> Do you admire this singer's high
> notes?
Yes.
> You mention that you're an AH and AE (like in cat,
> right?) voice. Some are ee and ay voices
Actually, I do best with EE, AY and AE as in Cat. OH and AH shift back
sometimes, and UH... forget it!
> I will
> often sing an AH vowel way too far back in my throat,
> so that it loses ring and gets woofy. Shifting my
> mental vowel into an AWE or an UH (high in resonance,
> like an Italian would say uh, not an American shwa at
> all) clears up my problems. For you, it might not do
> anything at all.
Can't do UH. The U as in Foot vowel does work.
>
>
> I'm not sure about using a "yawn" position on the top,
> which implies another kind of artificial stretch
> position, but then I can't hear you.
>
This is a yawn with the mouth only, not the larynx.
>
> I agree with her about getting rid of an artificial
> shape of the tongue (you mentioned you hold yours in a
> U shape), but letting it lie relaxed and flat against
> the bottom teeth.
I haven't had much luck getting rid of it, and when I do, it changes the
sound and placement.
> You'll find that some singers like
> to push the lower abdomen out and some like to use
> expanded ribs instead (commonly referred to as the
> "down and out" vs. "in and up" methods of breathing).
> Jerome Hines has opined that men more commonly use a
> lower-belly pushing-out method while women tend to use
> a higher position in his book _Great Singers on Great
> Singing_, but that's just his opinion based on his
> interviews and experience.
Interesting! Both this woman and her husband teach voice, and I think
he teaches her, so maybe she got this from him. She used to sing in
Germany, too. I have better luck with the expanded rib approach.
Actually, my exact imagery is that my entire abdomen is a beach ball or
giant balloon, which inflates when I inhale and remains big and round
all around with a small stream of air out the top of the neck of the
balloon. The thing I run into is that I don't know if I should try to
resist collapse on the high notes or just let it collapse on like a high
B or C. That's where I am unsure. There seems to be a more rapid air
flow on extremely high notes. What do you think? Should I be putting
more energy into resisting collapse on the top notes, if it is going in
more rapidly?
BTW I sing in mixed voice all the way up.
> Then there is the very common problem that not
> everyone with a fabulous voice knows how to impart
> that knowledge with any sort of comprehensibility.
> She may think she's singing Xly, but her teacher will
> swear he taught her Yly, and in a voice lab she'll be
> doing something totally different.
True. She does have unusually big, beautiful high notes (but with some
"noise") but the middle is shaky. The vibrato seems to be too wide for
somebody in the late 30's.
Thanks for your input.
|
