The Singers Thread

[Tessar]

http://youtu.be/OIhIj6DpNaU

Geeze I wish I could sing like that. I mean she has no technique, and what she's doing can't be good for her voice, but just listen to that raw emotion. You don't find a lot of people who can do that. She's completely amazing. I think I might even give up the technique if I could have that kind of emotional ability.

[Tessar]

Potentially exciting developments. Got a message from the new chorus director for the local opera company (she did the conducting and coaching for the last school opera a year ago and apparently really liked me despite the fact that I never got to sing more than chorus ) saying she might need a bass.

So I called her. Turns out she might have an opening for a bass depending how things go in the next few days, and even if that doesn't pan out she thinks she wants me to come audition in a few weeks.

Opera rehearsals would make this summer truly packed and difficult, but that would also be amazing. Here's hoping.

Teacher wants me to learn Lord God of Abraham from Elijah, and Se Vuol Balare from Marriage of Figaro for the audition. Luckily the Elijah is SO singable and shouldn't take long to memorize, and the Se Vuol Balare I sang forever ago and it's still partially memorized.

[Tessar]

Eeeee, say a pray and cross your fingers for me. I was just informally offered an opportunity to do some music directing and teach voice through a friend's acting studio. It would be working with kids, which I love to do.

I really, really want this to happen so lets all cross our fingers, toes, and eyes that Tessar gets to do some voice lessons.

[Nerdanel]

oh, good luck with that! that'd be great!

[Varnafindë]

*crosses whatever she's got*

[Tessar]

So my voice has been changing some with my last few lessons, and at first I thought my voice was just becoming completely atrocious. It felt like I was either bellowing, or 'lowing' like a bull/cow, and throaty to match, but I trusted him and boy has it paid off. O_o

Apparently my placement was still too 'frontal'. So we overcorrected backwards again, and now my voice is sitting comfortably and it's tipping easily up into the mix and headvoice. The coolest thing is that now I can sing a legato line much, much better than I ever have before. My voice feels smaller and smaller all of the time, but on the recordings it's getting bigger so that's a good thing.

Also working on the breathing again. Making sure that every breath drops all the way down to my pelvis makes a huge difference... also making sure that the 'band' of pressure is evenly distributed. Before I was clenching my stomach to create support, and that was actually cutting me off from letting the air flow easily.




So for a "solo" (trio, at this point) at the end of next month, I'm trying to arrange "What Wondrous Love Is This," for baritone, mezzo-soprano, and violin. O_o I don't know what came over me, but the organist got really excited because it means he wont have to play .

I'm heavily inspired by this version by Connie Dover: http://youtu.be/yiJIUFy5a1w Although I am not using the same verses as she does.

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

Intro with bell tolling (it will be a Low D handbell). Bell will toll twice, then baritone voice sings first verse over 'drone' of bell in light-opera/folk style. Second verse is either baritone and violin, or baritone, mezzo and violin in three part harmony still light folk style. Third verse (dramatic) is full-out opera style voices with full-volume violin. Small interlude of violin and bell begins to toll again. Fourth verse is primarily unison, with occasional harmonies, again over the drone of the bell.


Any thoughts? Right now I'm not sure if it's too jarring to go from bell and one voice into a sudden two-part harmony without the bell at all. But I don't want the bell to go through the whole thing... that would be like... five minutes of bell tolling.

[Tessar]

Singing well takes an extraordinary effort, but trying to learn to sing professionally might be the death of me.

I started working with a new coach (in addition to my voice teacher) last week. It's the guy who originally hired me to sing Bass at the church I still sing at (he is 83 now O_o). He works me till I'm literally sweating and feel like I've run a marathon, and I kinda love it.

It's hard though. It takes so much mental focus, and so much physical work.

It's hard... you have to relax the lips, open the throat, expand the ribs, relax the tongue, lift the soft palate, keep all of the resonance placed high in your head, keep the voice in a nice back/round placement, sing pure vowels, lean into the consonants but not clip the vowels off with them, give every note energy but let the phrase draw the energy to the important words, not give away too much breath on the consonants..... do you see what I mean? O_o It's all so much.


I'm having to do a weird mental limbo to work with him, and he explained his methodology to me. He stops me every few seconds when I sing to fix something that he knows I can do better... it's not that I sound bad, but I can do it better right now. But he's not stopping me to fix everything because some techniques are still beyond me and we have to fix other things first.

But it's comforting to see the work that I can now do on my own to continue to improve and polish my sound. Better to see a mountain of work I can start climbing than to sit on top of a molehill wondering where the mountain is and never be able to get started on it.



One neat thing we're working on is making my vowel adjustments smaller. So we're really working on relaxing my tongue and lips when I sing. The other thing he's having me do is speak "ah, ae, ee, oh, oo," but with my lips closed, so I can feel where each vowel naturally lands and feel just how tiny the adjustment from vowel to vowel really is. I have been doing WAY too much mouth and lip work to form the vowels, which is something a lot of singers do.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Singing well takes an extraordinary effort, but trying to learn to sing professionally might be the death of me.

Ha!

Indeed, my friend!!

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Better to see a mountain of work I can start climbing than to sit on top of a molehill wondering where the mountain is and never be able to get started on it.

Good point - and well said!
Best of luck with your climbing!

[Voronwen]

I'm singing Gounod's Ave Maria at my grandfather's memorial celebration tomorrow. The piece is at least one fach too big for my voice, and i'll be emotional to boot. Pray for me!

[Varnafindë]

I'll pray, my friend

Such an occasion is more difficult than a usual concert, I know.

[Tessar]

I'm sorry Voronwen. Best of luck!

[Voronwen]

Thank you, friends!

I miss this place. I need to lurk around more often!

[Tessar]

Yes you do! We miss you.

I've been really trying to learn to sing with my chest up (I tend to collapse it), and with less breath. The chest thing is pretty easy to do now (just have to keep an eye on my posture) but the air thing is taking some time.

It's hard to figure out the balance... when I'm singing with less air my instinct is that I'm not singing out (even though it's just as loud, minus an unpleasant, pressurized "edge"). Also figuring out the difference between giving the sound more energy vs. just pushing a lot of breath through and thinking that's energizing the tone.

I really love the coach I'm working with. He's fantastic. Having some problems getting lessons with my voice teacher, because he keeps forgetting that we've scheduled lessons... but it's okay. The coach is helping me keep things in shape when I miss lessons.

[Tessar]

I discovered some neat stuff when I was practicing tonight. I've been doing a thing to get my jaw to naturally go into a 'down and back' position (to create space in the back of my mouth) where I look up at the roof, and let my mouth fall open.

Haven't really gotten it to make a difference in my singing till tonight. I suddenly discovered how to make what feels like a huge 'cavern' space in the back of my throat (I think my tongue was getting tense and arching up before, and I got it to relax). I'm pretty sure it's the right thing to do, because my vowels don't seem to distort... my "ee" vowel sounds a lot more pure.

Didn't get to play with it much. I discovered it right before my parents went to bed.

The space tried to go away when I sang high notes, which makes me think that up to now even though I was opening my mouth wider (which helped), I was dropping my palate and raising the back of my tongue... both of which made the space smaller.

So wheee. More experimentin' tomorrow.

[Tessar]

Also: Completely obsessed with this.

http://youtu.be/GaJ3adMgsbY


Must sing it.

[Tessar]

Listen to the first few seconds and be amazed:

http://youtu.be/bzgE5r2jqfE


Then skip to 2:11 and HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN.

[Tessar]

Finally got myself on a regular practice schedule, and only three days in I'm seeing massive improvements.

Imagine if I actually practiced ALL of the time instead of making excuses.

But to be fair, I have learned things since last time I was able to practice regularly that make me A.) More effective at using my practice time and B.) Allow my to use my voice longer.

Discovered this last week how to get better support going. Experimented with the idea of making a small hole by making an "ok" sign and then putting your lips against it and blowing. I've done it before, and felt the low muscles engage, but then I had an idea and I tried blowing really hard (without tensing) and MAN. O_o Some extra support muscles I've not used before kicked in. Makes a big difference!

Also figured out that my soft palate is definitely playing the part of roller-coaster. It explains why my sound will shimmer for a second, then sound not-quite right, then shimmer, etc... apparently my palate is falling and rising in the middle of phrases/words/diphthongs. Working on keeping it raised is giving me a lot more consistency.

[Varnafindë]

Not quite sure whether this thread is the right one for this - but anyway ...

I was listening to harp pieces at youtube after reading the instrumentalists' thread, and one piece led to another, and soon I was far off from the harp - and instead I found a singer, a fellow Norwegian, Sissel Kyrkjebø.

What she's singing here is a traditional wedding march.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZZl9...eature=related

And then a song which I love even more - Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu - which gives her the chance to really show what her soprano voice can do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSKnk...eature=related

I'm amazed ...

[Tessar]

I LOVE Sissel Kyrkjebo!!! Her voice is so pure, but not without some depth to the sound. So many sopranos that get described as having a "pure" voice are really just strained, or not singing with their full voice. But she really has a gorgeous, pure tone.

I stumbled across her by accident as well, some years ago. I was looking for the Pie Jesu on iTunes about five or six years ago, and I stumbled across her singing it. I was instantly enchanted.

If you like her, be sure to check out Barbara Bonney. Another beautiful, pure soprano voice.