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Teacher Lounge
Opera Singing 101: A Beginning Study
Part I:
Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time
"Breath Support and a Relaxed Throat".
Probably from a vocal standpoint, the most important elements are the breath, and understanding accurately how it functions and propels the voice out into the house, allowing it to cover even the largest of orchestras; the placement of the voice (as we singers are wont to call it); and thirdly, the concept of a relaxed throat, e.g. relaxation of the vocal mechanism while at the same time working the muscles that "support" the voice like a
dog. Sound confusing? Somehow putting it into words makes it seem complex, but the reality is kind of like walking and chewing gum at the same time, just a little trickier, because in this case you are asking one part of your body to work, e.g. have tension, while asking another part to be ludicrously relaxed, both at the same time. And there's the rub; we humans rather prefer being all relaxed or all tensed up but not at the same time!
So how do you do it?
This brings to mind a question one of my colleagues asked Luciano Pavarotti at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where we were the perfomers in a public masterclass. My colleague, who is a tenor, asked Mr. Pavarotti what his secret was to having a seamless "passaggio" (which is the Italian word for passage, refering to the transition from one register to another), those delicate, infamous transitions which all singers must navigate to get their voices even, and the "switch of the gear"
undetectable to the paying public. Mr. Pavarotti, without missing a beat replied; "Ten years". We all chuckled and there was a roar from the house, but sitting there on that stage, we understood only too well the real meaning of his words. Learning to sing really well, or play any instrument well requires: plain, old, hard work.
The first part of the "grunt-work" is to get ahold of the concept, that your breath flow, diaphragm, support, breathing mechanism, whatever you wish to call it, works very, very hard, and becomes very, very strong, in time. I emphasize the word time, because it is not only unrealistic to expect instantaneous results, it is unfair to yourself and to your teacher to think otherwise. You wouldn't expect an olympic athelete to arrive at his or her level of achievement in a few months of practice, would you? Nor should you expect that of yourself, no matter how talented you may be. Cut yourself some slack and do the work. It
may seem boring at the time, but what you are really doing is making a teriffic investment in yourself, your talent, and your quality of life. Be patient, and don't expect too much in the way of noticeable results for a while. Probably that is the hardest thing of all. In the beginning, you have no reference to draw on, no past successes with which to comfort yourself. All you can see is a long, vague road leading to who knows where. You don't have a definite idea as to how long it will take until you get to your destination, . . . the proverbial tunnel with no light at the end of it. A little faith can work wonders. Be pragmatic. It will come in time, in its own time. The progress goes in plateau leaps, not steady gains. Remember, faith, faith, FAITH.
Thinkconstancy. It is far better to do a little every day, than to "pump serious vocal iron" once or twice a week, then, pay the price for the next month! It is a guaranteed way to damage the voice. Remember, they're only muscles! So, use your brains, work intelligently, sing for 15-20 minutes ONLY at the beginning, do it every day, and do that for a month. Then add time. Go to half an hour, then 45 minutes, then eventually an hours' workout. Take a day off every now and then. Sometimes, you can learn some things better by just thinking about it. Let it roll around in your brain a bit. Later, when you're established in your technique, this will change, you will do the opposite, such as, sing a major role with an hour and a half of steady, heavy singing, in which case you will rest and recover for a couple of days inbetween. But for now, your goal should be to develop stamina and flexibility, and that comes with a very guided, sytematic, and careful approach.
It is just like sports. When you do body building for the voice, you do not start out with three sets of 100 repetitions on weights, so why would you do it with the voice? It takes a good six months to even begin to get the feeling that those diaphragm muslces are working for you, the foundation of your support, and what ultimately gives you tremendous power of projection. Opera singers don't need microphones, and they can project over a 100 piece orchestra blasting away with all those horns and woodwinds. Pretty amazing when you think about it. So it's only logical to reflect: those muscles have to grow and become strong. Gradually, consistently. Then, they will work for you!
The mouth, throat, aperture, tongue, etc., you
help them become really loose, dumb, lazy, stupid, blah, blah, blah. Even that poses challenges, as the jaw muscles by nature are wired tight to enable you to chew and keep your mouth shut, (no pun intended), so you have to learn (again, it takes TIME) to stretch them a bit, make them a bit more elastic, so you can really open up for the high notes.
You can do exercises to help the process along: classic breath development ones are good old sit-ups, leg lifts, abdominal crunches, all the stuff you do in the gym to work that area of the body. You build it, you strengthen it. Then when you get to be a singer, you will find that this is probably the single strongest part of your body: In fact, sometimes just to blow people away, I ask 'em to punch me right there, right smack in the old diaphragm, it is like a ROCK. I think probably no body builder, not even Schwarzenegger or Van Damme have a thing on me there.
The lack of tension desired in the mouth and throat, you can easily try on for size by yawning---it will give you the feeling you want----but you'll have to leave it at that, because if you sing in that position you'll be throwing the voice back into the throat, and bingo you have another problem. However, a good yawn will allow you to feel the sensation of an open throat, a good, and relaxed feeling. In fact, a lot of teachers look to see if during particular excercises, the student starts yawning as a natural reaction.
Once you get these concepts working for you, you will begin to spin a real tone, get some legato going, probably be able to crescendo and decrescendo (messa di voce) on a single tone, and can begin serious work with scales to even out the voice, shake hands with your passaggio, and start to flex some vocal muscle!
Next: Resonance and Placement
Scale work
Copyright (c) 2000 CMI Arts. All Rights Reserved,
Used with permission by Musicstaff.com
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