Well, we can try to psychoanalyse the "why?" or we can try and come up
with a solution, and not worry about why it happens.
High note anxiety happens because at some point in one's technical
development, one's high notes were probably hard to produce. The body
remembers that amount of effort, and the very inconsistent results, as
does the mind. So even when we are able to technically overcome the
difficulties in producing the notes, our long-term persistent memory
continues telling us "high notes are hard" - so we get tense, and recreate
the very problems that we worked so hard to overcome.
I've discovered not so much that the high notes are easier at home than
when I perform in public, but that the high notes are easier when I
perform an obscure piece vs. a familiar piece in which I know most of the
listeners will know exactly what notes I'm singing. For example, I did a
very obscure comic duet in a recital last Spring and interpolated a high C
(not written) with no effort at all. By contrast, the high B and B flats
in Verdi's "O don fatale" - because I'm well aware that informed listeners
all know exactly what notes they are - make me "clench" a bit with
anxiety, just because I'm worried that I won't sing them as beautifully
and freely as one of the many famous mezzos who has performed/recorded the
aria.
I also find that not all high notes are created equal. The hardest ones
are those at the end of an ascending line. The easiest ones, for me, seem
to be those that are upward interval jumps of at least a 3rd and
preferably a fifth or even an octave. I think this is because it's easier
for me to fix on a good "position" and resonance on the lower note, then
simply shift up to the higher note, instead of having to make the series
of incremental small adjustments required when singing an ascending scale
above my upper "break".
In any case, the "tricks" I've found, that help "free" high notes, and
make them less difficult to sing are these:
Think tall and narrow - You may have heard the term "spread" applied to
certain singers' high notes. To achieve the fullest depth of resonance on
my highest notes, I've found that thinking entirely vertically helps a
lot. I think in terms of weight/counterweight. As the note goes higher, an
equal counterweight (the resonance) drops lower; as my topmost notes go
"flying through" my cranium, the counterweight resonates all the way down
to my feet (this is visual imagery I find helpful).
Forget about "trouble" consonants when singing high notes. "L", for me at
least, is a trouble consonant. If the word I sing on a high note ends in
L, or even includes an L, I simply omit it. L puts my tongue in exactly
the WRONG place for the total jaw and tongue freedom I need to produce my
high notes easily. Singing up there, no one can make out the words anyway,
so I don't obsess over my diction above my upper passagio if the
consonants get in the way of good, easy high note production.
If you must clench, clench your buttocks. High notes do require a lot more
breath compression than low notes. So I think about giving all that
compressed breath something to bear down against by clenching my butt -
INSTEAD of clenching my jaw or tensing my tongue. You'll be amazed at just
how helpful that butt-clench can be in "propelling" the high note. Rule
of thumb: If you've got to tense something when you sing, make sure it's
BELOW the waist, and not above it - and always exclude your KNEES from any
tensing. Locked knees work against your vocal freedom (something to do
with sympathetic and interconnected nerves, I imagine). But I've never had
a problem vocally if I clench my buttocks or curl my toes. Give it a try.
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
________________________________
I want to know God's thoughts...
the rest are details.
- Albert Einstein
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