I'm a 23 year old lyric tenor. I'm noticing more and more that practicing singing - i.e., in voice lessons, coaching sessions, practicing by myself, etc. - makes me vocally tired fairly quickly, but when I sing onstage in front of an audience, there's no problem, I've got stamina, range, and ring to spare. Anybody able to relate to this and/or explain why this might be? It's alternately frustrating and gratifying.
In addition, I'm noticing that I have two very frustrating bad habits. I have not been taught them, in fact I've been taught to not do them, but evidently what I've been taught to do doesn't totally connect with me, otherwise I wouldn't do these things. 1) When attempting a decrescendo, particularly on high notes, the method I'm instinctively using to decrescendo is laryngeal tightening. 2) When stopping a tone, I do so glottally, cutting it off with the throat rather than just stopping the breath. The second one I know what to do about, and simply stopping the breath is actually the easier way to do it, it's just going to take a lot of practice to get used to doing it the "easier" way. The first one is stumping me, however. I'm intellectually able to understand that I need to keep the throat open and relaxed, but when trying to sing softer than a mezzo-forte, tightening up is just what my particular instrument *does*. (This likely explains why I would get vocally tired quickly when I practice, but it doesn't explain why I don't when I perform.) Anybody have any insight or suggestions that could help this?
Thanks,
Richard
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