I started practicing again, and to be honest, this time whenever I sang, it felt like I just couldn't get enough air since it was all just leaking out of my body ("snowplowing") and I couldn't seem to stop. I wondered if it was because I had lost some weight recently and I couldn't get into my body, but a part of me didn't quite believe that. I spent a good amount of time listening to my favorite artists, but it just didn't seem to be translating well into my own body. That's when I got the idea to listen to my audition recordings, where I felt I had a pretty good sense of what I wanted. I thought about breath and how I sing when I'm sick. I thought that I usually sing better when I'm sick because perhaps I focused more on breath and diverting the pressure away from the folds, but that only made me tight in my chest no matter how much time I spent on it.
After listening to my recording of "Must the winter come so soon," I noticed on some of my high notes that there was a feeling of spaciousness? in the back that I had been missing, and hearing my own voice sing it made it really easy to translate into my body, and my body remembered almost immediately what it felt like to have a high soft palate. It felt like the area by my upper molars just lifted and the soft palate all of a sudden became weightless. Just that one element changed EVERYTHING. All of a sudden, my breath was easy to manage, my jaw followed suit, and singing became so easy that I almost started crying. It's amazing how big of a difference the soft palate can make in your singing. At first, things were a little shaky and it was difficult for me to sustain that high soft palate position, but the more I eased into it by singing pieces like "Meine Liebe" or "L'attente," the more I was able to remember how it felt and soon I had no trouble singing with a high soft palate 95% of the time. WOOHOO. Hopefully my body will remember this tomorrow morning when I go to practice.
TL;DR SOFT PALATE IS EVERYTHING.
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UPDATE: Sang for VRH. It was horrendous. I couldn't seem to get out of my throat, and my soft palate felt like it was blocking my nasal cavity, and as a result, there were a lot of pitch problems, and my vibrato felt like it was just falling into my stomach. It was not good at all. However, when I went to opera rehearsal, I was able to loosen up a bit, and my jaw wasn't as tense since I had to sing over an orchestra. Still not as free as I would like it to be.
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Woke up with some acid reflux and phlegm. Did some warm ups with 1/28/15. Still have some edginess in my voice/excessive airiness that I can't seem to balance out. I feel significantly less tense than I had this last weekend, but I just can't seem to figure out how to get the sound out of my throat. I can feel the folds coming together, rather than having the sound just "appear."
When I'm too airy, I can't get the sound to focus, and it feels airy at the source (the folds). When I try to get out of there, my vibrato getting beat-y and my folds feel like they're pressing together. I'm kind of struggling to find a happy medium.
- Lesson 9/11/16
- Lesson 2/26/16
- try to find focus in the sound; less "snow plow" air
- "you too"
- THINK of the SPACE that you want. Don't make it, but look for it.
- back molar "c" jaw opening. internal smile
- think of cold air against roof of mouth
- think of small point in the hard palate
- "happy eyes"
- Maybe think of just using the very very edge of the folds? Think hugging the fat man.
- "beep" exercise
- thinking this way forces you to lighten up and use less of the "body" of the folds. The feeling of pressing is diminishing.
- just watch that you don't jam your jaw down. Think of gently (?) hugging the fat man with the pharynx and outer edges of the tongue.
- Think of the onset of the pitch/word being outside of you, not at the folds
- Don't just think "release/relax." It has to be release from a place. Energized, not blah.
- Back to Lesson 9/11/16
- REALLY close to yawn
- plug ears
- THINK. Focus on the good.
- Lesson 12/2/16
- Use the whole body as a resonator
Left feeling okay, but shaky. It was better than before, but it didn't feel sustainable.
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