While searching some old notebooks for something else, I found a few short paragraphs I had written long ago about my teaching philosophy. The wise woman I stole this concept from was Glenda, which is why this is posted under The Glenda Files. I hope you enjoy it.
This is not my own metaphor--I learned it from a very wise woman--but I have embellished it so much and told it so many times that I can no longer tell you what is hers and what is mine. I believe that the voice is not something you build, as if you had been given a deluxe set of legos. Each person's voice comes complete and intact, a glowing ball of light. The size and color vary from person to person, but all of us have one of the beautiful glowing globes.
Voice lessons are about gradually removing the layers of material that life creates to cover that light. (I've always imagined the material covering my light as layers and layers of papier-mâché.) Little by little we peel away the layers revealing the beauty beneath.
Layers may include fear, misconceptions, over thinking, over working, and a host of issues whose origin we may not be able to identify, but must learn to deal with anyway. As a bonus, we discover that much more is revealed than just a voice; you cannot reveal the beauty of the voice without revealing the beauty of the person in whom that voice is housed.
