In a message dated 3/11/2001 8:24:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, deliamay@h... writes: deliamay@h... writes:
<< I tried this morning to make an exagerated Opera sound and was joined shortly after by a woman in the apartment below singing neapolitan-style, a barking dog and was that the faint siren of a police car……? I do feel a bit inhibited practising at home and this is probably why I am not making fast progress. Also I probably need a pushier teacher - still, i can't really expect someone else to drag it out of me can I ? >>
delia,
i suspect you already know the answer to your original question. i always tell my chicken students that the single most important thing they need to do to sing well is to fully intend to do so. a lot of people can get away with the wrong answer simply by intending it to work. the 'right answer' to whatever the question is, is always definite. flinching at the right idea makes it wrong automatically.
there are so many muscles involved with producing the voice that you'll never have real good feel for. these muscles react to 'target' and they don't know the difference between a fear and a request. i will often ask my students "what are you trying to do?" and they respond with "i'm trying NOT to...(whatever dumbass thing they are most afraid of. btw, you wouldn't want to drive with any of these people. apparently, they'd rather die than look a little stupid.).
there are two sayings i find myself saying the most- "he who hesitates is lost!" and "fake what you can, do what you have to!" i hope they encapsule the point i have been trying to make.
or as the nike commercial goes "just do it!"
good luck (and make it your goal to get someone to call the police on you.), mike
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