The Singers Thread

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Tessar

It sounds like you had a very wise conductor. A lot of directors will try to put ridiculously difficult music in front of an untrained group and then they get frustrated, or the singers hurt themselves, trying to sing it.

It sounds like he picked rep. with a good range for untrained sopranos . There is a break in the soprano voice right around that F5 which can make it a challenge to sing above unless you just have a natural connection, or you resort to a very small, tight falsetto sound.

He ought to be good - he was one of the college music teachers
Although that is perhaps not necessarily a guarantee.

What kind of break are you talking about here?

Btw, the Norwegian national anthem has a range that makes it hard for communal singing. It ranges from C4 to F5. You often get some very strained piping sounds up at the top!
It's beautiful when sung by a male choir, though, which is the traditional version usually performed on the radio on our Constitution Day.

Edit:
Here's a version with a choir of both male and female, though - performed in the Oslo City Hall.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

I'm not quite sure what you mean by chest/head break - but I'll try to explain what I guess that you mean.
I think I discovered as a child, all on my own, that singing was more comfortable if I let my voice sort of 'pop up' into my head. Later I learnt that I was then using the resonance chambers of my head. (I thought for a while that it had something to do with being nasal, but I now think that's something different again.)

Yes, this is what i mean - where the voice naturally wants to 'switch gears', for lack of a better term.

"Nasal" for me is something different - nasal would be an overly forward-placed, pressed, tension-filled sound that is very exhausting (Tessar, do you concur??).

Mostly it strained my voice if I kept it 'below my head', so to speak. But I also found that this was not the case with the lowest notes - they would actually be less strained if I didn't let them 'pop up'. I don't know what I'm doing to make the difference, but I know exactly how to do it. It comes natural.

How lucky you are that it comes naturally!

Now, one of the main goals of classical training is to get the registers connected seamlessly throughout. Tessar & i have gone on endlessly about this concept earlier in this thread, for good or ill!

Is this the chest/head difference you're talking about? In that case I guess that my chest/head break would be the note where it starts getting more comfortable to do one than the other.

Yes.

And the answer is that I don't know, but I'm sure I could work it out.
I would have to do some singing and feel where the break is - and then find a piano and see what note that is

I'll be interested in what you discover Do you have a teacher right now? Or at least know someone with a good level of training you can consult with in real life? That's the best way to really pinpoint things... ideally with a good technical teacher.

I don't sight-read music, but seeing the music of a tune I vaguely know, will help me to remember it - I see where the small and large jumps are (you've probably got a technical term for that, too ).

Intervals

Sometimes it will even make me recognize a tune that I know, for instance in a hymn book.

It sounds like you have a good natural grasp on what could become a sight-singing skill, with training and practice.

I find that I know some of the musical technical terms in English, but not all ...
I've done linguistics in English, though, and that helps to some extent.

You seem to be doing fine.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

He ought to be good - he was one of the college music teachers
Although that is perhaps not necessarily a guarantee.

No comment. -_-

Originally Posted by Voronwen

"Nasal" for me is something different - nasal would be an overly forward-placed, pressed, tension-filled sound that is very exhausting (Tessar, do you concur??).

*glances over cup of tea* Oh I thoroughly concur. *sips tea* Yes, quite.

But in all seriousness, yes I do concur.

Varnafine, it sounds like (from what you've described) you naturally stumbled upon good placement. It is very much like singing into the nose, but without that actually 'nasal' sound. Many people assume at first that they are singing into their nose, so they shy away from that sound, but they have actually placed the voice correctly.

That's why, with kids, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (one more: LOVE!) using the french nasal sounds. I especially like the nasal 'on' sound because it's bright, and it gets kids to place the voice nice and high. I think I've mentioned it before, but using just that one vowel I got one boy's voice to free up from being trapped in an off-pitch area of less than an octave to open up to about two octaves. It was still a very shaky sound, but he and the choir director were both very excited to have him making sounds on pitch over a much wider range.

[Voronwen]

Tessar, it sounds like you have a natural knack with working with kids!

I admire that thoroughly as i do not possess that myself *at all*!

[Empress_Flynn]

Well I haven't practiced in quite awhile, but I do sing... I took voice lessons for several years (mostly operatic stuff, though I haven't really got the voice for opera). And I was always in the choir throughout all of my school years.

I kind of miss it now

[Tessar]

Empress... it can be really hard to tell if someone has an actually operatic voice. I've known some voices (such as my own...) to blossom after a while . When I started out NO ONE thought I could be an opera singer. I might be able to some day, but I can tell you that originally my voice was so small, thin, and throaty that you would've had to have super ears to hear even a hint of operatic potential .

What kinds of things did you sing in your lessons? If you miss it, you should consider getting some lessons and getting involved again! I know it's easier to say than do, but I have a friend who didn't even start lessons till she was in her 40's, and she got involved in local theater for a couple of years. She really had a blast and kind of got her theater 'fix' doing that .

Varnafinde: Good grief! From C to F? That's torture for an untrained voice. Heck, I still wouldn't want to try it without a bit of practice beforehand O_o. I pity all of the mezzo and bass voices who have to sing it. F is relatively easy for sopranos and tenors with just a bit of training, but it's usually the top note (and maybe higher) for a lot of low voices.

My bass voice teacher, who was just incredible, claimed he never sang over an F#. I suspect if he had wanted to he could've gone higher, but good lord... would anyone want him to? His voice was huge. By the time he hit an F, you could've sworn your head was going to be crushed by the massive soundwaves .



Voronwen: I had a great opportunity to sing by feeling alone last night. Although I wont be there for three Sundays, I went to rehearsal last night and we were practicing with a brass sextet and percussion (plus the organ, of course). The noise was just incredible... I sang purely by feeling because I knew the second I tried to rely on my ears I'd lose my voice.

It went well! I think I did oversing just a tiny bit because I was trying to make 'more' of the singing sensations happen but once I realized that I was at ff the whole time I pulled back considerably and focused on just singing with ease. The good news is my technique was solid enough to allow me to sing ff for so long and not have any negative effects.

My voice is crappy, though. I've had allergy problems the last few days, and everything in my throat wants to be tight... it takes a lot of warming up for my throat not to feel awkward, and I have to be very focused so that I don't slip into the old habits of tightening up because that's what my throat is just dying to do. -_-

This modern opera is giving me fits. I'm STILL trying to learn the ending... been working on it for ages. The line itself is weird, plus when I try to sing it with the other three voices doing their own weird things that just makes it a pain. The whole rest of the opera is fine now, it's just the stupid quartet. I'll have it by Friday, I'm sure, but it gives me no end of annoyance that I can't just pick it up as quickly as I did the Figaro and Magic Flute music.

[Empress_Flynn]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Empress... it can be really hard to tell if someone has an actually operatic voice. I've known some voices (such as my own...) to blossom after a while . When I started out NO ONE thought I could be an opera singer. I might be able to some day, but I can tell you that originally my voice was so small, thin, and throaty that you would've had to have super ears to hear even a hint of operatic potential .

What kinds of things did you sing in your lessons? If you miss it, you should consider getting some lessons and getting involved again! I know it's easier to say than do, but I have a friend who didn't even start lessons till she was in her 40's, and she got involved in local theater for a couple of years. She really had a blast and kind of got her theater 'fix' doing that .

Okay, well maybe mine is just not the stereotypical operatic voice Very little vibrato, much more the kind of voice you would generally hear in Celtic music, really.

In my lessons I got all the way through my Lutgen and Vaccai, I had my book of 20 Italian arias, which I did quite a few from. Then I did several songs from musicals... at my last recital I performed "Amarilli" and "No One Knows Who I Am" from Jekyll and Hyde.

I would like to get back into it, and hopefully I will be able to when life gets a bit more settled lol... as it is right now, I'm not really in any one place long enough to start it up again

[Tessar]

My dad and I had a great breakthrough lesson!

Tonight he did the lip bubbles, and we took it up to a C#4. I always stop him as soon as the voice starts to thin out, and it seems to have worked!!! His voice would always get thin as soon as he bubbled up to a B3, but today he did a solid C#.

He didn't do quite as well on the 'woo' 'waa' 'wee' exercise. The tone was a little better, but he couldn't get it to pulse as freely. So we're trying something new, where he gently reattacks 'ah' very quickly. That went better, and I'm hoping it will be more effective. It's also a very quiet exercise, which I like because I know it will make him less self-conscious to do.

Then I had him trying to sing 'Il Mio Bel Foco' and I realized the recit was just too low for him. He has the notes, of course... I THINK he's a baritone just like me, but for the moment his low notes are still so throaty that I'm afraid they'll pull back his placement all through the voice. So I switched him to 'Alma Del Core'.

To see if he could hit the C# and D# for the song, I had him try attacking the notes and it WORKED!! I AM SO EXCITED! Now his throat is finally free enough that he can do the attack exercise my Bass teacher showed me. It really brought the voice into a better alignment. I had tried the exercise at the beginning of our lessons, but quickly realized that his throat was just too tight, he didn't have enough support, and he was not ready to start doing the hard attacks.

We tested his range after that, once he'd gotten the knack of the hard attack, and he did it up to a very thin F4. The E4 was so-so, but up to the D#4 it was VERY solid! I'm certainly not going to have him trying to sing anything over a D# for now since I'm assuming he's a baritone, and it does sound like he has a break there. I want to get the middle voice more solid before we venture into an area where he needs to blend.

I also had to stop him to explain that the hard attack is just a temporary thing. It's a great warmup and gets the voice aligned, and at first it's how we'll be attacking every phrase he sings, but I showed him how eventually the hard attack turns into a gentle attack.

It was a little bit of a pain to have to fiddle-faddle around working to get the throat open, and using exercises that I knew we would eventually do away with once their purpose had been served, but I am SO GLAD now that they worked!! In fact, when he was just 'half-singing' to remind my mom of the piece their choir is doing on Sunday, I noticed that his voice is better placed and fuller. That's when you know that the muscles are starting to get used to making good sounds... when you can sing off the voice and it doesn't sound horrific . Used to be quite frightening when he'd sing off the voice, but now it sounds good!

His support is also getting much better!! I keep having to remind him to attack notes from his support, not from his throat, but as soon as I remind him he'll do it right. He's also singing 'through' the exercises instead of letting the support drop off, so I'm very proud of him for that. I'm constantly reminding him to support, but he can actually do it now! Very exciting .

I'm still not entirely sure about the vibrato thing. I think I can hear hints of it trying to creep in, but it's still very straight tone. I'm hoping we're headed in the right direction on that one. I'm not too concerned since we've only been working together for... a month? A little less, I think.



We got the speaking program today and I listened to some of the first CD. Sounds fantastic! I think this guy really knows what he's talking about. I love the way he words things, the suggestions he makes, and his exercises are often variations on ones I've done with my good voice teachers. I'm going to start working with the program, so maybe in a week or two we'll see if I've made any progress at all .



I realize that I just blab on and on, but I can't tell you what a relief it is . Most of my friends, if I try to mention technique stuff, just don't get it. It's nice to have someone I can talk technique to who actually understands what I'm talking about!

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Empress_Flynn

Okay, well maybe mine is just not the stereotypical operatic voice Very little vibrato, much more the kind of voice you would generally hear in Celtic music, really.

Welcome, Empress Flynn, and it sounds like you're lucky! I was always the one who wished her voice was *less* operatically-inclined. I always envied my younger sister for her belting Oh well! I realized eventually that working against what i naturally possessed was an exercise in futility. One of my teachers was fond of the phrase "A voice just is what it is". She was right, really. Doing anything except working with one's own natural sound is futile.

I would like to get back into it, and hopefully I will be able to when life gets a bit more settled lol... as it is right now, I'm not really in any one place long enough to start it up again

There's no reason why you can't do that at any given time.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

My dad and I had a great breakthrough lesson!

Wonderful!!

I'm sorry i'm a bit late in answering your posts, i haven't been on much in the last few days. But from the sound of it you've had a real concrete experience with singing by sensation. It's a learning experience, isn't it?

today he did a solid C#

we're trying something new

This is a good thing. What works for one voice won't always work for the next and vice versa.

To see if he could hit the C# and D# for the song, I had him try attacking the notes and it WORKED!! I AM SO EXCITED! Now his throat is finally free enough that he can do the attack exercise my Bass teacher showed me. It really brought the voice into a better alignment.

Very good! I'm happy for him, and for you!

I want to get the middle voice more solid before we venture into an area where he needs to blend.

Good thinking, that is safest. The middle voice also has to be stable before the outer ranges can be.

I also had to stop him to explain that the hard attack is just a temporary thing. It's a great warmup and gets the voice aligned, and at first it's how we'll be attacking every phrase he sings, but I showed him how eventually the hard attack turns into a gentle attack.

I'm glad it's worked for him. Personally my teachers have discouraged anything except the gentle attack, but for us light sopranos i think they tend to handle our voices with extra tender care.

In fact, when he was just 'half-singing' to remind my mom of the piece their choir is doing on Sunday, I noticed that his voice is better placed and fuller. That's when you know that the muscles are starting to get used to making good sounds... when you can sing off the voice and it doesn't sound horrific

Ha! Yes

His support is also getting much better!! I keep having to remind him to attack notes from his support, not from his throat, but as soon as I remind him he'll do it right. He's also singing 'through' the exercises instead of letting the support drop off, so I'm very proud of him for that. I'm constantly reminding him to support, but he can actually do it now! Very exciting

Wonderful! You know, i'm reminded now of your mention of working on your own support, and i can't say enough how this is a great example of how teaching others helps us to learn. The things you're teaching him are reinforcing what you know to do for yourself.

I'm still not entirely sure about the vibrato thing.

Vibrato will come naturally, in time. In many cases, too straight a tone also has to do with throat tension (Empress, are you listening? ). Once the voice opens up a bit more and he gets a better handle on tension release, it will come.

I realize that I just blab on and on, but I can't tell you what a relief it is . Most of my friends, if I try to mention technique stuff, just don't get it. It's nice to have someone I can talk technique to who actually understands what I'm talking about!

Oh i completely understand! Blab on all you want, that is part of what this thread is for!

[Varnafindë]

And I find that it's interesting to read even when not understanding what you're talking about! I'm learning little bits here and there just from reading this thread, although it's difficult to learn about sound via an entirely written medium ...

I never had any voice teacher, and I'm not likely to try to get one now - but there is a friend of mine who sings in the Oslo Philharmonic Choir (she's an alto of some kind), and perhaps I should tell her about this and ask her whether there are simple things she could teach me.

I've tried to sing a bit today - singing along with a CD again - and I find that I'm not so sure about the chest/head break after all. I think I tend always to sing "in my head" and not let it down into my chest any more ... am I simply out of practice?

I'll find another CD right now and sing along with it - it's not really the season for Christmas Carols, but I'm alone in the flat, so who cares?

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

I've tried to sing a bit today - singing along with a CD again - and I find that I'm not so sure about the chest/head break after all. I think I tend always to sing "in my head" and not let it down into my chest any more ... am I simply out of practice?

I'll find another CD right now and sing along with it - it's not really the season for Christmas Carols, but I'm alone in the flat, so who cares?

Honestly that's one that's completely impossible to diagnose via the internet O_o. We'd have to hear you to know if you're actually still singing chest/head.

Now, if your breaks have smoothed out it may all just feel like one voice. For instance, I used to feel a distinct difference between my low, low register, my middle register, and my head voice but now I don't typically notice as much... I just have a feeling of where the voice needs to go, and it doesn't go so dramatically from chest into head or what have you.

Women are supposed to mostly sing from the head though... and honestly even when I'm singing in my lowest register, I still attack the notes from 'high up', I never think of trying to sing them 'from the chest'.


You should definitely ask your friend for help! Now, just a warning... not all good singers know what they're doing, even if they had great teachers!

For instance a mezzo friend of mine who has a range from the B2 all the way up to the G6 is just a natural-born singer. She can belt, she can sing Messiah... whatever she wants, she does. She's had two fantastic teachers that I know of, but ask her how she starts a note, or how she supports, or how she places her voice and she'll tell you that she has no idea. It's all completely natural... she told me she doesn't know what she's doing, it just happens.

Originally Posted by Voronwen

I'm glad it's worked for him. Personally my teachers have discouraged anything except the gentle attack, but for us light sopranos i think they tend to handle our voices with extra tender care.

I don't know... my teacher said that it basically works for any voice, so long as the throat is open enough.

It's really just an exercise, though... You start by overdoing the attack to force the muscles to stay steady, and gradually over a few weeks (in my case it just took a few days, which surprised my teacher) the attack naturally becomes more and more gentle. These days I do a very gentle attack but it's always very solid.



Either way, it's working fantastically. My dad was singing in the shower this morning, and we sang in the car along with the radio while we were doing errands... it was a huuuuuge improvement. He's still got a lot of problems with the placement not being right, but I haven't said anything about it because the actual -mechanism- is working great now. His voice is still 'back and dark/covered' but it's not throaty, so I'm 90% sure that all we need to do is get him singing real vowels instead of making everything 'uh' and give him a few months and his voice will just bust out into gloriousness .

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

It's really just an exercise, though... You start by overdoing the attack to force the muscles to stay steady, and gradually over a few weeks (in my case it just took a few days, which surprised my teacher) the attack naturally becomes more and more gentle. These days I do a very gentle attack but it's always very solid.

Ah! I know what you're referring to now. It's just been a while (a long while! ) since those stages for me. But i know what you're referring to, even if it was explained to me ever so slightly differently. I think it only took me a few days, too.

Either way, it's working fantastically. My dad was singing in the shower this morning, and we sang in the car along with the radio while we were doing errands... it was a huuuuuge improvement. He's still got a lot of problems with the placement not being right, but I haven't said anything about it because the actual -mechanism- is working great now. His voice is still 'back and dark/covered' but it's not throaty, so I'm 90% sure that all we need to do is get him singing real vowels instead of making everything 'uh' and give him a few months and his voice will just bust out into gloriousness .

It sounds like you need to get him to place things more forward, and open the back a little bit less (temporarily). And yes, adjust the vowels. Of course i can't hear him so as to what he really needs i may be flat out wrong.

[Tessar]

He's getting better placement, but I'm not sure what to think of his voice now. It's fuller, but it seems very dry too. I think he's a baritone like me, but his voice has a different quality to it for some reason.

Don't get me wrong, he's getting some very nice resonance, and tonight we got his placement higher. I'm wondering if years of poor singing, and bad allergies, have just taken a toll on his voice. Plus he is 47... I can't expect him to sing like a young man, especially considering that he had no training when he was young.

It's such a pleasure to have his voice working better now . Unfortunately we're now getting into the stage where he wants to yell everything he sings because he's capable of making some pretty big sounds but he feels like he's making a tiny sound. Any time he starts to oversing I just remind him to sing with ease and that helps, but I'm slightly concerned because I'm about to be gone for two weeks. I wish I'd been able to move him a LITTLE further along before leaving him to his own devices for two full weeks! Oh well.

He's actually improving much faster than I did when I began voice lessons. I honestly suspect that it's the techniques I have at my disposal. Makes me wish I'd had a decent voice teacher when I started learning.

I'm excited for he and I to resume lessons in two weeks! I hope given time and effort, his voice will continue to blossom. He definitely doesn't have a small voice... It doesn't seem to be a huge voice, but it ain't no midget sound either. A lot of his progress will depend on him learning to trust himself, and to relax... we're getting his technique set pretty quickly, the rest is going to be all in his head .



He got really annoyed with me today, though. I think it's because I tell him what to do when we're working together, and he doesn't like that coming from his son. It wasn't such an issue till today, because today he has been FULL of telling me what to do because (I suspect) he's worried about my trip to DC. I think he wanted to feel more in control today and maybe having a lesson wasn't a great idea.

He seems to dislike the idea of me being a somewhat self-sufficient person. I have no illusions that I'm independent yet... I still need my parents help plenty of the time, but there are also lots of things that I've been able to manage myself about the trip that I think they expected/secretly wanted to handle for me. Oh well.

Still, I can handle it. If I couldn't deal with pissy people and just let it roll off of me without upsetting me, I would know I had no place in music . Particularly when those people love me and just want what's best for me.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

He's getting better placement, but I'm not sure what to think of his voice now. It's fuller, but it seems very dry too. I think he's a baritone like me, but his voice has a different quality to it for some reason.

It could just be his unique timbre.

I wish I'd been able to move him a LITTLE further along before leaving him to his own devices for two full weeks! Oh well.

He should be fine in the interim if he keeps "With ease" in mind!

I think he wanted to feel more in control today and maybe having a lesson wasn't a great idea.

I'm sure he had other things on his mind with you leaving and all

Bear in mind also that you're beginning your adult life as a performer and independent person. This tends to make parents skittish. Of course, it's because they love you.

[Tessar]

We had our sing in tonight, and there are a LOT of girls and not very many guys. The girls also seem to outweigh the guys in talent, but I suspect that also has something to do with the numbers .

I think I can honestly say that I'm somewhere near the middle/bottom of the pack, but it's difficult to objectively judge myself. Especially considering that a few of the singers are professional singers, some of them are second/third-year-seniors, and a few might even be grad students.

Of course that's all irrelevant . I'm not here because I thought I would be at the top of the pack, I'm here because I'm hoping to get a lot out of it. The director of the program has apparently directed at Curtis and at Yale conservatories so I think he'll be great.


I have to tell you though... two of those girls had GIGANTIC voices. Oh my God. One of them I could swear might be a dramatic, but I think the other is a lyric. Ironically I think the lyric has a bigger voice... and oh my GOD, it's difficult to explain just how big her voice is. I must have been sitting at -least- 30 feet away and it sounded as if she were screaming in my ear. HUGE, HUGE voice.

[Voronwen]

How interesting, especially about the "big" voices! It's unusual to find heavier voices in a young crowd, especially dramatic ones. Wow!!

[Tessar]

And let me tell you, those girls voices weren't just big from 'natural' gifting, they were both INCREDIBLE singers. I never once heard either of their placements slip, they nailed every vowel, and their stage presence was ridiculous.

The dramatic soprano, for instance, had an injured foot... so the poor girl limped up on stage, sort of hunched over.

First chord hit, and she just transformed. One second she looked like an unassuming, wounded sparrow and the next she was this straight-backed, alive singer with an enormous voice.

Then the music ended and she limped off stage. It was so weird. I don't think, if I saw her in the street, I would've ever connected her with the girl I saw on stage. So weird!

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

First chord hit, and she just transformed. One second she looked like an unassuming, wounded sparrow and the next she was this straight-backed, alive singer with an enormous voice.

Then the music ended and she limped off stage. It was so weird. I don't think, if I saw her in the street, I would've ever connected her with the girl I saw on stage. So weird!

This is what we all strive for, no?

What do you think makes it happen - Acting ability? Flawless technique? That which we call "polish" as a performer (posture, presentation, etc)?

Or is it something even more "inner", such as connection to the music/text/character/etc of a piece?

These are rhetorical questions, of course

On that last - I had a teacher once who said that in order to really connect with a piece, it's good to have a sort of subtext going on underneath it all for you. Not an actual subtext that we'd write, but an inward sense of what you're singing about that makes the song mean something solely to you. Basically, have something to say - even if you're the only person who ever knows what you're singing about, even if they did know and it didn't make sense (which doesn't matter, because they won't, lol), that doesn't matter. It's just an exercise to give yourself a way to personally connect.

[Tessar]

I'm in a bit of trouble... maybe not actually trouble, we'll have to see how my voice holds up.

They tell us to mark when we're rehearsing, but the second we get in with a coach all they want is MORE MORE MORE MORE. So far I'm okay, but of course this is only day two (three if you count the sing-in). I'm just trying to keep everything SUPER open and not push for the volume...

I have to figure out NOW how to sing with all of the energy they want without actually using my full voice. I need to know how to do that and if I want to get every ounce out of this camp I better figure it out some time this week so that next week I don't have to be thinking about it so much.


I am really treating this more like an acting camp though, because that's the main focus. Of course we're singing, and they're teaching us how to phrase... but the thing is that my voice teacher can fix my voice. I mean I KNOW he can. So that's for when I get back home... my bad habits will eventually pass, I'm not trying to fix anything at the moment. I'm working entirely on the interpretations, singing through the phrases, and the physical acting.

It's just INCREDIBLE. When you get with someone else who's as into it as you are the chemistry is just breathtaking. I had one girl jokingly suggest she should shove me (as Papageno) when she told me "do not lie any more!" and then chase me across the room. So I told her to actually do it, and we got SO into it! She just shoved me backwards across the room, then I was backing up again after that because she kept jabbing me in the chest as I sang, and I really had something to work with.


Two things I never really realized that one particular coach is just busting my chops for is that when I sing I back off the note slightly in the middle of phrases, and also sometimes right after an attack. ESPECIALLY when I speak a line, I tend to let my inflections and my energy go down, so I was having to just restructure EVERYTHING about the way I speak to read the lines believably.

It's only a beginning, but at least I know which direction to try to head in now. The coaches are all fantastic... I am getting so many little ideas of how to be truly musical instead of just standing and throwing out my aria. I hope I can do this camp again because I know now that I was not prepared enough for it... because I didn't know -how- to prepare properly. Next time I'll be able to get more out of it because I can leap in feet first with some idea of what to expect.

This is like blunt force trauma opera style, and I freaking LOVE it!