The Singers Thread

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Voronwen

I don't know. When i do get the chance to practice, i'm just not 'feeling it' anymore. The desire to sing is just not there. I think it's partly because it's time (it's been for a long time) to move away from classical music. My heart's not in it anymore.

I would also suggest considering that maybe you're not singing the kind of classical music that you love. I know I may be barking up the totally wrong tree, but consider looking into some different styles... for instance I thought I didn't care for art songs (I actually kind of hated them at first), but then I discovered Brahms, Hahn, and a bunch of Schubert lieder that I ADORE.

I know you are MUCH better musically informed than I am, but maybe consider checking the rep that you're practicing. Just a thought.

If you're not feeling it, I would vote don't even waste your time on it though. Unless someone has already agreed to pay you for it, what's the point of practicing a Bach cantata to perfection if you hate it?

But when i apply myself to other styles (i would LOVE to go more contemporary), i feel that i can't sing them as well. It's as if my voice is born to work just one way, classical. It's what it does best. But i am just sick of it. I want to do other things now, but i'm not sure whether i can. I've considered finding a teacher of contemporary style singing who can retrain me, but i've never been able to belt. My voice is dismally not built for it. All its power is above C5. Classical training was a natural progression for someone like me who wanted to sing.

I think... and this may just be me being a totally crazy idiot... that your problem may be your vowels. I would guess that you're so fixated on pure vowels (due to your training) that you're not making the vowels bright or 'flat' enough for contemporary.

Also maybe you're using too much pressure when you try to belt? When I 'belt' into my upper register and do it correctly I feel like I'm lifting off of the pressure rather than increasing it like a lot of my friends do... and I can also belt for a lot longer than some of them can .

Sing what's in your heart! It may take a while and some playing around with vowels and whatnot, but I think if you really want to sing more contemporary or celtic music... then you can do it. I believe you have more ability to do it than you think you do . Remember you'll never sound like a Loreena McKennitt in the same key because she's a mezzo... if you want the kind of power she has in her singing, you'd have to move her music up a step or two.





I gave my dad a voice lesson today for the first time in a long time, and it wasn't till the end that I stumbled on something to really, really help him. He still wants to grab with his throat and sing everything back, and when I told him to jam the sound into his nose he actually managed to be completely nasal AND still a little throaty.

It wasn't till I had him humming for a warmdown that I realized that even though his placement was much improved due to the nasal placement, and he was using much less breath pressure, it was still too much breath pressure! It was getting throaty due to overblowing.

I had him hum in his falsetto (which is almost impossible to do with too much pressure because the voice will crack a lot), then I had him use that same tiny amount of pressure and BOOM... his humming popped into a good placement. Then I demonstrated for him how I could sing at a moderate level using exactly the same tiny, tiny amount of pressure and air.

He was totally flabbergasted. He actually said, "But it's like I'm not doing anything! That's how you sing? There's almost no effort!" I think that realization is going to be a MASSIVE step in the right direction for him.

For his exercises, rather than saying, "Do X scale Y number of times," I told him to hum that way every single time he gets in the car to drive somewhere, and to check his amount of pressure by doing the falsetto slide... if it cracks as it flips over into chest that's too much breath pressure, if it doesn't crack then you have the correct amount of pressure.

I'm excited. Last time we did make progress before he started to blackslide, and this time I have even better 'tools' to use. When he was humming without the excess pressure, I heard a -very- warm, resonant baritone voice in there as opposed to the 'dry' sound I had always heard before. Fingers crossed for good things to come!

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Also maybe you're using too much pressure when you try to belt? When I 'belt' into my upper register and do it correctly I feel like I'm lifting off of the pressure rather than increasing it like a lot of my friends do... and I can also belt for a lot longer than some of them can .

I've tried to work out what exactly you mean by belting - I'm not sure, though. Could you explain it?

When he was humming without the excess pressure, I heard a -very- warm, resonant baritone voice in there as opposed to the 'dry' sound I had always heard before. Fingers crossed for good things to come!

I guess it makes sense that if you have a good voice, your father might have the same. It would be nice if he could find it and develop it! Good that you are able to help him!

[Tessar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TIVnq2kkjY

This is an excellent example of belting. Keep in mind not everyone can belt like her... Sara Ramirez has a very large alto voice, and from what I understand pretty amazing technique. I believe she got a degree in vocal performance at Juliard.

You should watch the whole thing because it's funny, but also because at the beginning she is singing very normally. She's using lots of energy, but not a lot of breath pressure. She doesn't start out belting, she sings pretty 'normally' at first.

After about 1:15 seconds in she starts belting, and her loudest belting is at about 2:05 seconds in where the holds the final note out.



Belting takes a lot more energy, although not toooo much more pressure (unless you want really heavy belting like she does at 2:05 seconds, and then I assume that does just take a lot more pressure and isn't particularly great for your voice), and it's a very brassy, nasal sound. It has a lot to do with where you place your voice, and also how high you keep your soft palate... if you let it drop a little, you'll tend to get a slightly more 'belted' sound than if you keep it high like opera singers do.

Also some people will tell you that belting is about dragging your chest voice up higher than you should, but I don't believe that's true . That's how crappy belters belt . The really good ones use almost the exact same registers as opera singers, except they add that brassy sound through vowels/palate shaping.

[romeo.juliano]

anyone mariah carey fans???

[Tessar]

Not particularly. She shredded her voice... if you listen to her perform live now she can barely sing... I'm sure she must have multiple nodes on her vocal cords.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

I would also suggest considering that maybe you're not singing the kind of classical music that you love. I know I may be barking up the totally wrong tree, but consider looking into some different styles... for instance I thought I didn't care for art songs (I actually kind of hated them at first), but then I discovered Brahms, Hahn, and a bunch of Schubert lieder that I ADORE.

I know you are MUCH better musically informed than I am, but maybe consider checking the rep that you're practicing. Just a thought.

Ah, Tessar, this is a great thought but nothing could be farther from the truth! I adore Baroque. It's when i have tried other classical genres and truly not 'felt' them that i've always come 'home' to Baroque. The real trouble is that there's just no market for it around here. Most of the opportunities are through churches, and all the churches in this area have no use for anything that is not contemporary "praise music". I have spoken with several people on these worship teams, explained that i am classically trained and NOT a belter, and they've said some irksome things from "Well, just get out of your comfort zone" to "Nobody wants to hear that stuff anymore". And this coming from those who have some training themselves (?! though not classical) and should know that one's natural voice is not merely a 'comfort zone' but the way one's instrument is physically built. Really, they ought to know better.

I think... and this may just be me being a totally crazy idiot... that your problem may be your vowels. I would guess that you're so fixated on pure vowels (due to your training) that you're not making the vowels bright or 'flat' enough for contemporary.

I've tried adjusting my vowels but still cannot get that sound, unless it's a 'fake belting' sound that comes out very light. The trouble is, i have no chest voice to speak of.

Also maybe you're using too much pressure when you try to belt? When I 'belt' into my upper register and do it correctly I feel like I'm lifting off of the pressure rather than increasing it like a lot of my friends do... and I can also belt for a lot longer than some of them can .

This is worth playing around with. Not using pressure though, i can't remotely even begin to get that kind of sound.

Sing what's in your heart! It may take a while and some playing around with vowels and whatnot, but I think if you really want to sing more contemporary or celtic music... then you can do it. I believe you have more ability to do it than you think you do . Remember you'll never sound like a Loreena McKennitt in the same key because she's a mezzo... if you want the kind of power she has in her singing, you'd have to move her music up a step or two.

Oh, i don't need to sound like Loreena McKennitt! Her voice is just *huge* and operatically, she would probably be something close to a dramatic mezzo or spinto soprano. In Celtic music, Enya and her sister would be closer to the kind of lightness of sound (ie. not belty) that i have, though both of them are also mezzos. If i transpose their music up a step or so, it works, because it's written for 'head voice' singing.

But that's still not the style that is used so extensively around here. What they use is the typical pop/rock/Broadway sound. The best singer at our church has a voice that could fit well as Eponine in Les Miserables. If i could sound like anyone, it would be that! But when i think of how many times as a teenager in my musical theater days i would give myself laryngitis trying to sound like that, then quickly returning home to the arias from Phantom (which fit like a glove then and still do!) as soon as i felt better, i don't think that's possible! In Les Mis, i'm more of a Cosette. I guess there's nothing wrong with that, though. A voice is what it is. I had a coach one time who told me i was so held back in my singing life not because i didn't have the goods, but because i had never accepted the voice that i have. He was probably right.

This is an excellent example of belting. Keep in mind not everyone can belt like her... Sara Ramirez has a very large alto voice, and from what I understand pretty amazing technique.

Yes, it is usually the 'big' voices who can really belt, especially those that are pitched a little bit lower.

Belting takes a lot more energy, although not toooo much more pressure (unless you want really heavy belting like she does at 2:05 seconds, and then I assume that does just take a lot more pressure and isn't particularly great for your voice), and it's a very brassy, nasal sound. It has a lot to do with where you place your voice, and also how high you keep your soft palate... if you let it drop a little, you'll tend to get a slightly more 'belted' sound than if you keep it high like opera singers do.

I read once that some singers just have a naturally high palette. Have you heard of this? Basically these singers will never have as much of a low-palette sound because of the natural shape of the inner resonating spaces. It does make sense.

[katya]

Does anyone have any good advice about how to do vibrato? I've looked it up on the internet before but I still haven't really figured it out. I've never been able to do it.

[Tessar]

Vibrato is SUCH a tricky thing... and frankly it can make the difference between a beautiful voice and an icky voice. I can think of a few people who have totally gross voices because their tone is beautiful, but they either have an ENORMOUS, wobbly vibrato, or they have a a super, super fast vibrato. I think straight-tone can be very beautiful, and I do like some faster-than-normal vibratos, but super fast vibratos are just awful.

Teaching vibrato to someone who has none is a very interesting subject, and I don't think I've ever met a teacher who claims they have 'the absolute' method for teaching it.

There are also different kinds of vibrato, some very unhealthy.

There's jaw vibrato, which a lot of pop/gospel singers use and even a good number of opera singers. It looks SUPER cool, but it's basically where your jaw gets so tight that it 'shakes' up and down as you sing, and that is extremely unhealthy for your voice, and will eventually evolve into an uncontrollable vocal wobble as they get to their 30's and 40's.

There's 'stomach' vibrato, which I don't think is very healthy either... and that's where you basically 'pulse' your stomach a little bit to create the vibrato. My suspicion is that it's another unhealthy technique, because any time you 'flex' the abs like that you're sending a tiny extra burst of air through the cords, and I don't think doing it THAT much is healthy.

There's larynx vibrato, which I believe is not always unhealthy in and of itself, but it is unhealthy in that it happens because of excessive tension in the throat/neck/jaw area. It's when you see someone's larynx bob up and down in perfect unison with the speed of their vibrato... it's also very distracting to look at. It's a problem I have, but it's slowly going away as I learn to place my voice better and take the tension out of my neck and throat .



My only real suggestion for beginning to discover how to create a healthy vibrato is this: imitate a ghost. Go, 'oooo' or 'wooo' in a spooky, light voice using as little breath 'pressure' as possible and slide up and down in your upper/middle voice making that spooky, shaking tone. Keep in mind that isn't how you want to actually continually create your vibrato, but it's the healthiest method I know of to discover the beginnings of how to develop a vibrato.

I've found very few teachers who know of healthy methods... and it has been suggested that some voices just aren't really meant to sing with a lot of vibrato. I don't know how I feel about that, but there are so many things we don't know about the voice that I suppose it could be 100% true.

I learned my vibrato just by imitating my very first teacher, and I had none before my voice changed (boy sopranos/altos do not usually have a natural vibrato).

[Gwaimir Windgem]

As a rule, certainly, but the exceptions can be interesting. There was a boy soprano in the 80s called Bejun Mehta with absolutely gorgeous vibrato.

[Tessar]

That's a really beautiful voice, Gwai. He's also apparently got quite a career as a counter-tenor now, and I love his adult voice too.

Worked with my dad again today... he had started humming with a lot of breath pressure again, so I had to make him back it off again. We added a falsetto exercise where he slides on 'oo' from his falsetto into his chest, and I showed him that when he does it without pressure he can slide from falsetto down to fry without an obvious vocal break.

Then we did the falsetto slide on 'ah', which requires more developed muscles because unlike the 'oo,' where you can get away doing it without any 'support' from the low support muscles, it's almost impossible to do it on 'ah' without support, because otherwise you can't control the volume of the 'ah' (unless you modify the vowel, of course). So this week he's supposed to keep humming, and add in the falsetto slides on 'oo' and 'ah' to develop the low-pressure vocalizing and help develop his support muscles.

I think the falsetto one is also SUPER AWESOME for his voice, because he gets a delayed onset of sound if he begins the note with too much pressure, or it 'glitches' at the onset of sound. I showed him the difference between the glitchy or delayed onset and a smooth, instantaneous onset that comes from a balanced support and low pressure onset... and he seemed to understand and was able to replicate it a couple of times.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I know, isn't it? And very distinctive; a far cry from your steretypical "Pie Jesu" treble! And even more than the voice, I'm impressed with his musicality. He knows what he's doing with the music more than any other boy soprano I've ever heard.

That said, I'm not terribly keen on his countertenor. He's good, decent voice, good technique, but he's not really anything special. Perhaps I'm more disillusioned than anything; I would have hoped that he would have matured into something great, not something good.

[katya]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Vibrato is SUCH a tricky thing... and frankly it can make the difference between a beautiful voice and an icky voice. I can think of a few people who have totally gross voices because their tone is beautiful, but they either have an ENORMOUS, wobbly vibrato, or they have a a super, super fast vibrato. I think straight-tone can be very beautiful, and I do like some faster-than-normal vibratos, but super fast vibratos are just awful.

I think in some areas in Asia the fast vibrato is supposed to be desirable, but I don't get that. Even when Gackt does it (and I love Gackt to death) it's really annoying.

I think I will work on that when I'm not around people. Everyone already thinks I'm weird, I don't need to make it worse.

[Voronwen]

Katya, i think Tessar explained well how to at least begin freeing your voice. Ironically, you have to gain relaxation and freedom in your voice before you can achieve control. But controlling the vibrato is not something you ever want to do.

Vibrato is something that, ideally, happens naturally. Some voices have more than others. It should never be forced or otherwise manufactured. It's one of those things that, once the singer learns enough technique to have at least a foundation of vocal production that is free from tensions, should be allowed to 'just happen'.

Voices with no vibrato are either very tense (a technical problem) or are doing the opposite of artificially manufacturing a vibrato - they are artificially suppressing it. Either way is unhealthy and unnatural and eventually leads to all kinds of vocal problems. Creating a false vibrato can lead to a wobble (as Tessar explained) and 'straight-tone' (vibrato-less) singing causes immense tension that can take years of vocal therapy to resolve. I suppose you can count me in with the school of thought that early music should be sung without suppressing the vibrato.


Tessar, it sounds as if the falsetto exercises are working for your dad? I've forgotten, is he a baritone like yourself? Many baritones have a good falsetto register (in fact many career countertenors are actually baritones). Are you doing this to help him achieve balanced registers, or just part of working towards vocal freedom?


In my own singing life, i'm waving the white flag of surrender I am what i am, and that is a classical singer. I'm going to continue to sing what i sing best, and not waste my time trying to conform what i do to the needs of the local area churches. So i will never be on a worship team, but that's ok. I can still contribute something by doing recitals for charity benefit or whatever. Then those who want to hear classical can come and hear it, done right - and those who don't can simply stay home.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

and 'straight-tone' (vibrato-less) singing causes immense tension that can take years of vocal therapy to resolve.

By re-visiting the events which caused the tension, and forcing the voice to confront them with the guidance of a therapist?

In my own singing life, i'm waving the white flag of surrender I am what i am, and that is a classical singer. I'm going to continue to sing what i sing best, and not waste my time trying to conform what i do to the needs of the local area churches. So i will never be on a worship team, but that's ok. I can still contribute something by doing recitals for charity benefit or whatever. Then those who want to hear classical can come and hear it, done right - and those who don't can simply stay home.

Are there any RC or Episcopal churches in your area? Depending on the area, many of them may have a service with "traditional" choir, which can involve polyphony or even solos that, I imagine, would be more up your alley. Episcopalians and Anglicans, in particular, seem fond of having services for both "contemporary" and "traditional" music. Other mainline Protestants of the more conservative stripe (such as Missouri and Wisconsin Synod Lutherans) often have a "traditional" music service, which probably wouldn't be any grand polyphony, but at least a choir for solid hymnody.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

Are there any RC or Episcopal churches in your area? Depending on the area, many of them may have a service with "traditional" choir, which can involve polyphony or even solos that, I imagine, would be more up your alley.

I was just talking to a woman in my church today about this. She knows of another local pastor who is a classical pianist himself. His church is not Catholic or "high church", but he embraces a more legitimate music program. We'll see where this connection leads.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Voronwen

Tessar, it sounds as if the falsetto exercises are working for your dad? I've forgotten, is he a baritone like yourself? Many baritones have a good falsetto register (in fact many career countertenors are actually baritones). Are you doing this to help him achieve balanced registers, or just part of working towards vocal freedom?

Yes, he is indeed a baritone. I don't think that he or I have particularly 'great' falsetto voices (I've been told mine is 'pretty', but it's nothing worth hearing a concert for, and it's not a 'big' falsetto), but yes the falsetto exercises are working super well for him.

I'm doing it for the freedom, and hopefully the register blending will be a nice 'side perk' to doing them . Right now he has absolutely no sense of support whatsoever, and if you don't support when you're doing the falsetto slides you'll crack as the registers flip because the air builds up under the cords and (as the muscles have to 'shift around' to flip between falsetto and chest) it lets out a puff of 'pressure' that makes the voice crack. I don't know if that's exactly what happens, but it's what it feels like and it's how I know if I'm not supporting enough when I warm up, and whether he's supporting at all.

I'm also doing it because it's (as far as I'm aware) physically impossible to do them loudly. I think you could get a little volume if you're -really- good, but in general you have to do it with just baaaaaarely any pressure, and at pianissimo to piano volume level. He sings with too much pressure, and he tries to sing 'big', so I'm doing this to make him back off of the pressure.

In my own singing life, i'm waving the white flag of surrender I am what i am, and that is a classical singer. I'm going to continue to sing what i sing best, and not waste my time trying to conform what i do to the needs of the local area churches. So i will never be on a worship team, but that's ok. I can still contribute something by doing recitals for charity benefit or whatever. Then those who want to hear classical can come and hear it, done right - and those who don't can simply stay home.

Good for you! You shouldn't have to try to force yourself to become a belter or whatever if it isn't comfortable in your voice. You should be in a program that actually appreciates a well-balanced 'legit' soprano voice.



I had an AWESOME voice lesson today. Despite allergies, dumb drama-induced-stress, and a fairly rigorous concert tour schedule (three performances Monday, four on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and two this morning) my voice is still in decent condition. I warmed up to an easy G4, and for the hour long lesson we worked on a piece that sits high in tessitura for me, and I had no major problems.

It's because I had a breakthrough during choir tour... because I always try to emote when we sing on choir tour (I sort of 'act' inside my head, and just let my outside expression show what I'm singing rather than doing actual physical gestures), there was one piece where I was trying to sort of 'sigh' as I sang, and I realized after the first two concerts that it was actually making the piece physically easier to sing.

I started doing it all of the time, and I realized that I had still been 'holding in' my breath every time I sang. My teacher was just thrilled to death with the improvement, and she told me four or five times that she couldn't believe how easily I was singing. Seriously... between the new placement I found on New Years Eve, and this new way of breathing/supporting, I am singing almost totally effortlessly when everything works together properly.

I'm so excited to get a little vocal rest and then start using this stuff on all of my pieces. I have a long way to go as far as making everything balance properly, and making the stuff be 100% consistent, but progress is DEFINITELY being made.

She also 100% approved of my plan to switch majors, and she actually started telling me what courses I need to be sure that I either audit or take before I switch majors so that I don't have to do remedial stuff in grad school. So she's going to help me with all of that, AND she told me that when I finally switch majors I'm still totally welcome to take privately with her... it will be more expensive for me so she suggested I keep letting the school 'pay' for the bulk of it as long as I can, but I love that she'll still be willing to teach me whether I'm majoring or not .

[Tessar]

Once the opera competition on March 20th, and then the NATS competition like a week or two right after that, are over I think I may try to see if my teacher will let me try out some belter songs. I was told in the past by a handful of people that I have a good broadway voice because it's sort of a light but 'full' sound, and it has enough of a tenor 'edge' to it.

So far I'm thinking of, "Way Ahead of My Time," because it's HILARIOUS (it's about a gay caveman ) and I'm a good comedic actor, and then "Someone To Fall Back On," because it's really beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EXOUViG_WU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECpTC4FtIDQ

Both are technically tenor pieces, but I really don't like very many of the broadway pieces for baritone/bass... and I can belt a G4 so there's a handful of tenor pieces that I can sing. The G4 isn't great at this point... but it's consistent, and although it doesn't have vibrato yet, it's getting relatively easy to sing, so I'm hopeful that in another month or two it'll open up and be well produced enough to vibrate freely.

I don't think either of those pieces go over an F though, so either way I'm in good shape because I can definitely handle an F with no real problems.

[Tessar]

Just did a great voice lesson with my dad... I was actually very, VERY surprised how well he did. Like... floored, frankly.

The humming needed a bit of tweaking again, but just barely any... nothing like last week where we had to almost readjust the whole thing. The falsetto slides were pretty much AMAZING. I kid you not... it took me years to learn how to do those things because my throat was so tight, and in one week he's learned how to do the 'oo' slide flawlessly, and the 'ah' slide with just the occasional glitch. I mean the 'oo' slide was perfect. Nothing to critique there, just the 'ah' slide needs work. In a few weeks he might be ready to do some 'ee' slides.

Then I introduced him to what I just figured out how to do this last week, what I'm calling the 'sigh concept'. It the thing where, to release the breath and open up the throat, you imagine that you're sighing as you sing... the higher you have to sing, the more 'open' the sigh. It's not like a loud sigh that you want someone to notice... it's the kind of sigh that you do when you don't want anyone to hear it... the throat is open, so it produces very little sound. Bring the cords together on that, though, and you have a beautiful, open sound that carries like you wouldn't believe.

It worked so well on the humming that I thought I'd try him on a five-tone 'ah' scale, and OMG. Awesomeness ensued . Perfection it was not, but it was the most beautiful, open, resonant sound that I've ever heard him make. I had to keep telling him 'sigh the top open... bigger sigh!' as he sang, because otherwise he would grip with the throat, but I took him all the way up to a pretty decent E4. It wasn't a good sound, but it was fairly open. Up to the C#4 though it was nicely resonant, so that's an ENORMOUS improvement. I definitely think he's got an F and maybe a G in him, but we're not touching those for at least a few months I think.

So this week he's supposed to do humming, falsetto slides (primarily on 'ah' since he's mastered 'oo'), and the five tone 'ah' scale up to as high as is comfortable. I told him for a few months it may be very inconsistent... like some days he may not even be able to reach Middle C, but in time it will become consistent probably up to the F... keeping in mind that he's almost 50, so the G may not ever become super consistent. But as a baritone, particularly choral, he'll never need that.

Hopefully in a few weeks he'll be ready to start working on some actual music. I think we'll probably take whatever the choir is working on, and I'll have him start it on just humming, then a single vowel, then changing vowels, and -then- try putting it all together. Really take a couple of weeks to bring it all together.

Fingers crossed this is all headed in a good direction .




I also may have a temporary student. The whole situation is a little weird, so I'm not expecting it to happen, but there's a kid from the choir I observed at my parish last year who is getting ready for a competition (UIL I think?). His voice just changed to baritone. He takes lessons from someone I know.... but to be perfectly honest I wonder if she's really a very good teacher because she has some major vocal issues of her own. Anyways... the woman who co-directs the choir suggested to the boy that he should ask me for help with singing the piece (I think because she knows how much I struggled when I was his age with singing, so I can really empathize).

I gave him a couple of 'starting tips' (i.e. learn the rhythm, then the melody, then the words, THEN your teacher can really help you sing it) but I told him that I couldn't help him unless he okayed it first with his regular voice teacher. I don't want to step on any toes.

[Tessar]

SoooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooo freaking excited!!!!

Today in my voice lesson I fiiiiiiiiiiiiinally had the breakthrough I needed to get my soft palate up and keep it there when I sing without my voice dropping back into my throat. WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!! It's totally awesome.

We discovered that when I really jam my palate up all the way and keep my voice super, super forward I can do tiiiiny little pianissimo sounds, even in my middling-upper register (I think the highest we did was a middle C) that totally just spin, float, and shimmer without losing any connection to my full voice, AND now that my palate's up I have way, way more control of my dynamics.

I'm so excited... this is going to make a huge difference for my singing in general, BUT especially for 'Warm As The Autumn Light,' because there are a couple of places in there (especially the opening and very ending phrases) which are AWESOME if you can do them very softly. That's one of my competition pieces for March, and after I did those first phrases with the super soft, high palate sound my teacher said that she wants me to really, really work that piece and consider using it as my 'choice' for little NATS (which happens right after the competition... the next weekend or something) if I make simi-finals.

My goal is to make the simi-finals for the competition, and to make the final 5 for the finals at NATS. We'll see if I can do that .

[Voronwen]

Wow! As usual, Tessar, i can't keep up with you. You seem to be one of these people who just lives, breathes, and does EVERYTHING music. For that reason you'll be just perfect for the career.

I'm getting a small charity benefit together at my church. I have a pianist and a mezzo who want to work with me so far, but am hoping to get a few more classical singers and instrumentalists involved as well. I'm looking at late spring. Practice has been very good for me on so many levels.

Now i just need to decide on exactly what i will be singing. So many arias, so little time...