| From: Craig Tompkins To: VOCALIST <vocalist> Subject: Re: vocal problems Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Starleslie-at-aol.com wrote:
> okay so heres my problem when ever i sing in a choir i seem to tighten up my > throat and not support with enougth breath > but when i sing in my voice lessons with my instructor i can open up and not > tighten what can i do in choirs to keep from tightening up my throat > > thanks > > leslie*
Leslie: First, a few questions for you. How large and of what type are the choirs that you sing with? Do your directors have particular styles or sounds that they want the choir to produce? Are you sure that you are singing the right part? One of the best things you can do is bring your choir music to your lesson. I always encourage my choral singers to do this because it enables them to learn tricky parts accurately, and I can hear when they slip into older or less efficient vocal habits. A tight throat and an apparent lack of breath support makes me think that you might be singing too high and in an attempt to "float the tone" and "blend" (oh how I hate that word) you may be taking some of your personal colour out of your voice by backing off on the breath energy. This can be very fatiguing . If for instance, you are singing 2nd soprano, explain the situation to your director and ask if you can switch to 1st alto for the next performance. If your choir sings a lot of renaissance or other early music with a "white" tone colour, limited dynamic range (pp-mp) and high tessitura, you need to learn that singing quietly takes as much energy as singing loudly only more so. That was something that took me a long time to finally come to grips with (so I'm a slow learner ;)). You will surely get lots of good advice from the list. Take it all to your teacher and experiment with it to see what works best for you. Good luck and keep singing! Cheers, Craig, Burnaby BC
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