, within it he invites pictures to swirl around your head as you think about the concepts. He plays into the richness of being human, the ability to use imagination, and this is also the world of singing. There has been an alarming trend to take imagination out of singing teaching and replace it with the bare reality of what is happening. How many lessons do I witness where, once again, the singer is taken back to some technical aspect when they have the ability to sing well enough, and what is really needed is the freeing of the imagination for the next ‘stage’? Somehow it is as if we never get beyond that; we can’t let the singer grow up. There is a credible argument that not everybody thinks the same way, therefore what is valid for the teacher, may be a vacuum for the other learner in the room. Using more neutral, less colourfully imaginative ideas is more helpful. As a former classroom teacher, I could concu...