Andrea,
Please speak with your teacher about this. She knows your vocalises and what
her goals are for you. Speak with her about setting daily, weekly, semester
goals for practice, music learning, performance and so forth. Ask her to set up
a series of vocalises for you and help you to understand how to use them to work
on various aspects of technique.
She can guide you to consider aspects of resonance, diction, articulation,
breath management, etc., as you perform the exercises.
By this point in the semester you have all the tools to create a varied and
informative practice session. The thing you don't have is the experience to
recognize these things as tools and how to use them.
A simple 5 tone scale can be a treasure chest. By using a variety of vowels,
syllables, articulation, rhythms you increase the number of elements you are
exploring in your practice. If you sing an exercise with a pair of syllables
such as /vi va/ try the exercise with the syllables /va vi/. If you have a
default vocalizing vowel - the vowel you invariably begin with in the practice
room - change it.
Rather than suggesting specific vocalises I'm going to suggest ways to create
your own. consider the 5 tone scale. Don't get stuck with 12345 or 54321.
Try 12345432151 or 54321234531. Mix it up even more - On the last 2 exercises
treat the last 3 tones as staccati or onsets with a sip of breath between. Then
you have a123454321'5'1 and 543212345'3'1. Start on a different scale degree
- 31531, 3141515. Or start on tonic and have a different top tone each time --
123'1234' 12345, or combine them into1232123432123454321. Think what you can do
with an octave scales, nine note scales or arpeggiated patterns!
Consider your songs. Do you vocalize patterns from your songs? Take a passage,
sing it as you do most vocalises by moving up and down by half steps. Things
that were a bit awkward in the published key may feel more comfortable in
another. When you've worked out the difficulty you incorporate your success
into the piece.
Do you vocalize text from your pieces using current vocalises? "Vittoria mio
core" on a 53135 arpeggio could be 5531355 with Vitto-5 ria-3 mi-1 o-3
core-55. It could also be a descending 5 tone scale - 5543211, honoring the
speech stresses. This is one way to free yourself of speech coordination
problems related to specific passages.
Vocalizing existing song passages on a variety of pitches and vocalizing texts
on patterns outside the song can be very helpful learning tools. Both these
approaches give the singer the opportunity to work on elements of the song or
work out problems in the song, without associating them with the pitches and
rhythms of the piece. When you put the passages or texts back into the piece
they seem very different and usually easier.
As you can see, the possibilities are endless. Your teacher can help you use
the tools you have at hand.
Have fun in the practice room.
Cindy Donnell
I'm a first-year voice major, and as I go along in my lessons I have
realized that I'm really not making the most efficent use of my practice
time- it's frustrating because I feel as if I'm not making any real
progress (but then when I go to lessons, somehow I make leaps and
bounds!) So do any of y'all have any tips on how you practice, what kind
of techniques you use, etc? It would be much appreciated!
Andrea
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