Teaching in a Deterministic Universe, Part 2: The Student's Responsibility

Welcome to the second installment of a series on teaching voice lessons in a deterministic worldview.

Introduction and Reminders

To set the stage, we are continuing to consider what it means if the universe is deterministic. For me, that also means the universe is incompatible with free will. I will use the two terms interchangeably in my writing. It is worth noting there are philosophers who don’t automatically link those two concepts together, though that is the most common perspective.

In a deterministic universe, each moment of the macro-universe flows inevitably from the one before. A set of inputs, no matter how complicated, must equal a single outcome. We often do not have the technology or skill to calculate all the steps from input to output. Nevertheless, those steps are inescapable and deterministic.

For the purposes of voice teaching, I am not offering determinism as a metaphysical manifesto. I am offering a working lens for the studio teacher and student. Whether or not one ultimately accepts a fully deterministic universe, this framework helps clarify where responsibility, growth, and change occur. My interest here is not in resolving philosophical debates, but in examining how certain assumptions about control and agency quietly shape the way we teach and learn to sing.

What this means, as explored in an earlier blog, is that “technique” cannot be only one thing. You can never be in a position where singing is exactly as it was the last time you phonated. The inputs must be different. Your “technique” must respond and adapt to the various inputs that are being observed, from the room you are in to your emotional state at that moment.

For the student, this means your technique during a lesson emerges as a shared experience. This experience is both your current physical state and the inputs that are being received from your teacher, from your collaborators, and from your emotional response to the universe. Importantly, this doesn’t make it someone else’s; it must be yours, as no one can be you. But it is mediated by forces both within and beyond your control.

Importantly, this does not mean the student is passive in the learning process. While singers may not directly control the outcome of any given phonation, they do train attention over time: what they notice, how they interpret sensation, and how they respond to feedback. This gradual shaping of perception and responsiveness is where learning actually accumulates.

Student Responsibilities

With this in mind, let’s take a minute and consider the chain of events that leads to change in vocal production in a deterministic universe. Furthermore, let’s consider where the student can change things, and where they can’t.

The chart below is not meant to deny student agency, but to locate it more precisely. It distinguishes between moments that are causally downstream of prior conditions and moments where reflection and re-cueing can meaningfully shape what comes next.

Input (Cue)

Step	Description	Student Ability to Change
Cue	Something cues the singer to begin vocalizing. This can be internal, such as feeling the impulse to sing, or external, such as a cue from a teacher or collaborator. In either case, the student cannot change the decision to phonate. It is a response to something that arose. *	No
Phonation	Based on the infinitely complex relationships between input and phonation, a sound is created. At no point in this chain can the singer change what is happening. Every neuron and muscle fires based on the conditions that were established prior to the inputs. They may be very complicated, even incomprehensibly so, but they are there.	No
Observation	The singer observes and notes what is happening in their body and their mind while phonating. It’s worth noting that observation and phonation are happening at the same time, typically.	No
Reflection	The singer reflects upon the sensations gathered during the phonation and receives feedback from the teacher.	Yes
Implementation	The singer considers new cues and materially changes the situation for the next phonation. **	Yes
Cue	The cycle starts anew.

* Before someone gets upset, please realize you cannot willfully choose to sing or not to sing any more than you can choose to think about an elephant. You either do or do not, but there isn’t a step where you get to decide to have the thought appear in your mind. It does or doesn’t.

** Yes, materially. When you think a new thought or objective, you are physically rerouting and adjusting the state of your body so as to change the path the electrical impulses take when they fire.

*** Some of you might feel that both reflection and implementation are ultimately outside of the control of the singer as well, and I can see that point of view, certainly. Even if one takes the position that reflection and implementation are themselves fully determined, it remains pedagogically necessary to treat them as sites of agency. I believe students learn best when they experience themselves as capable of influencing future outcomes through attention, curiosity, and experimentation. In this sense, the feeling of agency is not a metaphysical claim so much as a functional requirement for learning.

Considering the above chart

Let’s explore what the chart above suggests. Where is the onus upon the student? If the student cannot directly change the output during phonation, but rather that change occurs later in the process, then that should not be the most important part of the lesson. Where a student can grow is only in the response to their observations and their willingness to implement and experiment with sounds, shapes, and ideas.

Again, in this view, the student’s responsibility is not to phonate well! It is to adapt and explore the sensations that occur while phonating, iterating toward sounds that they desire. This is rarely the underlying idea presented to students during vocal studios.

Over time, repeated cueing and reflection reshape the conditions that give rise to future phonations. In turn, the phonation becomes more successful in more environments, and the “technique” improves. While no single sound is directly controlled, consistent work alters the landscape of inputs, making certain outcomes more likely and more reliable.

With this in mind, what is success as a student? Student success in the vocal studio is effective reflection on observations made during vocalization and the willingness to implement and experiment with the cues you are priming for the next phonation.

What is failure? Failure is an unwillingness to observe, reflect, or implement new concepts. It is certainly not failing to make certain sounds, as that is the condition you began with. And it is certainly not failure to succeed in making new sounds, provided the student is actually trying the ideas.

Where do we grow as singers? In the reflection period. The resulting sounds are simply the output of your successful input changes.

Where does that leave us? What are some underlying principles to take home?

• Technique, if you consider technique to be the process of phonation, is dynamic. It is different every day, every room, every teacher, every bodily state.

• Technique is unique. Technique cannot be your teacher’s, as your teacher cannot transfer any specific idea to you that is not filtered through your experiences and concepts. You do not have a teacher’s technique, only your conception of it.

• Experimentation and reflection are the goals of lessons. The only place where a student has a responsibility during a lesson is in the reflection upon the output created and the experimentation and willingness to implement concepts.

• Demonstration of certain sounds is not the goal of the student. Those sounds and shapes are the result of the real goal, which is reflection and implementation.

Practicing

Practice deserves separate consideration. It is, above all, a space for experimentation: repeated chances to observe what happens and to try new cues. For singers, most reflection and implementation will happen in the practice room.

At the same time, the practicer is not always in the best position for reflection and re-cueing. While only the singer has direct access to the physical sensations of singing, they do not always have the clearest sense of the resulting sound or the widest range of strategies for changing it.

For that reason, practice requires effort and curiosity, but also flexibility. Singers must work carefully through observation and reflection while practicing, and remain open to guidance in the next lesson—even when that guidance challenges conclusions formed alone in the practice room.