Dear April,
With your education, I'm probably only telling you things you know
already, and I'm not an expert, but my teacher is, and so I'll tell
you what she told me and hope it helps because I've improved greatly
following her advice about the lowered larynx, so this is of interest
to me-
--- In vocalist-temporary@y..., April Salerno <april_salerno@y...>
wrote:
> I've recently started keeping my larynx more
> stationary when I sing, but it seems impossible for my
> larynx not to raise when I'm in my upper register.
If you are touching the outside of your throat and you feel it
raise just a slight bit on your highest notes, from what I've learned,
that isn't a problem, because on high notes it will always raise
slightly, but if you feel it move dramatically, and/or it hurts, or if
you can't sustain the pitch, it isn't correct. When I was learning
this technique I was so focused on keeping it down that I would feel
some kind of crack on the high notes, obviously not right, and I
developed a dark tone and lost some beauty, because I was too worried
about the larynx and not the resonator area. But you seem to have
plenty of training, so maybe you are more aware of where your beauty
comes from than I was at that time. I would not work on repertoire at
the same time as learning this technique if I could do it again. I
think a lot of people don't like the lowered larynx because it can
cause loss of brightness, but for me, that did happen while learning
the technique, but I got through it, corrected it, and finally found
my true voice, and plus, it's really healthy when learned properly.
> I've tried keeping it stationary while sliding into
> this range from an octave below,
One of my excersizes that helps a lot with keeping the larynx low so
you can sing the highest notes of your range freely is much like what
you describe, and I was told to use the yawn-sigh, lower the larynx
naturally by taking in breath as you do when you yawn, I start on
the "Ah" and sing the top note on "ee", like you probably do, and I
was told that you can actually hold the larynx now externally with
your fingers, and it won't hurt you as long as you are gentle and do
not squeeze inward. After many weeks, I could do this with a two
octave jump and no raising of the larynx. The two octaves is because
I'm a coloratura soprano, so I don't know if two octaves is right or
healthy for someone of a different fach doing this excersize.
My teacher never told me anything about tilting on "ee", but I read
somewhere that it does happen slightly.
I have to repeat that I am just a student, and I think anybody would
agree that the best way to figure this stuff out is with a really good
teacher, but I thought it would be safe to share what I've learned
from mine, because she really knows what she's talking about, having
had a very successful operatic career, and these are some of the
things she has taught me about staying healthy.
I hope this helped a little bit, maybe it didn't, but it was still
fun to discuss this anyway. Other people really disagree with this
technique, or they feel it is too hard to sustain, but I feel it just
takes lots of work, and it will eventually become a natural feeling
and habitual for you, as it has for me.
Sincerely,
Blue
|
|  |
