There are advantages to having the voice "forward" and resonant in the face. One is that you can sing by feel, not by listening. As the performance space changes from rehearsal hall to stage to practice room, the feeling can remain consistent. If you then encounter a strange room, it need not throw you off. Good things began to happen to my voice when I was told to keep the sound "forward"... it brought out wonderful overtones both bright and warm. It's not nasal at all. I do believe that the palate should be up, but that can be accomplished with the beginning of a yawn position. There's an old saying of "keep the nose in the tone but the tone out of the nose." That puts it well, I think. I do not believe in raising the zygomatic arches of the face, because in my experience, it adds jaw tension. The jaw, throat, neck, tongue should be loose and free. That in combination with imagining the tone coming from a high frontal place makes the voice freely and efficiently produced. Add proper appoggio (See Structure of Singing) and you're in business! You cannot deny that your imagination - your thoughts - cause changes in the vocal mechanism which can be of great benefit. Forward singing is one of those concepts. I also do not believe that it is advantageous to tell a student that he/she has "registers." "The voice is one piece of cloth." Approach it as if there were no registers, just a unified instrument from top to bottom. (I should say from the middle out.) When a student tries to "adjust" for a register or do something different for top notes, that is just going to interfere. Just set them up properly and use the breath. How can you say that on B5 you will be singing in a new register, etc.? Might as well take out the larynx and put in another one. (Sure, there are different adjustments for segments of the voice - but to call attention to them causes a psychological impediment.) If other things are in place - breath, vowels, posture, freedom, then the voice will do what it needs to do with no conscious manipulation on the part of the student. Set up the middle voice correctly and the top comes out of it. The natural changes will take place if you stay out of the way. It's like automatic transmission on a car, not a stick shift! I like working with scales that start in the middle and go higher... and not changing or manipulating anything on the way up... maybe more jaw opening but nothing changes in the throat. No "lightening" or such things take place and would just disconnect the voice. My teacher tells me to keep my car on the road. At no time do the wheels leave the ground, and so it is with singing a scale or a leap. It all continues on the road out in front of you. Works for me!
Gina
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| Replies | Name/Email | Yahoo! ID | Date | Size | 8643 | Re: forward singing, imagination, registers | Leslie Jones | | Mon 1/22/2001 | 2 KB | 8644 | Re: forward singing, imagination, registers | Gina | | Mon 1/22/2001 | 3 KB | 8645 | Re: forward singing, imagination, registers | taylor23f@h... | | Mon 1/22/2001 | 4 KB | 8647 | Re: forward singing, imagination, registers | Domisosing@a... | | Tue 1/23/2001 | 3 KB | 8651 | Aesthetics vs. Function/Result vs. Process debate | taylor23f@h... | | Tue 1/23/2001 | 4 KB | 8650 | Re: forward singing, imagination, registers | Gina | | Tue 1/23/2001 | 7 KB | 8676 | Re: forward singing, imagination, registers | Tako Oda | | Tue 1/23/2001 | 3 KB | |
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