Today has been a frustrating day from start to finish.
As I'm a freelancer, this isn't a "holiday". I mean it's a day to remember men and women who died in various wars, but it's not an "oh good free time!" day. Now any day can be a day off - or not.
It started out that the web site I need to access to download work is only partially operative. Possibly it's "holiday site maintenance", which of course on-site staff are told about but freelancers are not. Finally I was able to download a few manuscripts (which I need to work on when I'm done writing here) but they're not the A priority ones.
I decided if I wasn't going to work, I could practice, and just have had a totally frustrating time. There's a way that my voice can get "coarse" and not want to do what I want it to. I'm not sure what I mean by that, as I don't understand the language of vocal pedagogy, really. I have discussed this with my teacher and he just sort of blew it off. If it were a continual problem I might think it was a technical issue, but I'm really not sure what it is. It usually manifests itself - surprise! - as trouble with the upper register and/or singing up there softly.
I can just feel the weight, too. It starts on an F or a G and I can't get rid of it. My first round of arpeggios got stuck on a B, which is a bad sign. Getting stuck on a C is all in a day's work. I tried just singing them on vvvvv, a trick I learned from my teacher and I was actually able to phonate a tiny squeak on a C but just barely. Finally I did better and went on to the Randall Thompson but it was really bad news. For a while I had been able to do something with that high A that wasn't an Amneris style "blast the windows out" note but now it's gone again. I just want to cry. If the note comes out that loud I can't sing it at all in the piece and then people think I can't sing up there which makes me boiling mad. It makes me want to cry because I feel sometimes that I have this huge voice that I don't have the energy to support for long periods, and no venue for singing appropriate rep, in, and that in the venue I do have this is not appreciated. I mean people at the church do appreciate my singing but I'm allowed to sing such a limited range of things, really. Never anything above a G or maybe an occasional G sharp and never anything where I can let it rip.
I feel like The Ugly Dachshund - for those who don't know it's about a Great Dane who lives with a bunch of Dachshunds and continually feels like a "failed" Dachshund.
In any event, the surprising news was that I sang the deadly phrase from the Amneris/Radames duet with the high B flat in it and it wasn't hard at all.
It's sort of like the B flat has gotten easier but the A has gotten harder. What I mean is I used to have about a 99 percent success rate with As and about an 85 percent success rate with B flats and now I have about a 90 percent success rate with both.
Hey there,
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't mind but I've been reading your blog for a while and there's something that seems to be missing. It seems that when you discuss technical issues you don't mention support very often. You talk about some registration things and some "placement" solutions but support, for me, is really the foundation of singing. It also seems to me that a lot of the issues you struggle with (ease with the top, struggles with dynamics, etc) are the very things that supporting your voice would fix. It's also the most difficult concept to grasp onto. No matter what your concept of support is (opinions differ as greatly, and are as strongly defended, as religious beliefs) I'd say that 90% of the time the solutions should start there.
Do you mind my asking what your feelings are on the issue? How does your teacher address it?
I think I have a good grasp on breathing. And my support has improved since I've been doing Pilates - I can sing for much longer without getting tired. But of course I probably don't have enough stamina for my kind of voice. My voice is probably the size of Dolora Zajic's so it takes a lot more strength to support it, particularly in the upper register. My teacher mostly talks about keeping my larynx down. When I can do that I can sing higher notes more easily, and I've found different techniques to keep my larynx down. I can pretty much always sing high notes loud. What I seem to lack is that light buzz that many high sopranos (and some mezzos) have that enable them to sing high notes softly. I find that very difficult and what's even more frustrating is that some days it feels more difficult and other days it feels less difficult. It's usually less difficult when I sleep more and talk less, because my natural speaking voice is a disaster (think Lauren Bacall). Actually my partner said the air today was foul and that that might be some of the problem.
ReplyDeleteWhat ideas do you have about support? Please feel free to share anything you think would be helpful.
I guess it would be difficult for me to address a lot of the things you're talking about because I absolutely do not agree with the concept of lowering one's larynx. The larynx should definitely not be raised but actively lowering it uses muscles in your throat that aren't conducive to healthy singing. That would also explain some tension in the top.
ReplyDeleteThe analogy I like to use for support is that of a baby's bottle. The bag on the inside inflates and deflates (your lungs) while the integrity of the rest of the structure stays strong and solid (your abs, obliques, lower back, etc) in an easy, relaxed way. I believe that air flow should be kept to a minimum and controlled by the relaxed strength (that oxymoron again) of the muscles from your pelvis to your lowest rib all the way around. You lean into that space in your body (appoggio) and allow the tension to go there. When the breath rides that slim column of air effectively then there is no reason to lower your larynx. The lack of tension will enable the larynx to drop into the correct position on its own.
I'm certainly no pedagogue (I don't even teach very often) but in my admittedly young singing career I've found that any solution that doesn't at least start with searching for flaws in the support structure usually leads you down a more difficult, and ultimately much less helpful, road.
If your voice is truly the size of Ms. Zajick's (probably one of the biggest voices currently singing opera professionally) then you're right that stamina and controlling that amount of volume is pretty difficult. But ultimately it's and easy and efficient production of air that will allow the voice to work.
I've never worked with Ms. Zajick personally but I have worked extensively with her coach (not her teacher, who's been dead for quite a while) and as far as I've been told, unorthodox as her technique is, it's all about support for her.
I hope at least some of that made some sort of sense. Writing about vocal technique is definitely not one of my strengths as a singer.
Yes, that makes sense. My teacher often speaks about a beach ball. And to correct a mis-apprehension, he doesn't tell me to lower my larynx in a way that fosters tension but rather to yawn or imagine I'm going to throw up before I start a phrase (not before the high note!) It seems that the women with lighter voices who are able to "segment" their upper register (my teacher's word) and use a "whistle register" which I don't seem to have, use very little support whereas I need a lot.
ReplyDeleteWhen I have trouble, it feels like a rubber band that doesn't have enough "give" in it. It can stretch only so far but no farther.
What frustrates me so much about this Randall Thompson piece is that if it were a solo I would have no trouble at all with that ascending phrase (I mean the bloody A is marked "Forte") but unless I sing nothing louder than a "piano" it will overpower everyone.
Also, I forgot to mention - one of my legs is shorter than the other, which means I don't have good alignment. I used to try to level up my pelvis by standing on my right foot and my left toe, and my teacher said not to do that but to stand with my right leg (which is longer) behind, and that seemed to help me feel more stable.
I will try thinking about the baby bottle thing.
And I do have a lot more stamina that I did (I used to get tired after singing for an hour or so and the sides of my neck would get tight, which hasn't happened in a long time.