The rest of this is music mumbo jumbo that I've been learning... if you're interested... read on. These are just mini lists of things I've learned. It doesn't even begin to touch the change it's made in my concept of sound.
The Three Rules of Successful Singing
1 - The secret of singing is keeping the diaphragm engaged.
2 - The goal of singing is consistency.
3 - The mastery of singing is air flow.
The Steps of Learning a Song
1- Understand your Context (era, composer, lyricist, larger work, where in the opera you are, what's happening on stage, observe the musical markings).
2 - Understand the Language (poetic, literal, emotional, IPA and the symbolic language of the music, also begin speaking the text in an imitative style).
3 - Learn the music (first - rhythm. second - register and notes. Third - rhythm, register, notes and language).
4 - Memorize (If previous steps are followed, it should practically learn itself).
5 - Polish (staging, body movements, performance practices).
Your diaphragm is a muscle. Just like when you lift weights, for the most effective use of your muscles, move them slowly and consistency in "eccentric firing" of your muscles. The muscles between your ribs are called intercostals. They also are able to be controlled. The ribcage should ALWAYS BE EXPANDED WHEN SINGING. Collapsing the ribcage when expelling air indicates the diaphragm is not engaged. Abdominal breathing doesn't exist. We don't breathe with our abdomen. We breathe with our lungs. Our abdomen moves when breathe with our lungs indicating movement of the diaphragm and a change in the volume of our lung capacity.
Our bodies are instruments. Singing takes the acuity and practice of a string player. LIKE ALL INSTRUMENTS THAT DON'T JUST PLAY PARTIALS, Shape must accommodate pitch. Instruments change pitch with physiological changes, your voice is the same. The greatest range of effective motion can be achieved by moving the jaw and tongue, NOT THE SOFT PALATE OR LARYNX.
YAWNING does not imitate the feeling of a lifted soft palate. Instead, talking like you have a plugged nose is actually a lifted palate. Want proof? A lifted soft palate will block air from escaping the nose.
Consistent sound WILL NOT FEEL CONSISTENT INSIDE. What you hear is completely different from what's produced. Often people over-darken sound because they like to hear a round sound in their Eustachian tubes. Hearing is not entirely reliable. FEELING is reliable.
Singing Opera is not as natural as breathing... Singing opera is like pole vaulting. A complex, physically demanding activity, made of natural movements.
The woman's voice can be separated into 4 registers: Chest, Low-Mid, Passagio and Head Voice. Each register has a distinct feel.
- Chest: will be shallow and come from chest.
- Low-Mid: will be bright, forward, WIDE (accomplished by widening lips, not raising them) and shallow inside the mouth.
- Passagio: will be round sound, round more open mouth, CORE, every half step will seem larger than in lower ranges.
- Head Voice: will have NO core. Don't feel the core. Don't hear the core. But it's there, outside of your head.Now... keep in mind, all of this has happened in the context of lessons. I've tried to best write what I've understood and what's working in my brain. I'm sure that teachers before have said these things... I'm sure I just wasn't listening or having problems interpreting what they were trying to say, or lacked the tools to interpret it.
But these are the things that are helping me "open my sound." I've been told that I've sounded "trapped" or like I'm "holding back," after I've tried and tried and tried... thinking that there's nothing trapped, I'm giving EVERYTHING.
Maybe they'll help you. Maybe you had to be there. Either way... that's what I've been working on. :)
