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She thought that with a few lessons she could be a millionaire pop star. What would you do honestly if such a person came to you?

I would tell her the truth. That it will take (a minimum of) one to (more likely) three and possibly more years of daily practice and weekly lessons to grow her instrument into something that would be considered professional, and that there is no earthly way she (or anyone else) will ever sound like Mariah because Mariah is Mariah. And that we don't need another Mariah. We need individual artists who are artists because they have something to say that is real, individual artists who write their own stuff and sing from the heart with their own authentic voice. A singer's job is to find themselves in their voice and reveal it. It can be done, but it takes a whole heck of a lot of work and commitment to make any dream happen. It took me 8 years to find the voice I have now.

I would also tell her some home truths of what it means to be an artist, and how you start by learning your craft & honing your skills and playing open mics and learning to write songs and grow into touring with your band and making next to nothing while you pay your dues over many years, and that there is no guarantee of success. You must do it because you love music & you are passionate about performing music.

I would say.... suppose today you decided you wanted to play the guitar as well as Santini or write songs like Jason Blume. It's possible, if you do the work. How hard do you think they worked at it? How focussed were they on their goal? How long do you think it took them to "become"? That's right, years.

She would likely not want to hear that, and so she would go elsewhere. And that's because she isn't really interested in singing at all. She just wants to be famous.

I was talking to a student today about this restrictive idea that I often see in the media and is reflected in your post. It's the idea that if you can't already sing, you don't have the talent to sing and you should just shut up. And I don't like that idea because if you look underneath that idea, it is based on the premise that whatever I am today is all I can ever be. And I challenge that premise. If I had believed that 16 years ago I never would have become the singer/songwriter / voice teacher / producer / mentor I am today.

We can all (assuming we have legs that work) run for the bus. That doesn't mean we can win an Olympic marathon. In order to win an Olympic marathon, we would have to train. And we would have to train by starting where we are now, and looking at how we run now, and how that running could be improved. Trying to run like someone else wouldn't work, because our body is different, our equipment is different. We can only train/work out at the level our body is now or we will do ourselves an injury and put ourselves out of the running. And we would have a coach that had run themselves and knows about the physics and the psychology and the physiology of running who would help us see what we are doing right and what we are doing that restricts our capacity to do more.

In terms of teaching "styles", the way I think of it is, you can paint your own mural without any help from me. But maybe you only have a can of black paint and a white wall, and one brush. After some training.... you have more tools... you have more colours, you have some other brushes. I don't tell you want to paint. I just give you the tools you need to paint it. I don't tell you to paint like Picasso. I just give you the tools so you can express yourself naturally. And maybe, in the middle of painting your mural, you might turn to me and ask, 'how do I make orange?' So I tell you. And now you know how to make orange for yourself. My job as a teacher is to make you not need me anymore because you have the tools to do what you want to do.

-H