My First Schubert Lieder -- From Soup to Nuts - Teaching Myself in Just One Day
There are going to be a lot of files on this page (and if I can't fit them, I'll continue with a part 2). I want to show the process of how I taught myself my very first Schubert lieder -- An die Musick.
First, I started by vocalizing on [u]. I have been becoming aware more and more of airflow, and recently I remembered I had read somewhere that one should blow softly out through [u] as if one was cooling coffee in a coffee cup. Since I have been understanding this continuous airflow better using consonants that require air to flow through, such as V and S and Sh and a soft G and Z, I understand better and wanted to see if I could now do this [u] coffee cup exercise that I had so many years ago not understood.
So, for a warmup, and to exercise that soft continuous airflow, I just did some little five-note scales on [u], gentlly blowing out the whole time like I was cooling hot coffee. I didn't concentrate on phonation -- but kept my mind on the singular feeling of blowing through the [u] I noticed that when I reached pitches of greater frequency (higher pitches), the sound started to quiver. I wondered if that was from the fact that the vocal muscles were more taut as the frequency in creased.
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Next, I used the same [u] to read-through the first verse An die Musick, line by line. I have a copy of the song in a lower-than-original key. I have it in the key of C, but that's a good one for me to learn it in. Later below, after I have it learned, I will bring it up to the original key of D.
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Next I sang the first verse on "va" (a more open vowel)
This was to keep the sense of continuous airflow
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And then on "gee" ( a more closed vowel)
This also was to keep the air flowing through the phrases.
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Now it was time to practice diction. I do not know German. One of my teachers spent some time exposing me to the little rules of German diction, so I have a start, but I have a long way to go, and will have to correct stuff later. I will figure out what I can for now with the knowledge I have thus far.
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After that, I go line by line and "dress" the first verse with the words.
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And then try to sing through the entire first verse with words for the first time. At this point, I do not know how to pronounce a funny S looking symbol. Later I will find out it is a double SS sound, but for now I decide to use "L" (based on looking at some other German music I had, but it turns out I was wrong. Oh well.)
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Feeling that I have a handle on things, I will now try the first verse in the original key of D
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Verse 2 diction
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Verse 2 Dressing the words
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Verse 2 - Taking it up to the original key of D
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Finally the whole thing -- trying not to sound like a little girl.
Don't know how to pronounce "seufzer"
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Familiarizing myself with the piano accompaniment
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And, lastly, trying to sing along while playing the bass line of the accompaniment. Later that week I will order a Schubert lieder "music minus one" book, which arrives even later than that and I get to start singing to the CD accompaniment. But for this first day, I had only a copy of the music from evernote.com, so I had to just sing with myself playing the bass line on the piano -- which is a good exercise anyway.
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