I had one of the most amazing singing experiences of my life on
Monday, but I think I should give a little background first.
Last week, at my voice lesson, my instructor (with whom I've been
studying about three months) was getting kind of frustrated with my voice,
as was I. It seemed like just about anything I sang above or below a one
octave range was causing me intense discomfort and making my voice sound
incredibly tense and forced. It felt as though something in my throat was
making a fist, or trying to break out of a cellophane bubble or something
like that. He was going to look for songs that took advantage of the one
part of my range I could sing it without killing myself.
During the week, I would practice as usual and get absolutely
disastrous--and very uncomfortable--results. I went into the lesson
on Monday very upset and not at all hopeful about what would happen. Even
the first part of the lesson started out pretty badly--even the notes
>within< that octave were sounding tense. Around halfway through, he sat
me down and said he just wasn't sure at all what to do with me. I told
him again what I was feeling--just like something was getting really tense
and "balling up" in my throat--but he confessed he couldn't figure out
what the problem was. He said that my neck and mouth looked like they
were relaxed, and that he didn't know where the tension in the voice and
discomfort I was feeling were coming from.
In a last ditch effort, he applied pressure to a couple of
different places under my jaw while I sang. The first time, it was near
the front, and nothing helped. The second time he applied pressure to the
area under my chin near the part where the jaw bone curved upward (sorry,
I don't know all the actual names of the bones or anything like that) and
said the sound improved. He showed me where to apply the pressure and
then had me sing some notes. I sang up above the octave he thought I
should work in--to a high A--but I cracked on it. We stopped for a while,
and he said he thought that made a pretty significant difference in the
sound. He said it sounded a lot easier, more open, and less tense. He
said I was starting to sound like an actual tenor, and that he wasn't
going to try to limit me to one octave anymore.
After we talked about all this for a few minutes, he had me go
back and sing some more, still applying pressure to those same places.
This time, I just kind of kept going and going, and when he stopped, he
said I had maxed out at a high C. A high C, me! On my best days, I've
never been able to really even get a B-flat, and an A-natural was
practically unheard of. But I got up to a high C-natural, and it didn't
hurt even the slightest bit. In my practicing in the days since, I've
been able to get likewise very good results--notes I'm almost positive
are Gs, As, and Bs... All of them without pain and hardly any effort. I
haven't really tried for the C again, but since I don't have access to a
piano, I can't be sure exactly what the top notes I'm singing are. All I
know is that they are a >lot< higher than anything I've ever been able to
comfortably sing before.
First of all, how in the world did this happen?!? Can anyone
explain what it is about those "pressure points" (because I don't know
what else to call them) that suddenly just caused the rest of my throat to
open and a completely different--and much better sound--to come out?
Second, and perhaps more importantly, does anyone have any suggestions of
ways to replicate this without having to actually apply pressure to the
points? My teacher recommended practicing while applying the pressure and
then slowly letting go and then reapplying it as needed. To me, that
sounds like a good idea, but if anyone has any other suggestions, I'd
really love to hear them. And if anyone can explain how or why there has
been this sudden, miraculous, and positive change in my voice, I'd really
appreciate that, too! Thanks!
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Matthew A. Murray - mmurray@c... - http://www.wwu.edu/~mmurray
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A critical history of computer gaming: | "I'm up among the stars, on earthly
Over 195 computer game reviews, covering | things I frown, I'm throwing off the
games from 1977 to the present! | bars that held me down... Who could
| ask for anything more?"
http://www.wwu.edu/~mmurray/Reviews.html | --The Gershwins, from Crazy for You
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|
