Taking musicality higher level
Josh Peterson
Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: Arts
Every journey begins with a first step, and for some people, taking the second step is even more important than the first. For students of the arts, new or seasoned, those steps are about reclaiming lost ground.
"I'm really just trying to get back up to the point where I was when I quit," sophomore Nancy Swope said. "I want to be able to sit down at a piano and play whatever piece is before me."
Swope, a piano student of Adjunct Instructor of Music Douglas Spangler, had taken lessons during middle school but quit in high school because of time conflicts with sports and other extracurricular activities.
"I decided to pick piano back up this year in the fall and am really enjoying the use of the baby grands for practice in the music hall," Swope said.
Freshman Michael Dean has been singing in ensembles since the sixth grade, but this semester is the first time he has taken private voice lessons.
"The connection between you and your teacher is good because she notices the little things you can tweak that normally get overlooked in a large group," Dean said.
Dean is a student of both Artist-Teacher Melissa Osmond and Lecturer in Music Eden Simmons. In Osmond's voice class Dean hones the classical vocal technique he's been developing for years, but in his private lessons with Simmons he trains his voice in musical theater technique.
"Since I've done choral [voice] for so long it's nice to do the Broadway style," Dean said. "It's new to me."
Simmons said she gets several new students every semester. Each student has different levels of experience and reasons for taking up formal study. However, she has found that the voice class offered by Osmond helps familiarize students with basic theory, vocal technique and physiology.
"It's half mechanics and half psychology trying to get a student to imagine a sound and learn to feel what good sound feels like," she said.
"The teacher has to ask a lot of questions," Simmons said. "That's when I feel like a shrink. You want to be encouraging but also honest. It's the same for all ages."
"I'm really just trying to get back up to the point where I was when I quit," sophomore Nancy Swope said. "I want to be able to sit down at a piano and play whatever piece is before me."
Swope, a piano student of Adjunct Instructor of Music Douglas Spangler, had taken lessons during middle school but quit in high school because of time conflicts with sports and other extracurricular activities.
"I decided to pick piano back up this year in the fall and am really enjoying the use of the baby grands for practice in the music hall," Swope said.
Freshman Michael Dean has been singing in ensembles since the sixth grade, but this semester is the first time he has taken private voice lessons.
"The connection between you and your teacher is good because she notices the little things you can tweak that normally get overlooked in a large group," Dean said.
Dean is a student of both Artist-Teacher Melissa Osmond and Lecturer in Music Eden Simmons. In Osmond's voice class Dean hones the classical vocal technique he's been developing for years, but in his private lessons with Simmons he trains his voice in musical theater technique.
"Since I've done choral [voice] for so long it's nice to do the Broadway style," Dean said. "It's new to me."
Simmons said she gets several new students every semester. Each student has different levels of experience and reasons for taking up formal study. However, she has found that the voice class offered by Osmond helps familiarize students with basic theory, vocal technique and physiology.
"It's half mechanics and half psychology trying to get a student to imagine a sound and learn to feel what good sound feels like," she said.
"The teacher has to ask a lot of questions," Simmons said. "That's when I feel like a shrink. You want to be encouraging but also honest. It's the same for all ages."
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