The Singers Thread

[Varnafindë]

"We should have another lesson as soon as possible" sounds a lot better than "I suppose I could fit you in twice a month".

"You were born to sing."
Wow!!!

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Did it go well to leave your other teacher? I remember you dreaded that conversation.

Hmm, yes, i've been wondering about this, too. Do tell???

[Varnafindë]

*queues up to listen*

[Tessar]

Well, children, once upon a time....

I went and told her a week or two back. She started to tear up when I was telling her, and she was totally shocked, and unfortunately the first thing out of her mouth was, "But you'll come study with me over the summer!"

*sigh* So I, because I was having a bad day already and a stressful week, just said, "Yeah, sure," and could have kicked myself for it. Because right after that she was like, "Well I'll have more free time next semester, so we'll start studying again regularly then," to which I just sort of made a non-committal comment. Honestly though I was like, "... seriously? You're going to start crying? Emotional blackmail..."

If she pushes for it over the summer, or next semester, I guess I'll either just make some excuses or say something along the lines of wanting to continue working with him for a while because I don't just want to hop from teacher to teacher. She wont be happy no matter what I do, but I'm hoping that if I turn her down again she'll take the hint.

But the long and short of it is that, for the moment, I have absolutely zero intention of working with her again. She was great, but I am making SUCH improvements, and people are starting to take notice of my voice. The new changes are very obvious, and I'm singing with much more ease.

[Earniel]

It's a shame it had to go like that, but well, one must be able to depend on a teacher to be around to teach. It'd be interesting to see if she does make good on her promise and actually manages to make time for you in the summer. Although I reckon you'd be happier if she doesn't.

It sounds like you had quite a stroke of good fortune to be able to find a new teacher so quickly and one that suits you so well. I imagine that isn't always as easy.

[Varnafindë]

If you hadn't found another teacher, would she have expected you to do no more than sing in the bathroom this semester until she might - might - be able to give you some of her time again?
If she misses you so much, why can't she give you higher priority?

She should expect that you will have to move on.

[Voronwen]

I'm so glad things went as well as they did. I half expected her to be upset at you, or something.. I'm very happy that she took it relatively well.

[Tessar]

Hmmm, pretty disappointed in myself... I haven't been good about keeping up with lessons, which was a big reason for getting a new teacher. I've been letting school and laziness get in the way.

Back to work!!!

But seriously... gotta stay on top of things. On the plus side, my voice is still getting better even just doing some work on my own with the things he's shown me, which is encouraging.

Plus last night I got a big complement... I was practicing at the university and a friend came by. She heard me sing something, and then I was listening to the playback on my laptop and as soon as she heard it she said, "Oh gross, don't listen to that--it's not doing you justice at all. Your voice is way fuller and has lots of overtones that thing isn't picking up." Which was nice. I wasn't very happy with what I was hearing, so it's nice to know that I sound a little better than the recording is making me sound.

Voronwen... any updates? Auditioning?

[Varnafindë]

It doesn't surprise me at all that a laptop doesn't pick up the details of your voice, Tessar. Really good that she could tell you about the real thing!

[Tessar]

Voronwen, where are you?!

Interesting lesson today. I feel like I sang very well, and because of that we're trying something a little different. We're letting my voice sit in the middle of my palate because I can make pure vowels in that "area".

I kind of like my voice in the middle of my palate, I suspect because the pure vowels feel "good" to sing, and (as he's said before) the placement will probably naturally settle further back over time... so there's no reason at this point to sacrifice the pure vowel just for a little more 'richness'.

One neat thing... he's talked about the 'pocket' of the voice (he calls it "putting the voice in the pocket"). It's like that little bright ball of resonant sound you 'feel' in your head sort of 'scoops' up a little higher, and a little farther back... he says that's what happens when you place your voice correctly, and then your resonators open. The 'pocket' is when the resonators open. I discovered how to do it about a week ago, and he was very excited when he heard me do it.

I'm also getting my breath to flow better, which is making that little "middle-low" area of my voice (from the G3 to the C#4) sound and feel great. I had fallen back into my old habit of kind of "holding my breath" while I sang. Funny how the right amount of breath feels like too much!

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Plus last night I got a big complement... I was practicing at the university and a friend came by. She heard me sing something, and then I was listening to the playback on my laptop and as soon as she heard it she said, "Oh gross, don't listen to that--it's not doing you justice at all. Your voice is way fuller and has lots of overtones that thing isn't picking up." Which was nice. I wasn't very happy with what I was hearing, so it's nice to know that I sound a little better than the recording is making me sound.

That's nice!

Reminds me of a funny (but nice) compliment I got from my middle son's friend (13 yr old boy) - I was playing my harp downstairs, and they were playing video games upstairs. They took a break, and he came downstairs for a drink, and stopped halfway down the stairs when he saw I was playing the harp. He said, "Whoa - I thought that was REAL music!" (i.e., a recording)

[Tessar]

Aww, Rian. That's so sweet.

[Tessar]

I swear I must have one of the most dysfunctional bodies anywhere when it comes to singing.

Today we discovered that APPARENTLY YOU DON'T MAKE "N"S WITH YOUR TONGUE BEHIND YOUR BOTTOM TEETH. How the #$%)# was I supposed to know that? I blame each and every one of you for never mentioning that to me at some point in my life. I mean geeze... I've only been on the 'moot coming up on 10 years. SOMEONE should have told me.

But yeah... I've always sung 'n's with the tip of my tongue behind my bottom teeth and a hump in my tongue at the front that made the 'n' sound... apparently normal people sing 'n' with their tongue (basically) flat against the roof of their mouth, with the tip behind the UPPER teeth. Who knew?!

So we played around with that for the entire lesson and it worked really, really well. Interestingly enough, I think it clicked something else in my brain because my overall tongue tension with all of my consonants/vowels lessened significantly when we figured that one thing out. Weird, huh?

Also Voronwen will probably be glad to hear that we've actually moved my voice forward a little bit. It's not in the front like with my old teacher, but it's not so far back now. We've put it in the middle of my mouth, and that helps me make pure vowels. So rather than putting the vowels back right now like we had been, we'll let them slide back over time, maintaining the middle placement.

[Earniel]

Well, you know, Tess, when you came here, we all kinda expected you to know how to talk.

Clearly this was a major oversight of us.

[Jonathan]

Maybe we should go through the rest of the consonants too Tessar, just to be sure

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Well, you know, Tess, when you came here, we all kinda expected you to know how to talk.

Yes, that was your first mistake.

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Maybe we should go through the rest of the consonants too Tessar, just to be sure

OMG he and I totally did that. We spent the whole lesson going, "na, na, na," "ba, ba, ba," "ta, ta, ta," "ca, ca, ca," "pa, pa, pa," etc.

[Tessar]

Huzzah! Seeing some definite vocal improvements based around figuring out the "n" thing. Interestingly, I can sing -anything- better right now if I start it with an "n" than if I just start it out normally. O_o It's just opening my voice up really easily for some reason.

So I'm doing a lot of songs in the style of, "Nnnnfor he's like, nnnnna refiner's fire. Nnnnlike a refiner's fire. Nnnnnnand who shall stand when he, nnnnwhen he appeareth?"

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Tessar

So I'm doing a lot of songs in the style of, "Nnnnfor he's like, nnnnna refiner's fire. Nnnnlike a refiner's fire. Nnnnnnand who shall stand when he, nnnnwhen he appeareth?"

I don't remember who wrote the original lyrics (by compiling Bible texts), but I seem to remember it to be slightly different

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

I don't remember who wrote the original lyrics (by compiling Bible texts), but I seem to remember it to be slightly different

Pffft. Maybe in.... the.... St. James translation. I'm using the.... original.... Hebrew translation.

*cough*


Figured out yesterday that every time I try to 'relax' and 'just sing' (and why my 'crooner' and 'pop' voice is crap ) is that I drop off all of my energy. Also whenever I head for a high note and try to relax into it, it's never quite as good as it should be because (I realized) in an effort to 'stay loose' I don't keep that inner energy that I need.

It makes soooo much sense, now. I can 'support' and 'place the voice' all I want, but without that sense of inner energy and drive, my voice isn't going to get all of the upper and lower frequencies it needs because my breath wont be moving as fast. I can also hold notes/phrases a lot longer with the higher energy than when I try to relax and conserve my air.

Thinking back, it also explains what happened at my last competition (a year ago) where I took third place. In the first round, I was totally ramped up and determined to make the final round. I had a ton of energy. But for the finals round, I kept telling myself "relax, relax, just sing without effort." I ended up overblowing my high notes and my voice just wasn't "there".

Last night at rehearsal, making sure to sing with lots of energy, I was singing next to my teacher the whole time, and about an hour into the rehearsal he turned to me and said (imperiously ), "You know, Tessar, you are making some absolutely delicious sounds tonight. Good work."
YAY!!!!

Almost makes up for no Dragon Age II.

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Almost makes up for no Dragon Age II.

In the long run, it certainly should