Learning Styles and the Voice Student

This article illustrates some of the different ways that students go through the learning process in relation to learning new music and suggestions for their teachers on how to help them along.

Swanson begins by describing three (fictitious) students in his private voice studio, each one with an amusing name that hints at their style of learning. The first student, Tsee En Luk, is clearly a visual learner, never going anywhere without a notebook and relying on diagrams and posters in order to understand what his teacher is trying to convey to him. The second student, Audra Torey, learns her repertoire by rote, taking advantage of her handy-dandy tape recorder. Unfortunately, this comes with a drawback in that if she hears a note wrong, she will remember the wrong note instead of the right one. The third student, Kenny Stetick, is fond of using his hands. He often uses hand gestures during his singing and is also proficient at the piano which he uses to play the accompaniments to his songs.

Clearly, these are somewhat exaggerated but they still point out the fact that every student has their own way of approaching a new piece. Some will dissect it on paper while others take it to the practice room.

Swanson goes on to extrapolate a little on methods of learning by referencing Dr. Anthony F. Gregorc’s Mind-Styles model. This model outlines four basic personality types found in adults. There’s concrete-sequential where the person hashes it out with whatever they’re working on in a sequential and step-by-step fashion. Abstract-sequential people will work on their problem with mental imagery and theories. Concrete-random people, like concrete-sequential people, focus on what’s in front of them but concrete-randoms work on whichever part they feel like working on with no necessary order. And finally, those with an abstract-random personality will work in their head and use their imagination but will be spontaneous about it.