Vocalist.org archive


From:  Gina <classicalsinger@e...>
Gina <classicalsinger@e...>
Date:  Mon Jan 22, 2001  2:27 am
Subject:  forward singing, imagination, registers


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



  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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