Rachel Parker wrote:
<< I'm working on Caccini's "Ave Maria" for a recital Aug
10th. The first note of the song is a lovely, naked "ah"
right smack in the middle of my passaggio (C4), which I hold
for four beats. Try as I might, I simply cannot get rid of
my breathy attack. I've tried every technical approach I
know of (making sure the vowel is vertical, plenty of lift
in the palate, relaxed jaw and tongue, practicing with a
consonant in front of the vowel, etc., etc.), as well as all
my "Inner Game of Music" tricks. Nothing works!>>
<<I've been studying voice for seven years now, and it
really bugs me that I can't work this out. Why is this so
hard?>>
That's a good question. I've been studying over twice as
long, and this still happens to me, though less often than
in the past.
When this happens to me, thinking about technical things
never works. The best thing is for me to take the problem
to my teacher and we play around with it until we find
something that does work. Some things we try in this
situation are: sirening up to and higher than the note;
sing-speak the note on the vowel in the general range of the
note, then sing it; doing a sigh-type exercise, starting a
couple of tones higher than the problem note and letting
your voice fall in a sigh, then working the exercise down to
your note, then use that same onset but don't do the "fall",
to get the onset worked out.
Another approach is distraction, to get yourself out of the
bad pattern you've gotten into. You sing the note, but you
do something physical to distract yourself. Squeezing a
small ball with your hand is good for this. Squeeze the
ball, and concentrate on squeezing the ball, then sing the
note, and you may find it pops right out. Another thing is
to do a major change of your physical position in
practicing. Lie flat on your back on the floor. Stroll
around the room. Skip like a child. Stand on one leg. Bend
over at the waist. Sometimes my teacher gets in my face,
lifts my arms, spins me around. Essentially, these things
work to allow you to relax whatever it is you're tensing up
that's preventing you from singing the note the way you
want. Once you find you have the ability to get the note
out, this may break the mental logjam.
Another thing that works sometime is checking out in a
mirror what's happening with my face or body when I sing the
note, and then trying to sing the note with a beautiful
relaxed face if I see something strange going on.
Peggy
--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...
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