If I can come to LOVE my practice and learn how to personally implement the principles taught in "The Talent Code", I will be able to improve and progress at an accelerated rate. I will truly be able to take my craft and abilities into my own hands. This blog is to encourage discipline, empower myself through strategy and accountability, and help me to observe and track trends involving my instrument.

Today's Academic Practice

Listening back to my voice lesson today with Vivien Robison...

REMEMBER
Practice 45 mins a day
Bring my classical song books
Buy "56 Songs You Love to Sing"
Memorize "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" and "Alma Del Core"
Go over the warm ups that she has x's by on the practice paper
Read over Clayne's latest version of his chart
Listen to different singers that sing my songs - especially any that Clayne suggests

Some of her comments:
Pull, don't push
Scream
Shut your teeth (during the humming)
Let your belly bounce
Let the sound stay down and the throat stay open
Hook the sound from the top
Energize it more as it gets higher
Sing through your nose - don't ignore your nose, make sure you don't hold your nose
You open your mouth big when you go high to get chest tone, but not when you are low because you need more head voice in it
Feel much more like you're a soprano than an alto (but in the past I think she's told me the opposite)
Be really happy (inner smile), make it a little bit lighter
There's a difference between shoving it and touching it from the top
Try not to form the vowel in your throat, let it go all the way down to get the low overtones from their chest
As you go high it is so tempting to close the throat around it - DON'T. Turn the vowel into an "uh"
Lots of energy so its almost a shout
Let that first one go all the way down
Don't try to form it in your mouth because that shortens it (the throat I think)
The mouth muscles being tight work together with the throat - let me go!
Try not to move your jaw
Don't manipulate your throat, just pull it right underneath your tummy
Give it a bright edge
Shut your teeth and yawn, pull those teeth up so I can tell you're yawning, nostrils open
Let me see in your eyes how you are really excited - that brings all the sound right up there and you didn't tell it to, it just went.
Don't let it collapse on the way down. Be excited all the way down. It hooks it so it doesn't come down out of your head.
Put a little more scream into it. It feels like you approach it from the top. You just pull that sound right out of the air.
Try to make it one phrase - don't drop the intensity in between notes
Keep a little bit of head tone when you're down low - keep the soft palate lifted (hmmm.. really?)
Laugh inside
Let it go right up to that high note, don't pull back, don't constrict - open that throat
You're hooking it down, but pulling it up. You're hooking it on both ends and it goes back and forth between the two.
A little bit more air, faster
The most important note of the phrase is the first one (onset)
Once you are settled and ready than go for it - sell it!



Observations/questions:
Passagio - negotiating it without it being too "in my mouth" or too swallowed or weak
When she referred to the nose, she's not talking about nasality - right?
How to "sound like a soprano" when I'm singing low?
On bouncy/leaping intervals my jaw really wants to get involved
How to keep the high frequencies, even as we get low?
RELEASING LOWER BACK TENSION
NOT COLLAPSING RIB CAGE/POSTURE
NOT TIGHTENING/PULLING NECK FORWARD

I noticed the other day that when I lip buzz I see a lot of movement in my Eve's apple. This probably has to do with not keeping my throat open? I have plenty of students that I don't see doing that. In fact, I usually take it as a sign that they are going to strain - especially high up.

I also noticed that the larynx is very high when I do whistle tone. Is that just the only way to make whistle tone?

I only listened to the voice memo "Viv Summer 3.1" today.

Next I'm going to take the recommendation of Ruth Ellis and use color coating at a way to help me memorize my lyrics. 1st vs - brown, 2nd vs green

How do I not yodel or scoop on the connected descending leap?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I just barely ate a bowl of canned soup, but then I realized that this will probably be the only time I can get a dedicated practice in today. I'm going to start with listening and memorizing since I fear that my stomach can't handle that amount of breath support that Vivien demands. This is from "Viv Summer 3.3" Alma Del Core - remember to roll the r's "Does your throat not feel more comfortable? Do you feel like you're singing with your body?" Questions/Thoughts Am I officially going to be a Junior next semester? Ask/Tell Brian about the confusion with what level of lessons I was taking - transfer convo with Barb. Did I pass so that I can start doing recitals instead of juries? Can I do more than the 6 song limit? Do I have to share a recital with somebody? Should/can I study with Brian or Jen? Both? Alisa has been coming to mind too for some reason although it seems like she only really knows classical. I'm interested in contemporary ...
Read more

Yesterday's Lesson was Better

I finally feel like I'm beginning to feel the difference of having the throat all the way open and getting that deep support in the body. I feel a little bit like a gorilla, but it feels comfortable and like an open "tube" or passageway. Sometimes as it gets higher she insists on humming "lower" and "in your body" but I don't know how to get the sound buzzing any lower. Some of the things she said that stuck out to me was "Pull it up in your cheeks. Sing to your forehead." "Let you jaw drop, your mouth ceases to be part of the sound, it just needs to get out of the way!"
Read more
I haven't practiced since Friday because I was out of town for my anniversary weekend. Time to get back in the swing of things. Or I guess at this rate, make a swing of things. I've been singing with my recording "Viv Summer 3.2" from last lesson. I've known this for a while, but I have excess tension in the back of my neck. It seems to be muscle memory clustered with my breath support or something. I laid down to see if that would help me release or at least be more aware of when the muscles started to engage. It seems that even when I just siren, it does something when I get to higher notes. Some of Vivien's comments on this recording: Make yourself a big fat soprano. Let it go all the way down. Questions: Swoop parts, what is the goal? She wants me to keep the support but it seems like it makes my voice flip. I wrote out the first verse of "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" again. I've got two days to memorize it.
Read more