Description

As voice teachers, we want to offer good feedback to our students and let them know how they can improve their performance.

But could our delivery of this feedback affect how well our students take in the new information?

As the Associate Director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, Lynn Maxfield, PhD, regularly researches voice pedagogy, vocology, and how motor learning applies to voice teachers. His studies have revealed that although teachers are conditioned to regularly comment on a student’s performance, remaining silent and allowing a student time to process their actions — as opposed to immediately providing feedback — is more beneficial for active learning.

In this episode, we discuss:

1. (4:22) How Lynn’s experiences in vocology gave him an appreciation for the complexity of the cognitive and neuromuscular system.
2. (9:22) Why instructors find it so challenging to not provide feedback.
3. (11:51) The value of creating silent spaces to let students process their performance before they hear your feedback.
4. (17:40) When most teachers begin providing feedback during lessons (and why this disrupts the learning process).
5. (20:38) The difficulties of reflecting on the skills used in a longer performance
6. (25:55) If giving yourself time to process your own performance when practicing alone is helpful
7. (28:13) The debate over whether students benefit more from an internal or external locus of attention (and why their skill level may factor into this)
8. (35:44) Why teachers need to constantly adapt their general teaching skills during each lesson
9. (37:30) Why students need to be in the proper headspace to benefit from a lesson (and the scientific reason for why yelling yourself hoarse at a concert isn’t good for you).
10. (48:08) Why spacing voice lessons further apart can be beneficial for advanced singers

Find Lynn at the Utah Center for Vocology and the University of Utah. The textbook Lynn mentions, “Motor Learning and Performance: From Principles to Application” by Timothy D. Lee and Richard A. Schmidt, can be purchased on Amazon.

Tom started a spirited discussion with Lynn at (25:55) on the value of practicing without feedback. Join in by sharing your thoughts, opinions, and insights by emailing us at hello@vocaladvancement.com and leave us a comment!

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