Vocalist.org archive


<
From:  <peggyh@i...>
<peggyh@i...>
Date:  Wed Dec 19, 2001  2:32 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Help! I can't *find* my voice



arado_ge@y... wrote:
arado_ge@y... wrote:
<<I recently started singing lessons with a teacher who has an excellent
reputation for instilling rock solid technique into her
students. >>
<<For a start it's been really hard work, I leave my lessons feeling as though
I've been in the gym for two hours!!! What has happened now
is that I can no longer "place" my voice. My teacher warned me that
everything would go completely weird for a while and she's right!!!
I just didn't realize it would be THIS weird!!!>>

<<Has anyone else ever had this experience?>>

Of course, without hearing you sing before and after, we can't give you total
reassurance. However, in my own vocal progress, which took quite a number of
years because I'm a slow vocal learner, it was necessary to take my voice apart
and put it back together again. I always felt I was making progress, but until
the new, good, feelings become habituated, it feels very strange. Because good
singing never feels "controlled", but free and open and perfectly coordinated.

This is a very strange feeling for those of us (like me!) who tend to tense and
hold things in an effort to control the sound and make it "just right". Your
comment about "placement" makes me think that this is what is happening to you,
that you were "trying" to control your tone.

So, assuming nothing is painful, it is OK for your singing to feel strange,
i.e., different from how you're used to its feeling. My recommendation is to
relax and let the voice do what it wants to do, and feel the way it wants to
feel, not the way you believe it "should" feel. When you're making sounds your
teacher likes, try to memorize the sensations, do the things you were doing
when those sounds were made, and recognize the sensations when they occur
again, but don't try to "make" the sensations happen (sure way to start
"holding and controlling" again).



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