Human voices are as unique as fingerprints, so singing is like sharing your soul with the world. Critique requires evaluation of that uniqueness, a process that can tear into someone’s self-esteem.
“Painful,” Rebecca Seeman said. “I can get teary talking about this.”
Rebecca Seeman is the choral director at the University of San Francisco and of the Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus. She’s a well-practiced conductor, but she previously studied vocal performance, an experience that she found deeply challenging.
“It’s a very vulnerable thing that we do when we sing in front of people; we expose our inner selves. It’s extremely challenging to put yourself out for that kind of critique,” Seeman said.
Music is personal. Yet, its industry is built upon objectively judging music and asserting its value.
Industry may be the wrong word, though, as critique’s form within the public eye has shifted across the decades. Historically, journals and professional reviewers created the majority of published reviews. Reviewing was a paid career. With the availability of the internet and review websites, many aspects of judgment have shifted to the views of everyday people.
Schools, however, may have shifted critique to an even more personal angle.
Critique has existed for longer than anyone can judge as a natural form of growth within changing survival tactics, before extending into the arts. Judging the arts is inherently sensitive due to the personal aspect of creating art, so the practice is highly debated and strategies vary. The way music is critiqued is often parallel to the details a group puts into their performance of the piece, not just in the score.
“If we’re singing something from Haiti, we’re going to choose a combination of technical features with our vocal anatomy that supports that,” Seeman said.
According to the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, the meaning of music cannot be critiqued without acknowledging human values and cultural specifics.
“If we’re singing something by Whitacre or Palestrina or Zanaida Robles, we are going to shift how we’re approaching the music with our bodies so that we’re authentic,” Seeman said.
According to Edward T. Cone the Journal of the American Musicological Society, a reviewer of music’s authority comes from the trust the reader places in them, which is often correlated with how much the reader agrees with the reviewer, leading to a biased outlook on reviews.
Unlike a reviewer of music, according to Cone, a teacher’s focus when judging a composition is to help the creator improve or perfect their work by questioning the student’s methods and product.
“I think one of the most critical things is to maintain a sense of vitality in your performance space and in your musical community,” Seeman said. “You do that by continuing to innovate. You can’t stagnate.”
According to the Hudson Review, professional musical critique in America has been disregarded because of public perception of its value.
Although there have been instances where musical review magazines and journals gained popularity over the centuries, there still isn’t a solid market for this kind of writing. While it may have lost its popularity as a whole, critique is still present in many situations.
Critique is embedded in music programs at schools. Although all teaching requires critique, musical critique requires a focus on making old compositions’ messages carry over into fresh performances.
“I had some inspiring teachers when I studied voice and conducting, so my introduction to music making was with people who are really technically proficient musicians but are also thinking outside of the box of how we make music, and how we keep the art form relevant,” Seeman said.
According to the American Psychological Association, students do better in school when participating in music courses, especially instrumental music. Although this doesn’t necessarily mean that music education caused the kids to do better in other subjects, it does show a positive correlation between the two.
“I think to be able to teach an instrument requires understanding the instrument more and being able to effectively communicate to the students in the language that they will be able to understand,” said Emi Ota, a junior and music mentor at Carlmont.
Carlmont High School’s music mentoring program is a program where experienced high school musicians teach elementary students how to improve their musicianship before they go into middle school and join a full orchestra or band.
“When I teach, I gain more communication skills to be able to adapt to various situations. If a student doesn’t understand a concept, I might change the wording, make it more hands-on, or focus on critical thinking,” Ota said.
When I teach, I gain more communication skills to be able to adapt to various situations. If a student doesn’t understand a concept, I might change the wording, make it more hands-on, or focus on critical thinking.
— Emi Ota
Students grow differently with different strategies, so it is important to tune teaching to the ways students learn. This benefits both students and teachers through the innovation necessary to find unique ways to learn new skills.
“My teachers help their students improve on their areas of strength, rather than focusing on their weaknesses. When they develop their skills and gain confidence, they will naturally begin to take challenges in places that they’re not comfortable in,” Ota said.
Critique in music education can be a double-edged sword. Some teachers choose to only focus on the positives in the hope that their students will respond positively to the course, while others pick at small faults or fundamental issues with their students’ techniques.
“I prefer constructive feedback because the more I get, the more I can improve,” Kurtic said. “Positive feedback is nice, but criticism gives me more noticeable improvements, although it is nice to get them together.”
A well-trained teacher can provide any student with greater musical understanding by leveraging both tools and fostering a comfortable, growth-forward environment.
“I always let my choirs know what themes I’m developing for our concerts,” Seeman said. “If my students have repertoire in mind, or anything that I can just throw into a list for the future that they love, I’ll take those pieces that they send and see what fits the concert and feels good for the group.”
An environment where everyone in the group can add their own pieces allows for a diverse and engaging repertoire for the larger group to interact with. This can help new musicians become more comfortable putting their music out in the world.
Feedback can be hard to take, but it isn’t just used to improve a product, it also allows more openness to growth. With the direction the internet has taken, more people are able to become musical artists but are less likely to be well-trained or get good critiques.
“I feel like the overall quality has really been diminished,” Seeman said. “But if you are an artist and you intend to pursue a career in the arts, it’s really hard to make a living.”
The increase in accessibility to music in schools may help balance this out, though, especially with programs like music mentors inspiring students to become strong teachers and musicians.
“I just value music mentoring a lot. I thought that I would be the one teaching, but I noticed that it goes both ways,” Ota said. “I teach the students some things, but I’ve also been taught by the students a lot of the time, and it’s been wonderful.”
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