The Singers Thread

[X Perry Mint]

I wish I could sing You guys are cool!

[Tessar]

I'm not going to lie.... singers are pretty much rad raised to the power of MOST EXCELLENT. So... yeah. We are pretty cool. >.>

[Tessar]

Huh, still tryin' to figure some stuff out.

It seems like when I get my throat -really- open my voice falls into the right placement without me having to focus on it.

I'm not sure, though... maybe that's still not the right placement? You're going to laugh, but it seems too easy. Not that keeping my throat open isn't challenge enough by itself, but it just seems like there should be more to it. I guess I was/am still waiting for the complex, mystical secret of singing to be imparted to me by Jesus Himself arriving in a chariot of clouds saying, "Well done, my faithful young singer! You have earned the right to be a totally rad musician, and I now divinely impart to you the ability to sing."

Maybe I had my expectations a little too high.

It's funny how easy/hard it is though!!! When I take a nice, low breath and sing with my throat open I can sing just about whatever I want. But if I don't take a low enough breath, or I don't quite keep my throat open enough, everything falls apart. Now it's all psychological. I can sing the music, but one little moment of, "Oh, crap, can I actually sing this note?" and my body locks up just enough for it to fall apart.

It can be a little frustrating. To open my throat I have to pretend that I'm about to sing a tone with no real 'center', like a really breathy "uhhh" sound.... but what comes out is a clear, solid, full tone. Also sometimes on my high notes I think they're really breathy, out of tune, and weak, but on the recording they're full and powerful. It really kind of messes with my mind. In order to sing well I have to let go of the desire to 'create' a beautiful sound and just let whatever is going to happen, happen.



Also, interesting thing happened today: I had a "I'm a retard and should have tried this before," moment and told my dad, "Hey, try just relaxing and singing this melody like you're just sighing, or being really breathy... like a pop singer." And he actually sang really well, with no hint of excess breath or the raspy sound he usually gets. His upper register wasn't connected yet, but for five minutes of work it was a pretty amazing improvement. It took me a few days to figure out how to bring the relaxation up into the high voice.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Huh, still tryin' to figure some stuff out.

When that's not the case, let me know.

[Tessar]

I totally impressed my voice teacher today.

Despite my voice being in poor shape (due to allergies), I sang two -very- difficult songs... and sang through passages with multiple High D's and E's easily... I think I did each of the hard parts five or six times in a row as we fiddled with vowels and things. She said that they wasn't as "full" as they sound when I just pop out one or two High E's, but even singing six or more in a row I was able to keep them sounding okay.

I think she was also happy because it's been almost four weeks since our last lesson, and my voice has continued to improve during that period of me working by myself... so I think we were both rather proud of that because it's not something that would've really happened in the past.

I was pleased because I brought in Breit Uber Mein Haupt by Strauss as a "work piece" because it's got some very difficult technical things in it, but after I sang the piece, my teacher told me that she thinks I could easily perform it. Hooray!

All in all, not too bad for a business major!!!

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Tessar

I was pleased because I brought in Breit Uber Mein Haupt by Strauss as a "work piece" because it's got some very difficult technical things in it, but after I sang the piece, my teacher told me that she thinks I could easily perform it. Hooray!

I don't know the piece, but it sounds like it's something impressive!

All in all, not too bad for a business major!!!

Indeed not ...

[Tessar]

It's honestly not terribly impressive, but I think it's extremely beautiful. It's a very short piece by Strauss... my favorite recording is by the Asian soprano, Sumi Jo, and I can't find a good recording on youtube (the best quality youtube recording is Jonaus Kaufmann, but he just screams it for some reason... ). It's difficult because, for a baritone, it has a couple of phrases that sit right in that 'passagio' area where you have to navigate so carefully (D's and E's), and some parts that make leaps from middle voice into the head voice, and that can be a trick in itself to do well.

But I sang it without major problems today, so I was happy.

Say a prayer for me. Tomorrow I have to sing the really hard excerpts, do a bunch of sight singing, sing some chromatic scales, etc. as an "evaluation" to keep my job singing with the choir. O_o I'm quite nervous, and I'm afraid my sight singing skills (which have gotten pretty good lately) are going to completely fall apart under pressure!! I couldn't sight sing a lick of music when I was a music major, but two weeks after changing my major suddenly I was able to sight sing easily... so I always failed my sight singing tests, and I'm hoping this wont become reminiscent of that.

I already called the director and warned him that my voice isn't in great shape, so if it's worse tomorrow he suggested we could reschedule half of it... but he wants to get it started tomorrow. Wish me luck!

[Varnafindë]

Will do!

[Tessar]

Well it went okay. I did terribly on the sight singing, unfortunately, but he was actually very positive about everything. I know he was happy with my range (I warmed up to a High Ab and down to a Low E) and he said he's happy with my singing and wants to see me again for more sight singing in six months.

So all things considered, that went super well... mainly because he's awesome. So the next six months are gonna be hardcore sight-singing study for me... and other than that I feel like I'm well on track vocally, so I think my main concern is just to get my sight singing up to snuff.

[Varnafindë]

I interpret that to mean that although you're not as good as he would want you to be at the sight singing, he's still pleased with you as a singer in the choir, and will just want you to continue working on it, right?

That's good to hear!

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

I interpret that to mean that although you're not as good as he would want you to be at the sight singing, he's still pleased with you as a singer in the choir, and will just want you to continue working on it, right?

That's good to hear!

Yes that's pretty accurate, I believe. We're going to have a "sit down" discussion in a few weeks, but he said it would basically be more of the same info so.... fingers crossed it all turns out well. I'm thinking it will.

In oooother news, I am a little sad... I feel like I don't sing along with some of my favorite singers (Sara Bareilles, Karen Carpenter, Norah Jones, etc.) because they have a much more solid low range than I do. It's not that I can't hit those notes any more, but I don't think they're as solid as they used to be (when I was 16). The thing is that most of those women are low-mezzos (some are altos), and I'm heading towards being a high baritone, so they'll have a little more on the low end than I will. Oh well.

Other than that I feel like things are coming along okay. Right now I'm focusing on relaxing my throat/tongue to let the sound be produced, and then 'rounding' my lips around the sound to make it full. It is getting more consistent. Sometimes I still grab out of habit, but that's happening a little less often.


One thing I am really trying to figure out now is high, floaty singing. If I want to do more jazz, folk, or broadway music I have GOT to figure out how to really float a tiny sound up in my high range.... I think I'm starting to get a handle on it, but it's a real challenge for me. I'm also trying to figure out how to really connect my falsetto voice, because that's a really useful 'trick' for those styles of music, and definitely something I could also use in art songs and even a handful of arias.

[Tessar]

Whoa, just talked to one of my friends. She's gorgeous, and has a beautiful voice...

Apparently she went to a very well known university and paid for a voice lesson (to see if she wanted to apply to the school) and was told that she had terrible Italian diction, and was at a horrible disadvantage because she's "too young" (at 21) and has a "pretty face and a pretty voice, and that's it."

O_o Good Lord. Can we say, "Tessar did the right thing changing majors and putting off gradschool?" I mean geeze.....

[Tessar]

OH SNAP, YOU GUYS. Totally just figured out how to breath a little better... This Sunday during one of the services I was practicing on 'overloading' myself with air (to see how much air I could breath in without tensing up) and then all of the sudden I felt my breath drop lower into my lungs than it usually does.

Been playing with it, and it seems to be working great. So that's nice. I'm thinking this might be the trick to singing those pianissimo high notes.

I'm a little worried it might cause me to overblow air, so I have to focus on really relaxing and not oversinging. It seemed to work super well on Sunday... got through the three morning services, and then an hour and a half of La Boheme rehearsal and today my voice seems fine.

Also, interestingly, I played around with some straight-tone singing... and getting the lower breath makes it pretty easy and takes away some of the tendency to go flat on sustained, vibratoless notes. I've been considering getting back into the Sunday evening Latin chant choir, to force me to improve my sight-singing, and this might be the trick for doing it.




Speaking of, where the heck is Voronwen!!! I miss yoooou.

[Tessar]

Hooray, the concert helped me have a vocal breakthrough. I realized something that Sara Bareilles was doing--I realized it because the guys before her weren't doing it--and I figured out that I can do what she's doing vocally.

It's basically the idea of singing as "ugly" as you can, and if you don't take it too far... you actually end up sounding really, really great. Basically it's a vocal placement thing... you try to sing as nasal as you can without being in your nose, and you make your vowels too bright... but when you put your lips "around" the sound it comes out with this brilliant, pingy, full sound. I had the bright vowels, I just didn't have my voice "nasal" enough.

The guys who sang before Sara B. had bright vowels (sometimes...) but they didn't have that nasal placement... so their voices were pretty, but very dull. Pretty boring to listen to.

My teacher was really surprised and happy to hear me today, so I'm on the right track. We discussed the "change" and she agrees that it's putting my voice in the right place.

My friend came in to hear the end of my lesson, and she agreed that it was a huge change and she said it sounded great.... soooo I'm gonna trust them on this one .

[Tessar]

I miss Voronwen. >.< Where is she?! Sad day.

The really bright/nasal, "singing like you're being mean," thing is working super awesome. So that's rad. I just have to be careful not to overdo it in my middle/low register. But in my lowest register, and my highest register, it's like the most I can do almost isn't enough.... so it's hard to balance. You can't be toooo nasal in the middle range, but on the extreme ends you have to just pour the nasality on.

Today we worked on some really great stuff... I didn't realize that the way I was getting into my high notes was by building up pressure in my chest and using that to 'springboard' into my high notes... so today we experimented with using more breath pressure from the start, rather than sort of... grabbing the air in my chest and then "throwing" it all into the high note at once. It worked really, really well.

It seems that I've been a little confused about the concept of using breath pressure correctly, so now that we're starting to get that sorted out it's definitely opening my voice up nicely.

[Earniel]

You should write down all those breakthroughs, or copy them elsewhere than just on the Entmoot. Maybe a journal. Because reading these posts really gives a nice idea how you're progressing, and to me that sounds like something you might would love to reread or remember in a few years when your carreer takes off and you're a world-famous singer.

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

You should write down all those breakthroughs, or copy them elsewhere than just on the Entmoot. Maybe a journal. Because reading these posts really gives a nice idea how you're progressing, and to me that sounds like something you might would love to reread or remember in a few years when your carreer takes off and you're a world-famous singer.

I second that.

You can print this thread and save it, and perhaps add hand-written comments ...

[Gwaimir Windgem]

When you become the next Renee Fleming, it can serve as the foundation for your autobiography. Your first one, at least. Like so many luminaries, I predict at least three autobiographies.

[Tessar]

That's actually a great idea... I'm sure I'll be able to look back at this stuff later, especially when/if I get to teach voice, and it'll help me remember some learning techniques to help my students.

Oh man, if I write an auto-biography I am totally talking about you guys in the "thank you," section. I'll be like, "And thank you to the people of Entmoot." Because that wont seem crazy at all. >.>

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Oh man, if I write an auto-biography I am totally talking about you guys in the "thank you," section. I'll be like, "And thank you to the people of Entmoot." Because that wont seem crazy at all. >.>

When you're world-famous, crazy is 'eccentric'.