LMorgan923@a... wrote:
LMorgan923@a... wrote:
> Agreed. But some of them make it sooooooo hard! I have one student who
> has not a clue about what's going on inside her mouth. I'll ask her over and
> over again what she's done differently when a particular note works well,
> trying to focus her attention on it, and she'll look at me blankly and say "I
> don't know." Aaarrrgggghhhhh. If they can't think by themselves, it's hard
> to lessen their dependence.
Lee, that was me, the first few years I studied voice. I hadn't a clue. At
least, I was
unable to put words to it, which I think is a little of a
left-brain/right-brain thing -
in other words the part of the brain where I experienced the sensations was not
the part
of my brain that had the words to articulate them with.
It took me a long time to get in touch with singing feelings in my body.
Perhaps it's
innate, or perhaps I was underdeveloped that way, the way some people are
underdeveloped
in their ability to deal with intervals or rhythms or match pitches (the things
I'm highly
developed in). But my teachers were amazingly patient and were happy and
encouraging over
my minutest progress, and I stuck with it, and now I get paid to sing every
week.
Believe me, it has nothing to do with "thinking by themselves". When I learned
the first
"feeling", even of something wrong, like tension in my jaw, or a strange muscle
tightening
somewhere, it opened up a new world os sensation I had nothing previous to
relate to.
Even now, I can't put in words what I "do" differently, the way I can when I
play the
piano or viola, even though I know I'm doing something different. I can now
identify how
it feels different even when there aren't words adequate to express those
feelings. And I
can remember what my thought was that worked. And every once in awhile, a
great image
works. Right now, thinking of the "Renee Fleming jaw" has done wonders, seeing
her in
profile on Sixty Minutes floating those gorgeous high, soft notes, with that
incredibly
loose jaw position, put a lot of things together for me that I've been working
on with my
teacher.
BTW, I've been doing this now for over 15 years, and I'm still a work in
progress.
Some things that have worked for me at one time or another - looking in the
mirror when I
sing and trying to sing with a face I like to look at (only works for short
periods,
though) - watching myself on video singing (incredibly painful but helpful) -
singing
lying on the floor to learn the feeling of various tensions as I work against
gravity -
blowing all my air out through pursed lips and allowing the breath to rush in
on its own
and focusing on the feelings inside below the waist and then singing on that
breath -
listening to as much opera singing as possible - going to as much live
opera-type singing
as possible (After I hear someone like Renee Fleming live, my next voice
lessons are
fantastic - like it's sunk in by osmosis.) - getting really mad at my husband
just before
I left for my voice lesson (I didn't care how it sounded and I sounded even
better for not
caring because I let my body do its thing) - having had a bad day at work
(again, not
caring, and being grateful to be doing something totally non-related to work).
Peggy
--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...
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