One thing I really like about my voice teacher is that he is very eclectic. This is probably because as he's not a "name" teacher and has no academic credentials, he just goes with the flow of what a student needs at the time.
I've been studying with him since December of 2005 now, which is over 6 years (in addition to my studies with him during the late 70s). And yesterday he had a new brainstorm.
He said some of the "stiffness" that keeps my upper voice from spinning has to do with my not being able to move my tongue without moving my jaw. So he has started me on exercises where I sing scales and arpeggios on "la" (or rather "law" - "la" gets spread) and after opening my mouth once, I try to keep my mouth open and only move my tongue, not my jaw. I did this yesterday up to a B flat. I found it tiring (not as in getting hoarse but as in exercising new muscles). So I will do these exercises at home. I don't have much vocally difficult music to work on right now. I have to learn all of the mezzo solo parts to the Verdi Requiem but except for "Liber Scriptus" and "Lux Aeterna" there is nothing vocally difficult. The difficulty is in learning it. Right now I also have to sing the soprano line in the Introit to the St. Matthew Passion into my voice. It has a nice line, so that should not be difficult. I also have the soprano part in a solo quartet in a piece we're doing called "Confitemini Domino" by Urmas Sisask. It is a lovely piece. It sounds like early music but actually it was written in 1988.
Something that surprised me was reading in an article in Classical Singer that "emerging pro" types, just out of school, are encouraged to take "one lesson and two coachings" a month, even if they're broke. What surprised me was that it wasn't the other way around. I absolutely need a lesson every two weeks. Even if I only count my years of study beginning in March of 2004 (shortly after that fateful Valentine's Day, that's 8 years. So I suppose I have studied longer now than an "emerging pro" who just got out of school. As for coachings, I rarely work with a pianist. I usually learn 90% of my music with recordings (I don't mean I try to imitate other singers) but if I look at a score and listen at the same time, I will have it in my ear, and if I'm singing with other people I sing "against" the recording, which serves the same purpose as working with a pianist and it's free.
I do like working with a pianist if I am going to sing something with other people. With the Samson et Dalila concert we rehearsed every other week and at some point we will need to do this with the Requiem as well. Well, if we start in September I will have Social Security in addition to my earnings.
I also talked to my teacher about repertoire. He thought it was a good idea to focus on older characters, but not necessarily "character parts". He thinks I should go back to Azucena and work on the entire role. The highest note I would have to sing is two B flats which I think I can manage. And he wants me to work on the Amneris/Radames duet from Aida. (Of course she's not an older character, but my teacher says that it's a role that really suits my voice; I just have to master those ascending phrases with the B flats.)
As for other roles for me to work on, he said I probably wouldn't enjoy either Herodias or Klytaemnestra. He said the operas are magnificent, but the music for those characters is "ugly". He thought I might look at the Massenet Heroodias instead. I will check to see how high the role actually is written in the score. I have a recording with Dolora Zajick, but she may interpolate some higher notes in. Also Gertrude in Hamlet. I saw Jennifer Larmore in the role and she was stunning. And I looked at the score and I don't think it goes above an A.
Lastly, my CD came back and I am happy with it. The quality of my voice sounds much better than on the mp3 files for some reason. I don't love every single note, but I can live with it. I think it sounds like me singing at my best for now. The engineer said he thought it was too short (about 30 minutes of singing) to be a marketable product but my teacher disagrees. I mean all I want to do with it is sell copies at the church for charity. I left it with my teacher and he said he will listen to it and give me feedback for my next lesson.
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