Seth Godin has pointed out that no marathon coach can promise, “I can teach you how to run a marathon without getting tired.”
No, a marathon coach’s job is to teach you how to manage the tiredness.
It’s important that vocal music educators understand that that’s our job, too. It’s our job to tell our students it won’t be easy. It’s our job to give our students two different sets of skills.
The first set is vital: musicianship skills, vocal technique, balance, blend, intonation, etc. A massive number of skills to master.
But the second set is even more vital: the skill to take something that isn’t polished, and face disappointment, frustration, ego, incompetence, snow days, bad acoustics, and, yes, tiredness, and continue to positively work towards the ultimate goal.
It won’t be easy, and here’s how to keep going. Learning to manage all of the emotions that live in that sentence is surpassingly vital, and it is our responsibility to actively teach our students to do it.