The Singers Thread

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

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

.....You rang?

[Tessar]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!! *tackle-hug*

[Voronwen]

How are you, Tessar?

[Tessar]

Well better now that you're here.

I believe you have some RECORDINGS that you owe me? Hmmmm? Hmmmmmmmm???

[Voronwen]

Oh dear..... Well, i've moved on from that church (long, sad story ), but i'm sure i can still arrange something. Just give me a little time to contact some of my old friends there and maybe.... just maybe....


And as for you, my friend.... having glanced through the last few pages, it seems as if you've been very busy!

[katya]

So.... I subbed for a choir class today and naturally now I want to try to practice singing. What are some basic tips for singing more or less properly? I suppose there are different styles but, are there any kind of universal things? I am ok at singing the right notes, but my voice sounds really horrible and also sounds very childish (I've been told my speaking voice does too).

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by katya

are there any kind of universal things?

Yes

If i had to boil it down to two things, i would say, resonance (called "placement" by some, but that's actually a misnomer - it's only the place where you feel the sound vibrating), and support. Most of all, SUPPORT. I've written about this at greater length earlier in this thread. If you go through the first few pages i'm sure you'll find a lot. Tessar can fill you in as well. Please feel free to PM me with questions about anything i've written before. While it's impossible to 'teach' online, discussion about the finer points is absolutely possible.

[katya]

Ok, first few pages then? I didn't want to read through the whole thread but I figured a lot of it would have been discussed already. I'll look through when I'm done reading my book for the night.

[Voronwen]

Yes. And i will go through and link you to some of the earlier discussions when i have a bit more time.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by katya

Ok, first few pages then? I didn't want to read through the whole thread but I figured a lot of it would have been discussed already. I'll look through when I'm done reading my book for the night.

What she said.

Like Voronwen said, it's pretty much impossible to teach over the internet... and in fact a bit dangerous if you intend to seriously attempt any sort of vocal study. It is easy to mess up your voice by singing incorrectly.

If you go back through some of my posts (although I realize there are about a zillion of them) I often describe the things that helped me make vocal breakthroughs. Some of them I have used since posting about them to help other people, but... that's in person. It -always- takes some fiddling around to get things right, and having a teacher there is essential.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

What she said.

As usual, Tessar, we always seem to agree...


Anyway..... what's this i hear about you changing your major? I think i remember us talking about this before, but i didnt know it was a sure thing. Please fill me in...???

[katya]

Originally Posted by Tessar

What she said.

Like Voronwen said, it's pretty much impossible to teach over the internet... and in fact a bit dangerous if you intend to seriously attempt any sort of vocal study. It is easy to mess up your voice by singing incorrectly.

The way I look at it is, I'm already singing all the time, I'm already probably messing up my voice by singing incorrectly. I might as well do my best to learn how not to mess it up quite as badly from the internet. I just don't have time or money for IRL lessons at the moment. Between work and karate and piano and the other stuff I'm already in. And also I do realize that Google exists, but sometimes the sheer volume of information is a bit overwhelming, and it's nice to be able to have one-on-one (or two ) conversations as well.

You know, sometimes I wish I was "sort of" immortal, just so I'd have enough time to do all the things I want to do. I have so many interests that it's impossible to seriously pursue them all. So I'm basically a jack of all trades, master of none type. But anyway what I'm trying to say is, singing isn't a priority to me to the point where I would try to take lessons now, but I would like to not suck quite as bad when I try to sing in the car on the way to work or when I go to karaoke.

[Voronwen]

What style(s) of music are you interested in singing, katya? It really doesn't matter, as the voice works optimally in the same way whichever style you're singing, but i believe that classical technique is the best foundation for all other styles. If you do get around to having a few lessons, do try to start out with a classical teacher. Are you in college? You could ask around in the music department, most senior or graduate voice students who are learning vocal pedagogy would love to work with your budget and/or scheduling constraints. I'd love to see you get at least a handful of lessons at some point. It's really worth it. Once you have a basic technique down, you can go from there.

[Varnafindë]

Voronwen! You're back!!! Great to see you!

Originally Posted by katya

You know, sometimes I wish I was "sort of" immortal, just so I'd have enough time to do all the things I want to do.

Wouldn't it be good ... *sigh*

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

Voronwen! You're back!!! Great to see you!

It's good to see you again, too!

[Tessar]

Huh, well something's not right and it's annoying me severely. -_-

I'm singing way better than before, but my throat is drying out a little when I sing, and I can almost feel... "backed up" breath pressure in my throat every once in a great while.

I'm thinking it's just my throat adjusting to the new technique. I think my voice also isn't forward enough... my throat is so open that I'm not thinking properly about putting the voice in the mask, and I'm wondering if that's what's causing that "dry" feeling.

Or it could just be allergies. I'll keep playing with it for at least a few more days before I get too concerned.

[Tessar]

Know what's really interesting? Listen to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vfiPTymaLM

It's Barbara Bonney singing a piece. If you skip to the 1:58 second mark and listen, Barbara's voice is almost indistinguishable from Renee Fleming... even though they are completely different soprano voices. Barbara is usually very floaty and light, and is definitely not as big as Renee Fleming's voice, while Renee is usually very dark and heavy... and of course has all of those little stylistic quirks she does.

I was sort of dozing off while listening to Barbara Bonney, and I woke up around that area and thought I was listening to Renee Fleming for a minute.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Tessar

I'm singing way better than before, but my throat is drying out a little when I sing, and I can almost feel... "backed up" breath pressure in my throat

We solved this by just having me sing a little softer. I didn't think I was singing very loud at all, and I wasn't pushing, but when I made a conscious effort to sing at a piano to mp dynamic it fixed the problem.

We're thinking maybe I just need to make an effort to back off of the volume for a week or two while my throat adjusts to the new technique. Either way, it's working out great.


Tonight didn't go super well, in my opinion. I'll have to wait to see if/how the recordings come out, but I wasn't very happy. I felt like I lost all sensation of my voice... like I couldn't "feel" what I was doing... which makes me dread the recordings. I have a feeling they're going to sound tense, and that I was probably flat a lot. :-/ Hopefully I'm wrong and it was okay.

Trying to stay positive about it... I did have fun, despite the nagging fear in the back of my head that something was wrong because I couldn't feel any of the usual sensations of singing. We'll see how it turns out.

I'm trying to get my best friend to sing this with me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoNmS3Kx2NM

It's from Fivel. I had forgotten about it, and randomly stumbled across it the other day. It's sooooo beautiful. And sad. I was playing it on the piano earlier and my mom went, "Awwwwww... it's so pretty." I can't wait to hear my friend sing it... she has a super rich mezzo voice that I think would sound awesome on this.

I'm also working on Je Te Veux by Sati, and that's going really well. It's a challenge, but I'm enjoying it.

[Tessar]

Well I just about lost it in my voice lesson today. Got super frustrated, and have been for the last few days... things were feeling really rough, vocally, and I thought I was sounding like crap.

It turns out that I still sound the same, it's just a question of relaxing the tension on the inside so that my voice "feels" as free as it sounds. Which also makes me wonder how much more "voice" I might have inside of me if I currently sound like I'm relaxed when I can still feel tension in my body.

I'm sort of curious to see what happens as I continue to relax my voice. I think one of two things will happen... right now my voice is sort of "medium" in size, and has a nice shimmer to it. Relaxing will probably either make my voice bigger, or add to the fullness of my tone without increasing the volume.

I'm at the stage where I have to sing "quietly" to free up my voice. I didn't realize it, but singing quietly used to actually mean... you know... singing quietly.... now singing quietly = potentially massive quantities of sound. It's a little weird that trying to be quiet now makes me create more sound than my trying to be loud used to.

I am a little concerned though... definitely having a few little vocal problems, and it's either something on my vocal folds, or it's just from two solid weeks of stupid allergies. I'm thinking allergies, but it's a bit scary. Hopefully it's just that and not nodes or something.




In WAY MORE INTERESTING NEWS!!! My friend the mezzo/contralto/whatever turns out to be.... really just about one of the most unique voices I've ever heard. Today she sang some of the fast bit from the Messiah "For he's like a refiner's fire," bit and it was amaaaaazing.

I have literally never, ever heard anyone sing it as fast as my friend did. She did it at Cecilia Bartoli speed but without forcing it the way Bartoli does. Bartoli can sing fast because she pushes her voice so hard, but my friend's voice is just naturally that fast. As her voice has gotten more and more free, her vibrato has sped up to the point that now it's almost a trill. It's pretty astounding.

So I had an idea, and I suggested that she do a 'period' thing and just straight-tone everything except for the held notes during the mezlimatic passages... so it sounds -very- "authentic" (or at least what we consider authentic these days) and when she releases the vibrato during the melizmas, it sounds like she's doing a trill. It's just super awesome.

I'll have to try to get a recording to show you guys... it's pretty unique. Beyond the quality and speed of her voice, it's just kind of a freak voice in terms of vocal range. She's got a low, Baritone Bb (the one a little over an octave below Middle C) which she can sing comfortably, and she's got soprano Bb's (although she's still afraid of singing in her head voice )... and when she gets into it (although it's disconnected from the rest of her voice right now) she's got a whistle voice F#/G6. So from Bb2-G6... something like 3.5 octaves.

It kills me that she has so little self confidence. Her voice was built to be a famous baroque singer. I honestly believe that if she'd had a teacher when she was young (she was completely self-taught, then for the last few years had a horrible, horrible teacher who just about broke her voice) she would be singing at the Met right now... voices like hers don't come along very often. She's 33 right now, so basically just entering her prime. I'm excited to see where she is this time next year.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by Tessar

In WAY MORE INTERESTING NEWS!!! My friend the mezzo/contralto/whatever turns out to be.... really just about one of the most unique voices I've ever heard. Today she sang some of the fast bit from the Messiah "For he's like a refiner's fire," bit and it was amaaaaazing.

I was just listening to that.

*disappears back into the shadows*

Seriously, though, your friend certainly sounds built for baroque! The next question is: does she look good in pants?