<p>So true, srw! The wisest performers know their strengths and their weaknesses and take on other responsibilities accordingly. Alas, not all are wise. And many a student has suffered the consequences. I cannot speak for how this conveys for instrumentalists, but it happens again and again with voice. Singers are uniquely vulnerable in their need to be instructed by an outsider, because their own tools of perception are inadequate, i.e they cannot hear themselves or see what is happening while they sing. Recording devices and mirrors are helpful, but static aids. The best voice teachers are providing tools for students to find their own voices every day, with a method, a plan, and protective as well as developmental procedures. They must be able to explain in a mutually comprehensible language. There are wonderful contributions to be made by performers as vocal coaches, lanugage, style, characterization, in ways the pure vocal pedagogue cannot usually. It takes a villlage…</p>