Post by natalie victoria armstrong. on Mar 20, 2011 20:22:29 GMT -5
Natalie was finished for the day. Her afternoon voice lessons had been completed and she could finally relax. Her desire to take a break had nothing to do with her students, or her students' ability or lack of ability. Coaching the voices of youth was not an easy job. It was very involved, she would never be able to get away with just lecturing her students on how to belt, vibrato, or switch from a head voice to a chest voice. Most of the time she herself had to demonstrate before any of her pupils actually grasped the concept she was trying to get across. Again she wasn't bashing having to sing all the time. Natalie loved to sing, she sang in the shower, when she was alone, and in her classes that were supposed to be lectured like general music and theory. Sometimes it was, however, tedious to have to teach things over and over again considering most of her students made the same mistakes. It was a very good thing that not too many people asked to take private lessons from her it was hard work having to pick out songs for people that best suited their voice. Everyone had a different and unique quality.
She herself was considered a mezzo, but some mezzo songs didn't fit her voice as well as others. Her favorite song hands down was On My Own from Les Miserables. She had sung it when she was a Sophomore in high school as her solo and it had sounded very good. In all her years of teaching none of her students captured both the technique and emotional beauty of the song, usually they did one or the other. Nat was still waiting patiently for that one person who would make her jaw drop. Before that would happen she'd have to try and coach someone to that performance level. Some of her students went on to do some pretty great things with music whether it was getting accepted into a top musical arts school or landing a lead role in a community production. When her students succeeded she felt she succeeded.
A heavy sigh left her lips as she started to clean up her office. School days often left her room in disarray, and considering she didn't really like messes she always ended up organizing and cleaning after school for fifteen minutes. Once she was finished she left her office and sat at the piano in her classroom. She adored how open and large the music rooms were. They had to be in order for her to teach choir or hold sessions with the kids she taught privately. Being confined to a small room all day would drive her insane. It was another one of the many advantages she had to being a music teacher. She looked at the piece of music currently occupying the stand and started playing it. It was the favorite song that had crossed her mind only seconds earlier. She closed her eyes during the intro and envisioned that she was Eponine, walking the streets of France. She started in on the first few bars. "On my own, pretending he's beside me. All alone I walk with him till morning." She continued on letting herself completely become the character, the way she had so many years ago.
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