Voice class

This just in: I have a light lyric soprano voice. Along the lines of what Kathleen Battle might have sounded like as a beginner.

Since last week I have been practicing yawn space using my best Alexander Technique to “not do” that thing with my throat when I sing, as well as moving my voice from bright to dark. I found that Amazing Grace using that “boo voice” did wonders to keep things dark.

The song for this week was Edelweiss, one I have always loved, and, well, I don’t know what to say. I sounded like a whole different person this week.

I’m still not sure of what use a light lyric soprano voice is, but at least I can sing in the shower without my voice cracking now.

Voice class

Major break through today. I’ve been struggling since class started with a tight, forced, frequently breaking sound. Today VT- (voice teacher) asked me to sit down and slump, then sing. Eureka! For the first time I experienced what happens when I relax my throat.

Vocal Ensemble

We are continuing to work on the same songs, with the exception of Bach (not sure why not) while awaiting the arrival of a shipment of new music.

• Song of Spring. We spent a fair amount of time working on the parts and the balance (less sopranos, more alto). Technical tip for the soprano leap from Bb to F: use the “s” in “summer” to assist.
• J’entends le Moulin. We again worked the rhythm using the syllable “doot.” Very short notes. Then we made a first pass at the French. I think I need to find some internet assistance with the pronunciation. I really need to get around to taking a French class.
• Welcome Sweet Pleasure. This is going to be challenge, because there are really no good places to breath. Some comments: the notes should be percussive and bell-like. Half-notes should have a marked crescendo-decrescendo shape. Accent the half note on 2 whenever you have a quarter-half note pattern in a bar.
• Dona, Dona. I wasn’t the only one who had a Dona, Dona ear worm after last week. Today we mostly worked parts, but also discussed choral cutoffs.
  • Evidently, in American-printed music the intent is to cut of (with the consonant) on the next beat after the end of the note. For instance, a whole note cuts off on “1″ at the beginning of the next bar. Occasionally, a breath will be marked for the ensemble as a whole (as at the end of a phrase/sentence), and then the note would cut off on the last beat (“4″, for a whole note). British-printed music makes this explicit by tying an eighth note over the barline or onto the beat where the note is to end. (I think that would be confusing to read, speaking as an instrumentalist.)
  • For parts work, A- mixed up the seating so that each of us was sitting with someone singing the same part on one side and someone singing the other part on the other side of us. I think in general we sopranos are singing more loudly than necessary, so this helped us hear the balance. Nice to know that I can relax, and really don’t need to force it.
• Chiquita Banana. Just a few minutes of work on the divisi parts at B.

Vocal Ensemble

Twelve women for at least part of tonight’s rehearsal. I think A- has issued an open invitation to drop-ins, so one faculty member stayed for awhile then had to leave. This is going to be a good group, and a very comfortable size.

Tonight we worked on four of the pieces we did last week:

• Welcome Sweet Pleasure
• Chiquita Banana
• Song of Spring
• Dona, Dona

A- said she has more music on order, something about some jazz, Renaissance pieces, and Mendelssohn. The veterans kind of groaned at Mendelssohn; sounds like they had had a time of it with a previous piece, though the end result was positive. Personally, I’m mostly looking forward to the Renaissance music.

Technically of interest were the enunciation instructions, also reiterated from last week:

• Start words with a quick consonant sound
• Shape the vowels throughout the note, and maintain until the last moment
• Then stop the word with a quick consonant
• The letter “r” does not exist in singing. Warm is pronounced wom. Higher is pronounced highah. Think Bostonian. (She didn’t say that, but it helped me to remember the concept.)

The other interesting teaching point happened when the altos were unexpectedly faced with a high eb, an octave above and almost three measures after their last note. A- had them do a little natural voice, downward sighing exercise we do as part of warm-ups, starting quite high, then pointed out that they had very comfortably produced a much higher note than eb so they should not get all stressed out over it. I tried it while driving home. It was very effective for keeping the throat relaxed while approaching the higher note – a better “not doing,” in Alexander Technique parlance.

My voice definitely needs to build stamina. After an hour of singing soprano I can barely talk in my usual register – but I can still sing loudly at you a fifth or so higher! I’m still wondering whether it might not be useful to have a few more private voice lessons.

Vocal Ensemble

Tonight was my first time singing in a vocal ensemble since Middle School. One of the first things I learned is that singing class is just like instrumental rehearsal: I need both a pencil (oops), and glasses. I have no idea why I thought it would be easier to read music with a grand staff, one or more vocal staves, and tiny typewritten lyrics in one or more languages.

We started off by being sorted into sections, even though our teacher, A-, wasn’t sure we would be able to sing in more than one part, as there were only eight of us and this was our first meeting. I and a fellow classmate from last semester’s introductory class became the first sopranos. And I think we were all justifiably proud that we were singing in three part harmony at the 20 minute mark.

I don’t know what repertoire we will settle on, but I think this is going to be fun. This is what we sang on our first night:

• Song of Spring (words by Emily Bronte, of all people, and music and additional words by Audrey Snyder)
• J’Entends le Moulin (arr. Donald Patriquin) We sang that one using some repetative syllable, rather than attempting the French. The rhythms are more important than the words, I think.
• Welcome Sweet Pleasure (Anon., music by Thomas Weelkes 1576-1623)
• Dona, Dona (World Folk Song Series, multiple attributions)
• Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten (J.S. Bach)
• Chiquita Banana(I’m serious. Did you know that this is an attempt to educate people that they should not refrigerate bananas? Who knew?)

Voice Lesson

My introductory voice class is over; this was the last lesson. After warm-ups we each presented the song we were assigned last week in a masterclass format. After waiting a few moments to make sure no one else was burning to start, I volunteered to go first. That is generally my preference – no worries that I won’t measure up to whomever went before, and I can better enjoy those who go after, since I’m not worrying about my turn.

I confessed that it had taken me awhile this week to get into this song, and that I thought my resistance was because I didn’t relate to the world view. God Bless the Child was written by Billie Holiday after a fight with her mother over money (according to Wikipedia), and there is a real victim attitude the way I read the words. After spending some time thinking about various people I have known, and realizing that in some ways the “rich relatives” section has personal meaning, I reinterpreted the mood as discouragement and started to make some progress. Plus, I didn’t want to embarrass myself by coming to class unprepared! We shared a laugh over that.

Our teacher A- is very fun to work with as a beginner. She seems genuinely delighted with every effort, and is great at finding something individually useful for each student. She told me that my voice has the nice quality of being uniformly clear throughout my register, and asked me what I wanted to improve. I told her that I was still distressed because it has a tendency to crack in the register where this song lies, and that I had tried making it both more nasal and more breathy. Both tactics improved the cracking, but neither was the way I wanted the song to sound. She suggested I try centering the sound in my chest and just “pushing through” the cracking. Wow. Big improvement. It was the first time I’ve experienced that amount of resonance in my chest, and I loved the sounds that came out. You should have heard me in the car on the way home!

We also spent some class time discussing what to do next semester, now that this class has ended. Our options are private lessons, and/or one of three ensembles. She reassured all of us that we were quite ready for ensembles, and that she was totally impressed that we were all able to take a new song away and learn it in a week. Much less hand-holding than she is used to in this class. I think I am going to sign up to sing with a women’s a cappella group which starts next week. More news to follow.

My only regret is that my R-09 malfunctioned (again) and I did not record the singing part of the class. After fiddling with the settings, I have decided that the battery-remaining display is not accurate, and that when it cuts off recording early it needs new batteries. I need to get some rechargeable ones.

Voice Lesson

Today was our next-to-last class for the semester, and we were each assigned a new piece to learn well enough to present in a master class format next week. It was kind of a boring lesson, as we sang through Poor Wayfaring Stranger together a couple of times, then each of (the 5 of) us read through our new songs individually. BTW, by missing class because of the major traffic snafu last week I missed out on performing my first piece for the class. Darn.

Each song was chosen to be different from our first song. My first song was Greensleeves, my new song is God Bless the Child, by Arthur Herzog Jr. and Billie Holiday. Some of the others knew it, but not me. That turns out to be fine, since part of the point of the new piece is to learn how to learn a new piece.

Here is our “new piece checklist”:

1. Listening to the piece first is not recommended, but if you do listen, listen to at least several different renditions.
2. Play through the piece (if you have instrumental skills) without singing it, OR sight sing the piece.
3. Go through and mark in breaths using two systems:
   1.  Speak the words, and figure out where breaths would naturally fall.
   2. Look at the musical phrases, and decide where breaths would make sense musically.

   Try to choose breath points where they align.

4. What is the song about?
5. Who are you singing to, and why? What is your goal?
6. Consider the style of the music (blues, ballad, etc, and how you might want to sing to reflect that style.
7. Look at changes in the accompaniment for recurring sections. This can give you clues for how to move the piece.
8. Sing through the song on a z, or a pblt, or lu lu, or anything but the words. What is hard?
9. Practice excerpts over a couple of days whenever you have a chance to sing. Driving, washing dishes, showering, etc.
10. When everything feels at the same level of difficulty, add the text.
11. There will be some new difficulties once the text is added; work on those excerpts.

The hope is that by diligently working on the piece this way, you will get to the point that you want to share it with others. Recognizing that singing in public requires a bit of exhibitionism beyond that required to perform on an instrument.