mike, With the fence-sitting practice I've had over the years? Ha! I suppose my criticisms can be boiled down to :the world's STILL not perfect?!!? I suspect that you may have a point about using taping often, if at all, though it seems awfully like *work* to me. I may just give it a try. In my own case I am fairly used to my recorded sound, and do indeed remember the sounds of the accompaniment and other singers in the same recording, and I am struck, for instance by how balance is affected between singer and piano, in the kind of recording the local access tv station does - maybe they need newer equipment! (I also find that an individual piano stands a much poorer chance of being recognised than an individual human voice in a recording. Pianos aren't easy to record well either. Good recording engineers really are marvels!) However in earlier days I remember being appalled by the sounds I made, and all that kept me going was the assurances of others that I had something special, and a sort of dogged momentum - perhaps others may not be so fortunate, and that, I think, is my point. I think there are two ways of getting an idea of what it sounds like out of your head: taping; and holding your hands *in front of* your ears, and listening for what the room throws back at you. I use the latter quite a bit in practice. A sort of negative thing I have tried is to block my ears and try to sing in such a way that my voice doesn't sound boomy and close, which has the merit of focusing more attention on the tactile sensations of singing. I don't know whether this is a route to good singing, but it allows me to observe minutely the tensions that creep in as the pitch ascends. But that's a different subject! john the fence I sit upon is the fence of wisdom, glasshopper At 02:46 PM 7/5/01 -0400, you wrote: ><< To get the most out of your voice you must > maximize its resonance, which may mean resonating some vowels in ways you > normally wouldn't in speech (this is a big subject not easily explainable). > Also, if something sounds big to you (loud in your head) that may be > because you are resonating in such a way as to make it sound big *in your > head*. It may have little relation to what others hear. >> > >john, > > this is an excellent example of just how different things on the inside >can sound from things on the outside and, i think, yet another excellent >reason to use tape. however, in your other recent post you seem to be >advising against the use of taping for its lack of depth. > > i agree that taping oneself is not ideal however, we have only two >choices; use it or not. if we're going to use it, i say we need to use it >often. the more we use it, the more we develope an expertise in using it >as a tool. and, after a while, we become immune to the 'i hate my voice' >syndrome. > > what do you think of having reference sounds in the background, like the >piano accompaniment? one could hear how the tape affects the piano and >assume that something similar happens to one's voice. > >mike
John Blyth Baritono robusto e lirico Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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