I asked him about the list of warmups from Dr. Lee. He said he found the article interesting, but that he always has issues if a teacher says, in essence, here is a list of things that every student must do. He said some of the nonsinging warmups work for some people in some situations. He said they work for singers who are performing regularly and need a quickie way of getting the voice in shape before a performance that doesn't involve singing. He agrees, for example, that the r rolls and sirens are good for me to do, for example, between services if I need to get my voice in shape and can't go off somewhere and vocalize. He said in general things like lip trills and r rolls are not good for heavier voices if used excessively because they involve forcing a lot of air into the chords.
He then told me something I hadn't realized, that I found reassuring. That he uses different sequences of exercises for different students. He always has me do progressions on "oo" because the weakest muscles in my vocal apparatus are the ones that connect with the head resonance. He said I have an unusually strong chest register (which is distinct from a belt and also distinct from having a very low extension) because I speak in a low chest register. Is that generational? When I was in prep school as a "tweener" I remember being told to speak in a "social baritone" - that high-pitched speaking voices, particularly if nasality crept into them, were unladylike. I've noticed that women who are Gen X or younger speak in very high voices, which sound almost childlike and sound very strange to me. In any event, my teacher said that the "oo" exercises are what he feels work best for me, as warmups, not necessarily for everyone. (The Mentor apparently thought that too, because I always did a lot of "oo"ing at the beginning of my lessons.)
Speaking of head register, this is where I feel I have made a breakthrough. I only hope it sticks. Something we had been working on was getting rid of that "muddy" sound in my upper passagio. To do that in addition to thinking about the low larynx/support connection, he had been telling me to "make space". As soon as I really got the hang of that I saw that my high notes were freer, and today, I felt the space in my cheekbones, as if my face were getting wider. The thing I always disliked about my voice was it didn't have that "shimmer" that many women's voices have, that comes from a lot of head resonance. Even some women with lower voices have it, and some sopranos don't have it. Well, today I had it and today I was able to sing arpeggios up to a full voiced high C that didn't feel like I was screaming. So maybe I finally have found an "aha" moment? I am leery of these because sometimes I'll stumble upon something and it will help those intractable top notes for a while, and then will stop working. But I can hope. I will try it out tomorrow.
Something he also said was that if I am focusing on the Requiem, as there is nothing vocally very challenging other than the climax of "Liber Scriptus" (I have said before that I don't find "Lux Aeterna" difficult because singing it is just like singing soprano in the choir) I need to "challenge myself" by ending my practice session with a difficult section of an aria. So today at my lesson we sang through the second half of "Condotta", which I had not touched since the October concert. It was easy sailing. I still didn't have the nerve to hit the B flat head on, but even sliding up from the A, I was able to make it soar and spin, something I don't think I ever did before. So fingers crossed.
On a less positive note, I had an insight about what I mean when I say I don't feel like a "real" singer. I don't mean that I am not paid to sing. I mean that singers are not interested in me (this manifests itself all the time in that when I participate in online conversations about singing unless I ask a direct question and even sometimes when I do, people talk around me in a very aggressive way, or it feels aggressive, as in "the silence was deafening"). Or it is so obvious to me that when I am in a group (as in those get up and sing things) no one is interested in me. I don't even mean no one offers me a gig, I mean no one even really notices I am there or cares. And my nonsinging friends are just so totally not into this aspect of my life. So I sometimes wonder if I'm real.
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