AT and the singing teacher

I had a reminder this week of the need to monitor my own coordination when I am teaching voice lessons.  I found myself consistantly physically tired after a day of teaching singers and not in a way that made sense to me. I play piano during lessons, but not intensely or throughout and I do move about during lessons in order to model.  Am I tensing in order to listen to my students?  Am I concentrating?  Tightening to think?

My real clue came when I realized I was starting to mouth the words of my singers' songs while they sang.  Since I am a singer also, I was calling on my singing coordination in order to teach, rather than calling on my listening coordination!  No wonder I was tired at the end of the day; it was as if I was singing for 6 hours or more.

Calling on my listening coordination to teach was an entirely different experience in the studio.  Most particularly, my breathing stayed relaxed and everyday, rather than expanded for singing.  I became more of a n observer and less of a participant in the students' process.