Lesson 2/27/16
- "old man death rattle"
- release jaw; allow space between back molars
- bright vowels rise the side edges of the tongue
- Don't try to make a resonance (i.e. you get a little kermit-y). Allow tongue to release.
- "about to sneeze"
- loose lips (esp. corners), internal smile
- Don't make space. Space is breath.
- Don't use your singing to force out a space. If that makes sense. Allow the sound to come out with the space just being there. The space isn't an active thing.
- If the vibrato gets heavy up top, it's the tongue/jaw pressing down!!
This was from this morning. I never really settled into my voice until the evening today, and I firmly believe it's because I didn't have the patience to work through things.
I came back to the practice room around 7:30 p.m., and it took me a good hour or so until my vibrato quit being so heavy.
I spent the first 30 minutes of my practice on the floor because I just could NOT get my tongue to release. I could feel it grab on anything above an A4. I got quite frustrated, but I tried to think of it in terms of "what if I was sick right now?" so I could trick myself into being more patient with my voice.
I had to take several breaks because I got frustrated, but by around 9:45 p.m. (yeah, I know, it's a long time), I finally started getting the hang of my voice (sort of). At least my resonance wasn't stuck in my throat and my vibrato wasn't like a brick.
After going over my pieces for this Saturday (AHHHHHHHHHHH), I noticed a strange kind of vocal fatigue. It's not the usual "I can't go back into my speaking voice" kind of thing. And I can continue singing without much of a problem, but it's like a scratchiness? sand-papery-ness? that probably comes from an inefficient use of air at the laryngeal level. I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the breath.
(In fact, I just tested this after typing the above statement, and after focusing more on not allowing the ribcage to collapse, that "leaky" feeling went away...)
Anyways. Some interesting stuff. I'm going to use tomorrow as an attempted simulation for the competition by waking up at the same time I will on Saturday and warming up before performing. We'll see how that goes.
And a side note: Singing makes everything better. Even on bad voice days. It's so... meditative when you get into the groove of things. Clears my head.
I came back to the practice room around 7:30 p.m., and it took me a good hour or so until my vibrato quit being so heavy.
I spent the first 30 minutes of my practice on the floor because I just could NOT get my tongue to release. I could feel it grab on anything above an A4. I got quite frustrated, but I tried to think of it in terms of "what if I was sick right now?" so I could trick myself into being more patient with my voice.
I had to take several breaks because I got frustrated, but by around 9:45 p.m. (yeah, I know, it's a long time), I finally started getting the hang of my voice (sort of). At least my resonance wasn't stuck in my throat and my vibrato wasn't like a brick.
After going over my pieces for this Saturday (AHHHHHHHHHHH), I noticed a strange kind of vocal fatigue. It's not the usual "I can't go back into my speaking voice" kind of thing. And I can continue singing without much of a problem, but it's like a scratchiness? sand-papery-ness? that probably comes from an inefficient use of air at the laryngeal level. I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with the breath.
(In fact, I just tested this after typing the above statement, and after focusing more on not allowing the ribcage to collapse, that "leaky" feeling went away...)
Anyways. Some interesting stuff. I'm going to use tomorrow as an attempted simulation for the competition by waking up at the same time I will on Saturday and warming up before performing. We'll see how that goes.
And a side note: Singing makes everything better. Even on bad voice days. It's so... meditative when you get into the groove of things. Clears my head.
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