A music morning, in brief

Adam Ignacio, left, laughs with music instructor Eric Tucker in his office on Wednesday, April 18, 2012.

   At around 10 each morning, fast clicking and tapping echoes through the atrium of the Music Building.

   It's Eric Tucker. He walks fast.

Photos of people in Eric Tucker's life fill most wall and file cabinet spaces in his office.

   Mr. Tucker, a native of West Virginia, is a vocal instructor at Central Michigan University. Although far from home, he's never far from family. Photos of his family crowd the wall behind his Macintosh monitor. More photos line the walls along a board around the room. His wife works in the School of Music office near the steps he uses to get to his office.


   Mr. Tucker has appeared in a previous LensFocus post. Music instructors are required to participate in performances at CMU.

   On most days, his student and close friend, Adam Ignacio, sits in the recliner and has small talk with Mr. Tucker. Mr. Ignacio, a fifth-year senior, said he has known Mr. Tucker for four years.


   Mr. Tucker checks his emails quickly and makes a couple brief phone calls. He gets up and walks to the piano and takes a sip of water from a thick CMU coffee mug.

   Mr. Tucker has conversation with Mr. Ignacio before he taps a few keys on the piano and begins warm-up voice exercises. Mr. Ignacio, a Florida native, returns emails as Mr. Tucker's voice ranges through the music scale in a deep, booming voice. He paces slowly in front of his two-panel mirror.

   Mr. Ignacio has voice lessons with Mr. Tucker twice a week. Mr. Ignacio says he has 17 days left of college. He will perform in opera shows in Italy next year, before returning to graduate school to complete his education.

"I'll never stop being a student," Mr. Ignacio says.

   Mr. Ignacio leaves for Starbucks to get a coffee before a class that he says is unbearable without. Mr. Tucker has a meeting with the dean.

   He leaves the room and walks briskly down the hallway, shoes clacking through the silence in the atrium.

Vocal instructor Eric Tucker takes a break between voice warm-up exercises on Wednesday, April 18, 2012. Picture frames of his family rest along a board in his office.