On Wed, 12 Apr 2000 leskayc@a... wrote:
> Okay, now that I have come back from NATS and thoroughly studied the judges'
> critique sheets (which by the way, I think is the main reason to go to
> NATS..) and also having had a lesson yesterday, I am determined to conquer
> what I know is my main problem:a lack of warmth in the high register. I
> have a high light "coloraturish" voice that tends to sound shrill in the
> upper register. I have only been singing these high notes since my surgery
> 17 months ago, so it is a new area for me. My teacher made a comment once
> that I sounded like an English choirboy. She has been working to try to warm
> my tones by having me make very forward "hummy" sounds, flaring my nostrils,
> pinching my nose then letting go at the high spot of certain vocalises, etc..
> I don't think I am getting very far. I don't want to sound like a choirboy,
> I want to sound like a grown woman. I understand the forward tongue
One of the byproducts of learning to bring my middle-register weight into
my upper register (mainly through visualisation and lack of inhibition) is
having much more richly textured, "warmer" high notes with many more
overtones in them. Basically, I have achieved this through visualisation
- I imagine that instead of simply moving the note like a block of wood
from one step in the middle register to another step in the upper register
- I am actually opening the note up both upwards and with an equal
counterweight downwards, so the note actually "blossoms" as I sing higher,
keeping not only its primary tonal centre, but also adding the several
overtones above and below it.
The idea that really helped, though, was the image of NOT simply taking
the note as I was producing it in middle register and moving it unchanged
up the scale into the upper register. Oh, yes, I sang the note just fine
in the upper register when I used to do it this way, but I sing it with
much more sense of richness, excitement - and surprisingly, ease - when I
allow myself the freedom to add the "counterweight" to the note as I move
it up the scale.
Not sure if this makes sense - but these are some ideas you might discuss
with your teacher. The first step, of course, is to be able to sing the
high notes absolutely easily - "floating them in your cranium" (there's an
image for you) with laser-like acoustical properties - FIRST. Only when
you can do this is it safe to add the weight (and overtones), I think.
Karen
-----
Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt,
Der in den Zweigen wohnet;
Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt,
Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet.
-- J.W. von Goethe, WILHELM MEISTER
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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