The particular characteristic of the PGSB is the connection of singing, speech training, scenic lessons and repetition. Only the student's interests in the studies are important. It is possible to finish lessons for them in which are weak points or in which the students have a lot to catch up on. The learning at school is a completion for pros in music who have a profession. The PGSB has got advantages over the conventional private schools. Contents are connected among themselves and all the teachers come into contacts with the others. Students are given a good advice.

The programme of the school is either a preparation of examination at a state college or a private study which the students are led to being ready for the stage within four or five years. Then the students can take an external examination at a college. The students can take the necessary subjects at a Berlin college externally.

Parts of the programme of the PGSB are conceived as a supplementary study for members of choir, educationists and dancers. Teaching objectives, lengths and extents of contents are made out for professional demands together with speakers, senior lecturers (Am.: associate professor) and executives.

The framework

The existing course of study of the PGSB is a framework. It does not content a overall view about all lessons and details of the training. At our school you can take private lessons or group learning. The preciseness of the existing course is written in the teaching curriculum. The PGSB makes following demands on knowledge and ability:

1. a well-developed sense for music and singing,

2. a healthy voice (a medical opinion is required),

3. eagerness to learn,

4. rhythmical sense,

5. correspondence between phenotype and voice.

The applicants have to do an aptitude test and should have best successes.
Demands are:

• singing of an easy folk song from memory,

• performing of an opera-aria and an oratorio-aria from memory,

• reciting of a poem and a text in prose from memory,

• it is favorable to have abilities in piano-playing,

• it is favorable to have knowledge in theory of music (scales, intervals, triads, cadences).

Teachers of the PGSB teach children of the pre-school years and pupils of the first and second school years, too. The PGSB knows that it takes a responsibility for the children and pupils and wants to help developing musicalness together with their parents. Further details about the study you can get in a letter if you have more questions.

Teaching curriculum

Pupils of the PGSB who has been under contract get lessons in three subjects:

1. Singing lessons


Pupils are taught on the basis of the Martienssen- Lohmann- method and the teachers have got professional experience for many years. Important details are quality of the voice:
 


• irreproachable breathing technique,

• accuracy of the entry of the vocabulary and the whole intonation,

• mastery of the voice-power,

• articulateness,

• vocalization of initial and final vowels,

• resonance and sound intensity of the voice,

• homogenousness of the various pitches of the voice relating to timbre,

• mastery of note sequences,

• skill to coloratura and change of the tempo,

• mastery of the kinds of phrasing legato, martellato, staccato.


Within the fist year the teaching objective is to sing a song from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and an easy opera aria or oratorio aria. The pupils have the choice of the songs and the aria. It can be an acquired scene of the dramatic lesson, too. After the first year pupils have to take an exam.


2. Scenic-dramatic lessons

The scenic- dramatic lessons are the most important subjects during the study. There the complexity can be shown between singing and scenic arrangement on the stage. The particular teaching objectives are in that conception.


3. Speech training

The concentration on that subject is directed towards musical techniques of the breathing, the voice and articulateness.

The method of the speech training

Our method of speech training includes in the whole man in ist personality and trains the sense-bound manner of the speaking and expression and guarantees the application of the technical abilities in the practice (both in the occupation and in the everyday life).

Important fundamental laws of speaking:
 

• natural bearing,

• natural balance of tension and relaxation,

• correct breathing (abdominal and thoracic breathing),

• wide resonance space,

• larynx in natural low position,

• mobility of the organs of speech (lips, tongue, lower jaw),

• no crossing and falling of the indifference,

• trained sense of hearing,

• no speaking without listeners and without having reference to the room

The korrepetition

Those lessons are the meaningful end of the programme of the PGSB. Here literature is connected with piano music, which is brought into action at the scenic-dramatic lessons. The lessons require many years of experience and practical knowledge.

The lessons

The school year takes 12 months (36 weeks) in the rhythm of the lessons of the colleges, except individual arrangements. Private lessons are made in the private studios of the teachers. Scenic lessons are held in groups. The admission to the PGSB is after an entrance examination, over the course of the months are intermediate examinations. The weekly programme contains one hour main lessons at 60 minutes, one main lesson speech training at 45 minutes, one lesson korrepetition at 45 minutes and every two weeks scenic lessons in groups at 90 minutes (at least four students). Actually the programme of lessons is 500 Euro monthly. Supplementary private lessons can be arranged.

Final observation

The four lessons of the PGSB are an interesting offer. They enrich the spectrum of the artistic training. We are convinced our school has very big chances to establish.