Music Instructor Faces Charges Over Stripping as Aid to Singing

That’s one of the reasons why:

1.  I don’t allow female students in my room, by themselves; 

2.  for classes in which only females have enrolled, I leave the door open, and often step out into the hallway as I lecture, raising my voice loudly enough for neighbors to hear;

3.  I often ask female colleagues to venture through my classes, unannounced.

I only differ slightly:  I believe that those that need to be captured are both those that do what this man was accused of doing, as well as those falsely level accusation.  Some attention is being given to both, while justice is certainly not yet being evenly distributed!

He actually is correct. He’s just stupid.

There is a technique of pivoting your lower abdomen to position you muscles properly for exhalation. It’s similar to trying to stop urinating. My private (no pun intended), non-university teachers (men) routinely told me to observe my breathing by standing naked in front of a mirror. They were right. It worked. Once I did it comfortably alone, I found that eventually I could do the technique in front of people, clothed. There are certain problems associated with the sex of the student (the noun, not the verb) that need to be addressed (women often “armour”-tightening muscles over their ovaries to protect them) during lessons. Telling these things to a 17 year-old woman attending a college is dangerous. You’ll also notice that in advertisements for voice teachers that a university will often specify “Soprano/alto preferred” or “Tenor preferred.” This is because women should study with women and men with men. This improves communication and prevents this kind of problem. You hire men or women because there are more students of one sex than another. 

I’m concerned because he was only talking about sex, not suggesting that he get it from her (at least what was printed in this article). He was forgetful that he was still in a college setting, albeit a community college. Talking about sex, emotions, fear, etc. is natural when giving voice lessons if you want to make a first-rate performer. That’s the truth. The real question then is: why is voice being taught at universities? A community college is half-way between a university and a private studio. You would expect a hands-on (pardon for that) training in this setting. This incident just highlights the fact that theatre (especially Stanislavski training) and voice training (instrumental training is fine) is a perilous endeavour at a tertiary institution. Physical vocal training (like sports) and intellectualism are rather different pursuits. Students are definitely not aware of this when they first start taking voice lessons.

Generally, I insist that when I have female voice students, that they tape record the lesson. That way if there’s any problem, the onus is on them to prove that I did something wrong. If I am dispassionately discussing anatomy in a voice lesson, that would clearly be seen in any review of the recording. If you are a man and give voice lessons to women and think that you will not, one day, be falsely accused of sexual impropriety, you are a fool. Discrimination against straight men in the arts is nothing new. You have to prepare yourself against that. Everyone knows this.

What concerns me is that there is a misdemeanor change being levied. I would think that this requires physical contact. I was always taught that whenever giving demonstrations, to only allow the student to touch your hands to show body movement. If there was more than this he’s in trouble. If he’s being charged because of what he said alone, our country has surely gone to hades.

Good for you, hotice, for giving this individual the benefit of the doubt; other commenters seem eager to believe the accusations without question.

“If he’s being charged because of what he said alone, our country has surely gone to hades.”

Where’ve you been? There are all kinds of ways we can get in trouble for what we say, especially to people under 18. That’s always been true in this country, but has increased in the past few decades, what with guys branded as predators for sexually-explicit online chat with minors and so forth.

That said, if the instructor actually “persuaded” the student to disrobe or engage in sexual activity in his presence (meaning that she did so), that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms. And even if it was only talk, the suggestion about engaging in sexual activity while singing, even if alone, is enough to creep out most any female.

He’s stupid — on that we agree. (Assuming he’s not totally falsely accused.)

RE: the “instrumental training is fine” comment. That defines why there are jokes about “musicians vs. singers”. All wind players do is move their fingers and the notes come out, right? That’s why it is “fine” — no body parts involved?? This writer is apparently a vocalist and blissfully unaware that the physical process of tone production on a wind instrument uses the same (in fact, MORE) muscles than does vocalizing. All those demonstrations of diaphragm control on a soprano as just as essential for, say, a flutist. The world revolves around the singer, and the rest of us are there to applaud.