| Ken, I know what you're talking about, and most well-known singers use this effect. A former teacher of mine described it as being like a little pig's tail - it winds around and around a couple of times, tighter and tighter, and then it trails off. She actually used to draw this little curlicue into my music here and there when she wanted that kind of ending to a note - a useful visual reminder. It's just a normal vibrato, gradually speeded up. If you experiment with your vibrato, you will find that you can to some extent speed it up and slow it down, at least for short periods of time, for effect. It may take some time, but hang in there. There are several things that you must do correctly as you reach the end of the phrase in order to get the result you desire. You must make sure that you are keeping as much pharyngeal space as you had at the beginning. Your body must be fully engaged in order to control the breath pressure. You must make sure your jaw is relaxed appropriately down and back for the pitch you're singing (and I would try this in a comfortable middle-voice spot at first). Your tongue must be relaxed wide at its root and flat across its width, in a gentle forward arch, with the tip resting behind the front lower teeth. In other words, you must simply (not easily, but simply) set up a well-produced tone with proper posture throughout the mechanism, because what you're trying to do requires that extraneous tensions not get in the way. Finally -- and this is where folks are likely to disagree with me, because voice teachers are either of the opinion that a balanced amount of nasal resonance (as opposed to nasality) is an incredibly useful tool or they believe that any air traveling through the nose is absolutely anathema to correct singing unless one is singing a French nasal vowel, etc. -- as you trail off the note, let the placement (I hate that word) of the note relax into a slightly more nasal spot. I'm not talking here about a sound that would offend anyone, I'm talking about taking some of the pressure off of the vocal folds by the judicious use of the nasal port, thereby allowing them to respond more easily to adjustments you make in the speed of the vibrato. So you can tell into which school of thought I fall, having had teachers who teach both ways and having found what works best for me, and I am happy to go out on this public limb about it in the hope that it may help answer your question. I'd love to know how it goes! Robin Lynne Frye Mezzo-Soprano Voice and Piano Teacher New York, New York |
