2/26/2011 Vocalizing

My studio accompanist asked the other day about vocal warm-ups for singers.  What were good ones, etc.  We got into a discussion about what vocal warm-ups were for, as there are many warm-up systems available out in the market.  I often use vocal warm-ups in a lesson as an opportunity to teach a concept on a simpler structure than a song phrase, but that's not what a singer is looking for when they want to prepare for a coaching or performance or rehearsal.
Three things need to happen during a warm up session: 1) The body needs to come into balance from whatever previous activities it might have been involved in (sitting at the computer, travelling in a plane, etc.) 2) The breath needs to move from every day breathing into a longer inhale/exhale pattern, which can take several minutes  3) The areas of the singing range that are not part of the speaking range need to find their resonance, especially high range for low voices and low range for high voices.
Sooo, the best warm-ups are the ones that the singer devises for her/himself, that they can do without any accompaniment.  My favorites as a singer?  Lip buzzes, octave glides on various vowels, staccati, ascending and descending 3rds.

2/17/2011 Rose

Rose is an experienced musical theater singer, often cast as a lead in the local productions. She's been with me for about a year, starting as a belter, and has been finding her head voice so she can audition for ingenue roles.  Yesterday, she discovered that her dance training regarding posture for head and shoulders (ie. back and long) has been a major inhibitor of her breathing.  Her upper back, upper chest and neck muscles were so tight that the ribs and lung underneath could not move to draw in air.  She discovered that "shoulders" are actually part of her arm structure rather than her torso structure and that her arms are attached to her body in front at her sternum (breatbone).  She has a history of getting lightheaded when breathing deep - I'm wondering if this new release will take care of that issue.

2/10/2011 Sarah

Sarah's pitch matching has improved, sooner then I expected any results :).  She's patient and dedicated, which is good because this is slow and repetitive work.  The pitch memory is going to take longer... I'm also teaching her Dona nobis pacem (a round), but not letting her dissect or analyze at all - a practice in right-brain learning.

2/7/2011 voice psychology

  Several people have asked me over the years about the psychology of teaching voice.  This is probably a topic for a book all its own, but I can weave some pieces into this blog.
  The most  unique aspect of teaching voice is the close link between voice and mind.  Just a thought of speaking can trigger a response from our larynx.  Songs stuck in our mind produce vocal fold changes, even if we never make a sound.  Emotions affect how the voice sounds, both positively and adversely.  Think about what happens when you become angry - how does your voice change; when you are happy...
  A student has to understand that the coordination between mind and voice is mostly at a sub-conscious level and that just understanding something differently will have it's effect, without trying to apply the new information directly.  This is why, for years, the singing teacher tradition has included imagery as a teaching tool.  Then, for the past 40 years, vocal pedagogy has swung to the side of physiology, with anatomical data being of primary importance.  We have been discovering that this approach can lead to singers' trying to consiously manipulate their voices, often with disastrous results.  So where is the balance?  The teacher is more effective with their use of imagery to get a concept across if they themselves are well-versed in the actual anatomy/physiology of what needs to happen and sometimes an anatomical discussion is important because the student has a real misperception that needs to be corrected.  Singers learn to sing by feel (kinesthetic sense) and listening and they guide the process by thinking.  More on this later...

2/2/2011

Sometimes its quite a process discovering the natural inclination of the voice of an individual.  Allison is a music major at the local university as an instrumentalist (cello) with an early music focus.  She has been coming to me for voice lessons since last spring.  Allison's sense of self expresses vocally in a dark, husky speaking voice.  Imagine both our surprise when we began to discover that her voice is happiest up in the high (coloratura) range!  Now, her process is as much a personal journey as a vocal one; she has to re-think her sense of self to one that includes a higher voice.
So often, our speaking voice color that we choose is a part of the "persona" that we adopt in order to deal with the world: lower, darker speaking voice connotes authority or "don't mess with me"; higher, lighter speaking voice connotes gentleness or vulnerability.  A low voiced speaker will raise the pitch of their voice to speak to animals and children; a high voiced speaker will drop their voice when issuing a command.  If the speaking voice color choice is at odds with the natural instrument and is sustained over a period of time, the result is fatigue and a "husky" or "crackly" quality.

1/25/2011

Explored the mind/body connect with a singer yesterday. :)  Lisa, a copy writer and editor by day, is very detail-oriented in her approach to her singing; so much so, in fact, that it tends to bog her down and her singing becomes more and more laborious as she goes along.  During her lesson, I asked her to think of the entire phrase that she was about to sing while she was inhaling for that phrase, sort of a mental preview of what she was about to sing.  The resulting freedom in the sound was phenomenal and, though she had a fear response to losing control of the sound, she has agreed to continue to practice the idea this week.  I'm eager to hear her next week...

1/20/2011

I am reminded today of how learning to sing is as much of a mental & emotional journey as it is a physical one.  Sam came in today, only 12 and his voice still adjusting to its new baritone/bass range.  We identified his head voice sound and his chest voice sound today; important for him because, if he's in the incorrect "voice sound," he can't find the notes.
When he started, several weeks ago only, he was very self-judging during his lesson, and made grimaces and sighs for every mistake he thought he made.  This slowed down our progress a lot, so finally I asked if he would be OK not reacting negatively to his mistakes, because he was going to be making a lot of them while he learned, that the studio was definitely the place to make all of them and we would make faster progress if he didn't react.  Right away, he stopped and hasn't done it since.
I had to chuckle inwardly today: we tagged his head voice and chest voice with colors as references.  This is something I do with many of my students and I always let them choose the colors, partly because I'm curious as to what they will come up with.  Usually, they choose purple, maroon or dark blue for chest voice, red, light blue, green or orange for mid-range and pink, yellow or some other pastel for head voice.  Sam chose white (head) and black (chest), and I thought back to his initial right/wrong mental judging during his beginning lesson.  I've only had one other student choose black & white...