Hi, Sandra
I know exactly what you're talking about!
My former teacher emphasized breath support a lot. Any problem I had, he
blamed it on breath support. Because of that, I started to read all books
and files here and in the archives in order to understand what I was doing
wrong. Reg and I had a big discussion here and privately about that, and he
sent me a text by Lloyd from old Vocalist that clarified everything to me
you must be new to the list, so I'll give you a piece of advice: there are
many people here who know a lot, and I've learned many things from them, but
Lloyd KNOWS! :-) ). I can spare Lloyd from tendinitis and repost his files
about that.
My problem, and it seems to be yours too, is that my teacher didn't think
like him ( and I guess like most people on this list ) and obliged me to do
something that was impossible to me. As a consequence, I was stuck in my
singing.
Last Monday, I had my first class with a new teacher ( BTW, Thank you very,
very, very, very, very, ad infinitumLY much, Suki, for recommending your
teacher to me. Although she couldn't be my teacher, she referred me to that
one and it was the best class I've ever had ). I told her all my background
and she said she would start as if I had never had any classes. When she
checked my breathing, she said it was correct: the breath support I had been
doing eversince I read Lloyd's text was exactly what she wanted, and it is
extremely easy! My resonance ( which I had always considered to be
terrible ) was very good ( she doesn't agree with the placement concept,
either! ) so I sang very easily and well! She didn't understand why I had
such a bad impression about my singing. Of course I did: I tried to breathe
in an unnatural way and I tried to place my voice somwhere out of my mouth.
I was trying to run in armor!
My former teacher is one of the best singers I've ever listened to, but that
didn't help me much. Here's another piece of advice, based upon everything
I've read here and elsewhere about singing: if your teacher is making breath
so difficult AND blaming all your problems on it, look for another one and
keep on looking until you find someone who can make things easier to you,
not more difficult.
Bye,
Caio Rossi
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