--- In vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com, "SMSchneider"
<smschneider23@r...> wrote:
> STEVE!!!
> Welcome back to the list!
I do feel very welcome, thankyou. I have been away too long,
too busy on career and family things.
I cannot recall when I posted last to the Vocalist. I went through a
couple stages. But what really caused me to unsubscribe was a
radical increase in my workload. I just could not handle keeping up
with the topics on the list, plus do all that other stuff too. Then,
to top it off, I had to change computers at the office, and mail
management became much more 'official'. So, I gave it a rest.
Since then, I have seen lots! I left the company in January of 2001,
but got _more_ busy. I hung out a shingle as a computer systems
integration consultant, and worked harder than I did before. Went to
England 6 times, each time for 2 weeks. Mostly London and Manchester.
Saw a bunch of shows (BTW, "The Beautiful Game" is a new ALW musical,
and it _is_ about the lives of some young Northern Irish lads who
were on a football (soccer) team... it follows their lives from High
School triumphs through to the tragic consequences of Love and
political activism.
I did cut back on my teaching some, but resumed again a year ago to
train one of the sopranos in the choir where I sing. She wanted to
strengthen the mid-voice, and to get the confidence to do a solo. We
did 2 weeks on appoggio and breath flow, and then launched into the
exercises I wrote about earlier, building the technique as we went.
(BTW She is the one for whom the song 'My Faith Looks Up to Thee' was
the legato development song.) About the 4th week, her breathing
became sub-conscious (she had internalized the feelings to the point
that she could do it correctly without thinking about it) and her
throat relaxed into an easy open-ness. From there, we added some
vocalises on the voiced Z consonant in the mid voice. Its the best
thing I know for coaxing some fuller registration into an otherwise
head tone. In another 3 or 4 weeks, the middle was smoothed out so
that it connected very well to the bottom and the top, and she could
do 2 octaves and a 4th (low F to high B-flat) sounding like one
single voice. She sang for the director shortly after that, and the
director scheduled her for a solo shortly thereafter. Since then, she
has sung two other times.
At the moment, I have two other singers in the beginning of training,
and they are progressing rapidly. One of them, who has been singing
soprano in choir, was discoverd by Michael Kemp at a workshop to have
a thunderous low part to her voice. We are in the process of
connecting that vigor to the rest of her range. She especially liked
the 'spaghetti' serving metaphor.
Best Regards,
Steven Fraser
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