A friend of mine recommended that I try the people on this list and see if maybe they might be able to help me. Don't let me down. ;)
I recently started working with a new voice teacher, one who has had excellent results with people in the past (including my friend, mentioned above). I have had some voice lessons before with a number of other teachers, so we're still kind of in the phase of deprogramming me of a lot my older (not-so-good) techniques and habits so that we might actually be able to get my voice sounding sort of good. (It's never been good, but I also don't think it's ever been worse than it currently is.)
However, I've run into some kind of a roadblock. We're working on trying to actually get the lower abdominal muscles to work on the exhale while actually singing. And I am having a really hard time with it. I simply do not get it. My teacher has tried a large number of different things to help me understand how to make it work, but I just don't seem to be able to do it, regardless of how hard I try. All of this combined has made me extremely upset and frustrated over the whole thing.
My friend (mentioned above) said that I'm probably working too hard at it, something my voice teacher generally seems to agree with. But I don't know how >not< to work hard it. To me, I feel like all I am doing is practicing and trying to get it work, and getting frustrated as a result. Part of me can understand why that might not be helping, but >no< part of me understands how to work >less< hard at this. When I don't work hard at it, nothing happens. Now, when I'm working at this harder than I ever have (because now, as opposed to before, I actually have something to work >on<), nothing is still happening!
I don't know if there's anything anyone can tell me, but I would appreciate any words of wisdom or advice anyone may have.
Thanks, --Matthew Murray
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