TIME AND HARD WORK

Elizabeth Edge had an ah-ha moment when she was a senior in high school.

She was the president of the school’s select choir, and the director needed to be out for a minute and asked Edge to teach a lesson to the eighth-graders.

She thought to herself, I can’t teach a lesson to eighth graders. But, nonetheless, she started writing the lesson on the board.

“As I looked out and I was telling them what their assignment was, I just saw like these little light bulbs clicking, and they all understood what they were supposed to be doing,” Edge said.

They asked her a few questions, which Edge mastered.

“I was like, this is what I want to do. I knew I wanted to go to school for music. I mean, that was a given, but teaching, I was like, ‘No, no, not for me.’ It was. It was for me. I lied to myself apparently. And I was like, I can do this. This is what I needed to do.”

Edge and her husband, Aaron, are newcomers to Cordell. Aaron Edge recently took over as the band director at Cordell High School.

Edge is looking for a permanent elementary-level teaching job in the area, but preferably in Cordell.

She loved music from an early age – “My mom was a singer. When we were little, she would sing to us going to bed,” she said.

She played instruments and performed in music through high school and pursued a double degree in vocal music education and performance at Southwestern Oklahoma State University.

She kind of just fell in love with elementary education, she said.

“I was really gung-ho about high school whenever I started my degree,” Edge said. “I can’t wait to do competition, show choir, then I observed one elementary classroom, and I fell in love with it. The kids were just so enamored with music.”

The kids enjoyed all aspects of it and were so excited to be in music class.

“It was mind-blowing to think that kids could learn so much by just walking into a classroom. I love kids, and I love music, and I decided to put those things together.”

High school sweethearts

Being in a household with another musician can keep things a little competitive.

Sometimes, it seems, it can be like who can break the windows first with their instrument.

“We get mad at each other all the time because he plays trumpet and he’s very loud,” Edge said. “And so he’ll be in the house playing or whatever, and I’ll be yelling at him and then the tables will turn because I’ll be in the office practicing. And then he’s yelling at me from across the house.”

They worry about being too noisy for the neighbors. “If they hear us, I’m so sorry,” she said. “We’re a loud couple. But other than that, it’s kind of like, he doesn’t mess with my vocal stuff and I don’t mess his trumpet stuff.”

Aaron and Elizabeth are high school sweethearts and have watched each other grow as artists.

This is how they met: “His brother owned an ice cream shop that he worked at in the mall. And I took my sister and she ditched me. And that’s how it started.

“Oh, that feels like forever ago,” she said.

There is an advantage in being married to another musician, though.

“It’s not always nice having the guy with relative pitch in your ear saying, ‘Hey, you’re flat.’ But, you know, he’s really supportive when it comes to things like, you know, one of my professors is like, you did this completely wrong. What is wrong with you? And I’m like, ‘What do you mean I did it wrong?’ And I’m having a panic attack or whatever. He’s usually there to tell me, ‘OK, calm down. This is how you need to do it.’ It’s nice. Having someone who understands music just as much as you do it, if not more, it’s just nice.”

Teach me to sing

Focus on music education is only one passion for Edge. She also loves to perform – and teach people to sing.

Her most recent performance was a full-length opera at SWOSU her senior year, when she portrayed Alcina in Handel’s Alcina. She’s slated to do her senior recital online soon.

And you want to learn to sing? Edge can help with that.

“I think for around here, a lot of kids just want to be able to sing,” Edge said. “They want that access to music.”

People looking to sing run the gamut, she said.

Church choir? Check.

Want help refining your talents to get into college? Check.

Want to learn to breathe correctly while singing? Check.

“We can address problems. They tell me, ‘Well, I can’t hold my breath all the way out to the end of the phrase,’ or, ‘I need help with this part of my voice.’ And we address that first,” Edge said.

As she progresses with lessons, teacher and student find many times there’s another problem masking the original.

“So when we start digging, more things arise and so on,” she said. “I just help them with whatever they need me to. They come with a piece for church. I help them with the piece for church. If they come with a voice problem, I help them with the voice problem.”

Edge thinks she makes the biggest one-on-one impact with middle or high school students.

“When it comes to music fundamentals, that’s where I’m best in an elementary classroom with a whole group of students. My lessons are typically middle schoolers or high schoolers. I don’t teach lessons to elementary students,” she said.

Edge is classically trained but can help with any genre a student wants.

Just don’t expect to make it on the Voice or those big-time TV music shows any time soon.

“I think sometimes those shows make my job a little harder because I get people who want to take lessons and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be on American Idol.’ And I’m like, OK, hang on. Um, number one, you know, those shows sometimes they can be like, ‘Hey, we’re going to pay you money to cry on camera.’ You know, that kind of thing,” Edge said.

Edge said she’s not the type of person to try out for those shows anyway.

“They’re into country and modern and pop and that’s just not what I sing. So. You know, I’m always encouraging, you know, I’m always like, OK, we’ll get you there,” she said. “But first let’s work on this and this and this. So you can audition and make it through. I’ve never discouraged a student from doing it, but I think a lot of times they’re like, yeah, I want to be on the Voice, so let’s take voice lesson.”

There is no substitution for hard work, Edge said.

It takes time, and for Edge, that means a lifetime of hard work.

“I started in music in the third grade and it took me until I graduated college to be a musician, and heck, I’m still learning things. So, you know, it’s not immediate and it’s going to take time and it’s going to take a lot of work.”

Want vocal lessons?

Elizabeth Edge is offering voice lessons. You can sign up for half-hour lessons ($20) or hour lessons ($30). You can email elizabetheedge@gmail. com.

Edge is a Vocal Music Education and Vocal Performance graduate who studied under Dr. Robin Griffeath. As a freshman, she competed and won the Joyce Adams Curtis Aria Competition and performed with the SWOSU Symphony Orchestra in 2017. In the same year, Edge performed as Adele in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and placed third in Oklahoma NATS. In her Sophomore year, she won her division of Oklahoma NATS and performed as Sister Genevieve in Puccini’s Suor Angelica. Her most recent endeavors were performing the final trio from Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss, placing second in the Ladies Music Club competition, and portraying Alcina in Handel’s Alcina. Edge will be performing a Senior Recital and has completed her student teaching semester.