Hello, Listers!
I want to tell you about a beginning student, who I will call 'C',
44-yr-old lady who has been singing alto in church choirs for a
number of years, and who came to me, in her words, 'to learn how to
use my voice better'.
When 'C' started, she had a comfortable singing range from the A-flat
below mid C to the D the ninth above mid C. Tension and
unfamiliarity made the notes above that range strident. No vibrato
was present in the voice.
'C' has now had four lessons, and is making new vocal discoveries
each lesson. In her most recent visit, we practiced slow hisses,
onsets and short arpeggios while retaining posture and lateral rib
expansion and she found some new sounds in her voice. :-) First: She
discovered a much firmer and fuller sound below middle C, and the
range extends now down to F. Second: the energy of that low sound
carries nicely connected as she moves up past middle C into her mid
voice. The middle now has much more power than when she began.
Third: Beginning about the A-flat above mid C, her voice transitions
to a brand new sound, a full, pingy upper middle, which continues up
to E. Fourth: At the topline F, another brand new sound has emerged,
which continues with no audible transition to the E-flat 3 ledger
lines above the staff. This top coordination she describes as
feeling 'packed' behind the bridge of her nose, even though it is not
nasal. I rather suspect that there is more up there to be
discovered :-)
Overall, her voice is becoming more resonant and free, week to week,
and we have begun incorporating vowel work into a song, using one of
her favorite hymns. This song will, over the next several weeks,
become the platform on which many fundamental concepts of vocal line,
articulation, vowel color, legato, etc., will be introduced and
incorporated into her singing.
While there is still _very_ much to do with the more advanced items,
I feel that this student is well on the way to getting the energy and
breath management part of her singing well understood and accessible
in her singing. IMO, this forms a very good basis on which to build.
I will keep you up to date as she progresses.
Best Regards,
Steven Fraser
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