From: Craig Tompkins
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: Re: vocal problems
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>



Starleslie-at-aol.com wrote:

> okay so heres my problem when ever i sing in a choir i seem to tighten up my
> throat and not support with enougth breath
> but when i sing in my voice lessons with my instructor i can open up and not
> tighten what can i do in choirs to keep from tightening up my throat
>
> thanks
>
> leslie*

Leslie:
First, a few questions for you. How large and of what type are the choirs that
you sing with? Do your directors have particular styles or sounds that they
want the choir to produce? Are you sure that you are singing the right part?
One of the best things you can do is bring your choir music to your lesson. I
always encourage my choral singers to do this because it enables them to learn
tricky parts accurately, and I can hear when they slip into older or less
efficient vocal habits. A tight throat and an apparent lack of breath support
makes me think that you might be singing too high and in an attempt to "float
the tone" and "blend" (oh how I hate that word) you may be taking some of your
personal colour out of your voice by backing off on the breath energy. This can
be very fatiguing . If for instance, you are singing 2nd soprano, explain the
situation to your director and ask if you can switch to 1st alto for the next
performance. If your choir sings a lot of renaissance or other early music with
a "white" tone colour, limited dynamic range (pp-mp) and high tessitura, you
need to learn that singing quietly takes as much energy as singing loudly only
more so. That was something that took me a long time to finally come to grips
with (so I'm a slow learner ;)). You will surely get lots of good advice from
the list. Take it all to your teacher and experiment with it to see what works
best for you.
Good luck and keep singing!
Cheers,
Craig, Burnaby BC