frescamari// Welcome, visitors, to my virtual music suite! Here you will find are a trio of chambers you can visit and enjoy.
The first chamber, "Frescamari's Practice Room" is meant to be a fun place that is filled with my vocal works in progress. An explanation of what I am doing in the practice room can be found on my Avocational Singer blog specifically in the post titled Welcome to My Vocal Studio In the practice room you may browse around, listen, even learn something about the process of building a voice and learning a song, or developing thinking about vocal science. I don't pretend that any of this is a finished product. If I ever have that, I'll invite you to a recital or concert.
The third chamber, "Frescamari's Guest Salon" is under construction and reserved for a future idea I have of avocational singers sharing their work in a salon-like format. It will link to guest posts, by invitation only, from avocational singer on my main Avocational Singer blog.
Hmmm. I've been trying to learn to sing Maybe This Time for the past 25 years. I love the song. When the intro starts, I have a great urge to start singing. Every single time. For 25 years. That seems like the song speaks to me in some way, I think, and if I can ever get it together, it just HAS to be part of my songstress life. I feel like it's ALMOST there.
This next one, Defying Gravity, I've only been working on for one month. Believe it or not, I had never been to see Wicked and only became aware of the song recently. I'm kind of flailing around on this karaoke version because it's slightly different than the printed copy I've been learning the song from. But this is one that has some problems that if I could just figure them out and nail them, it would be a good song for me because I love to sing it.
Here's the deal. I wanted to try this "bigger" singing -- like I've been singing in the past couple of posts here on posterous -- on Voi lo sapete. However, when I dug the song out, I found that I didn't have it learned enough to try it out.
I taught myself Voi lo sapete in a kind of sloppy way, before I started using count singing to help me learn songs.I learned about count-singing at the Westminster choir festival a couple of years ago. It's a tool to help choir singers learn a song and help them to sing together, but it was a fabulous personal discovery for me.Sometimes when you think you know something -- and I thought I knew about counting because I had studied piano and thought I had that down pat -- you find out one day that you really didn't know as much as you thought you knew.That is the case with me. When I sang, I was always either dragging behind, or tentative about entrances, and holding longer than I was supposed to because I wasn't paying attention to note values and cutoffs. All this time I thought I was a great musician, and that I was reading the rhythms correctly. Learning in choir and learning count-singing informed me of my error and now I realize I have to pay close attention to and work at timing and rhythm to really get it right.But how?The vehicle of count-singing provided my answer. It helped me feel the pulse within myself and gave me a way to work on the rhythm of a song without worrying about the language and pear-shaped tones.So, today, before I get to try out Voi lo sapete in my new big singing way, I've got to do a little mechanical fixing up on it.I decided to write the counts in (yes, I have to actually write all the counts in) and count-sing the song into my voice. (My new choir director tells us that we have to be a machine before we can be an artist!)First I count-sang it an octave lower:
Prac 12Feb01 Voi Lo Sapete, Count Singing Octave Below
What do I mean by singing "bigger?" Does it mean louder? Well, not exactly. It's true that it has more volume when I sing this way. But when I say "bigger," I mean that I am creating and maintaining a lot of space inside. I guess it means that I am keeping my soft palate out of the way so the sound can reverberate. Making a little sound cave inside.
But, in order to sing in that little sound cave I've carved out in there, I have to work much harder.But I am not forcing, blowing air out, pressing, squeezing, forcing in any way. I'm just using all of me. In fact, I'm giving so much out and not holding back at all.In the past, when I've done that, I risked hurting myself. I think it's because my present teacher showed me how to use all the energy without blowing out my vocal cords that I feel confident to do this now. Maybe if I had put it all out there like this before, I would have done some damage. The vocal cords would have freaked out and tensed up to try to stop the onslaught.Anyway, today's work -- day 2 -- tried out Stride la vampa bigger. First without any accompaniment, just my barefoot voice.Barefoot Voice
Like I said yesterday (or was it the day before yesterday?), I'm going to just start giving it all out when I sing. You know, I would have started doing this years ago but no one ever told me too. Or at least I didn't hear them telling me to. I would have thought it was "wrong." I was trying to make things so pretty and refined all these years. I think maybe a few people were trying to tell me it had to be big like this, but I just didn't get how big.
When I sing this way it is almost embarrassing. It's like I'm spilling my guts, and it seems almost "manly" or something. But when I listen to the tape, I really like the results. I'm surprised at how singing full out -- big and deep -- like this takes care of some other things, like intonation and "running out of breath."The first recording is just bare voice
And the second one is with the opera karaoke tape. (Still really hard for me to feel the orchestra pulse, so the first couple of lines are tentative, but I will keep working on it. In real life I think it would be easier than from this karaoke recording.)
Ha ha! I think I'm having a breakthrough, but just watch me get to my next lesson and teacher says, "WHAT are you doing?" That happens a lot with this voice stuff. But seriously, I do think I'm on to something.
Sang this at a recital a bit under-prepared because I had not worked with the pianist enough. In the middle of the recital, I forgot that there was a section that was similar to the ending of the piece. I got confused, and thought at first that the pianist had skipped the second verse and was going straight to the end. It was not my favorite moment of my song, but I got back on track soon enough (with help from the kind pianist).
Anyway, today I wanted to sing through the whole piece with the karaoke just to soothe my soul!Here it is:
Now I've listened to it a few times and so have you. (Well, maybe you only listened once, lol, or only to part of it!) It's not "bad" Intonation problems here and there. Okay, there are also some diction problems. And breathing problems. And having trouble feeling the pulse of the karaoke. and ... and ... and ...
But! Please don't tune out yet. I have been thinking about this all day. This and lots of stuff my teacher has been telling me about making more room inside, more space.
Decided to go all out. Be as big as I could. Make big space and use all I got. It felt almost like vomiting, Could this possibly be what I'm supposed to do? But it's so much. So big.
I made another recording later in the day (made that first one in the morning)
Here's the one I made tonight just a few minutes ago:
In order to make that sound I had to get sloppy with all the stuff I've been trying to perfect (and wasn't getting perfect anyway), I am going to work in this vein for the next couple of weeks and see what comes of it.
Since there's been such a buzz going about how the Star Spangled Banner was sung at the Super Bowl, I thought it appropriate to post the progress on my own rendition.
I have this karaoke mp3 file with this "band" playing it. It is hard to find good karaoke accompaniments, but we make do with what we can find.I think I've improved. It is useful for singers, especially Avocational Singer ones, to have this song under their belts. I have had to sing it three times for Kung Fu belt graduations (although I think I most recently lost my gig to this other Kung Fu student). At any rate, it's a song that one might have to sing, so here's my latest progress.
It was a year ago, December 16, that I recorded "Sebben Crudele" as the first of the 24 Italian Songs and Arias that I would learn in my project to learn 24 arias in 24 weeks. The recording was made after having worked on it for one week.
Well, I have been working all Fall on my vowels and I am finding out that it has made a huge difference in my singing. In my Avocational Singer blog I've written this week about how I have pulled out "Sebben Crudele" to work on my [e] vowel.So, here are the two recordings.First THEN (Dec. 16, 2009)
Then NOW (Dec 16, 2010) (total coincidence that it was exactly one year later)(oh, and pardon me that I accidentally named the second file wrong -- They are both truly "Sebben crudele")
Trying on keys to sing a song in can be a little bit like trying on sizes in the dressing room of a clothing store. Sometimes you can fit in the size a little larger or the size a little smaller too and it can be a little tricky determining the optimal fit.
Here I am singing "Auf dem Wasser zu singen" in three different keys (all three verses each time).The low key
Prac 10Sep13 Auf Dem Wasser Zu Singen 01 - Low Key
And the higher key. I'm not convinced I won't master singing it in this key some day. Perhaps I'm just stubborn, or perhaps I'm right. Only more work and time will tell for sure.
Prac 10Sep13 Auf Dem Wasser Zu Singen 03 - Higher Key
I think it's time to repeat a little disclaimer-type thing here. I am a total amateur and do not know what I'm doing exactly. I get these ideas, and am exposed to various things, and I experiment, discover and explore. So, sometimes in this practice room, which I have opened up to the public ear, you will hear me do some really great things -- maybe even inspired -- and other times you will hear me do some dumb things that go nowhere. I will discard what ends up being useful and keep what ends up progressing me along in my quest toward vocal mastery.
In this room, I'm showing you many things, including the dumb things.
I do expect to get smarter and smarter about it as I go along -- or at least that is my hope. I do expect to sound better and better as I go along. But sounding good is not exactly what this practice room is all about. It is more about figuring out how it all works.
Having said that, I will share with you my learning of the song Auf dem Wasser zu singen. If you are reading my Avocational Singer blog, you will know that I am now teacherless, so maybe I'll veer off a little more into crazyland, or maybe not.
I was recently introduced to Count Singing at the Westminster Choral Festival. I know that this is a choral tool, but I was amazed at how using count singing informed my body about the tones I was singing and the rhythm and where breaths had to come. I believe that count singing can be useful to the solo singer as well, and to test my theory I am experimenting with count singing to teach myself this Schubert song.
I like that in count singing I am able to change vowels: "One and Two and Three and" gives me "uh" and "u" and "i." If I learn a song on a single vowel, like "ah" or "u" or "i" I tend to get locked into that vowel position and develop tension. I think that count singing helps me avoid building tension while learning a song.
While "i" can be used to get focus and good closure, sometimes it's too much "i" to sing the whole song with that vowel. It can tend to get harsh, and then if there are higher notes in the song, the "i" can strain the voice. With count singing, there is an "i" in there to get the focus back in case you're getting off track. Or at least it seems so to me.
So, there are going to be a bunch of files below (if my google email will allow me to put them all here.) These files show me trying to use count singing to achieve different things.
I have been reading recently in a book of collected letters by choral conductor Robert Shaw, that assigning a time value to breaths is desirable (Actually, I guess most singers know this, but in reading the letters by Shaw, I connected with this recently). So, in this next file, I attempt to use count singing to find where in the counts I must put the breath.
Prac 10Aug17 Auf Dem Wasser 03 - Count Sing Breath
I have realized at this point, that when I am in a higher part of my voice, I'm having trouble enunciating the "t" in "1+2+T+". I am saying "d" instead of "t." This indicates to me that there is a lack of vocal freedom and breath. If the voice and breath are free -- free from tension -- I should be able to sing the "t". So, I use count singing in the high phrase to try to be free and get the "t" enunciated. I think the vocal tone improves when I do this.
I have a continuing problem with tension building up when I sing phrases that sit high. I get locked up at the end of the phrase and being locked up so makes it hard for me to take a catch breath. I use count singing the phrase to focus on completely releasing the buildup of tension at the end of each phrase.
Prac 10Aug17 Auf Dem Wasser 06 - Count Sing Release Built Up Tension
While I was doing all that work on the song itself, at one point I experimented with making up some exercises on the side to help get the breath on the + of "t" both while singing low and high.
