pink skies

My last morning in Nashville. I stayed up until past midnight surfing reverbnation and thinking about the lessons. I think that and the long walks I took yesterday helped me sleep past the 3:30 am mark. It is about time to be over the jet lag! What a great thing to wake up to a pink sky at 5:45, a respectable time to be up and about.

It is exciting to have completed the first chapter in what I think could be a fascinating, entertaining, albeit expensive plan, to travel all over the world and meet with all the voice gurus that I can and then put things together for myself and dare I say...in years to come, become one myself. Is it bad to aspire to guru-dom? I am grateful that Rob is excited about my plan and supportive. He kept reminding me that this trip didn't need to be the end all be all, and that I should just go and have fun. That took a lot of pressure off.

So now, not as criticism but in terms of evaluation, and because I have given Singing Success quite a bit of free publicity to this blog's huge fanbase of three...thank you Mari, thankyou Mitzi Jo, thank you Mom, I really need to begin a more indepth briefing of my experiences. This may be the point where anyone reading decides to click next blog.

A trip to Nashville is always a fun idea. Everyone who I came in contact with at the airport along the way seemed to smile when they said 'going to Nashville today.' It just makes you think about fun times. Music Row is so pleasant, a kind of old-fashioned neighborhood setting, gently rolling streets, lilacs, big trees, songbirds, interesting buildings, historic and new. If you have stumbled upon this blog and you don't know that I have pictures on the Our Nine blog, I do, see Nashville post.

Brett Manning studios is a very friendly environment. It's very friendly and I won't say though I'll just say and clearly everyone is pre or more than pre-professional about a profession where image is almost everything, but still very kind and friendly. I can't stress the pleasant and friendly enough. I would even stress kind. And I would also stress image, again.

When I teach I always think about trying to give my students the most value from their lessons. (I have a lot of room for improvement in that area.) It makes sense that the pre-professional students at BMS would go in there looking for a commercial sound. In Nashville there is a lot of buzz about labels, producers, contracts, I would say a pre-occupation with them in this digital age of greater artistic freedom. But everyone wants to make money, even me with my nine lunch-money-needers, so I agreed that 'when in Nashville' looking for a commercial sound, for myself, would be a good place to focus during my five hours of lessons.

My teacher told me I had a great head voice, but that it wasn't a commercial sound. So, we spent a lot of time using the exercises to "find my more legitimate chest voice" and stay in it all the way up my range. That time was valuable, because whether or not I decide to abandon my head voice, don't worry mom I won't, I still have a desire to master as many vocal coordinations as I can, both for my own artisty and for teaching. So my objections, if any, were more philosophical than technical. I think if I really have a great head voice than I should never abandon it to have a more commercial sound...it's me... it's who I am as a singer. Who says I'll ever get paid a dime to sing? So I'd better sing in a way that I enjoy and that I feel expresses who I am. That's not to say I won't continue to explore and more edgy and contemporary sound. I just won't have "commercial" be the goal. Never, no, never.

Brett Manning has developed an amazing set of exercises. I think those execises, designed to keep the voice out of head voice and stretch the chest voice into the head voice range, using more compression on the vocal chords, actually do amazing things for the head voice. Once you decompress and allow head voice the voice feels amazingly flexible and effortless. I love the squeaky basketball shoes analogy...it is so helpful for accuracy on staccato notes.

I give a trip to Brett Manning Studios a big thumbs up, but it is not the last stop, and I would say go but take your own brain with you. Keep thinking. Keep being yourself. Enjoy the great atmosphere.

So now my goals are to go back and songwrite a bit. Dave Brooks promised it didn't need to be good, just do it to find out what my style is as a contemporary singer. I like that advice. Other goal: to continue using the Singing Success CDs and keep finding that contemporary sound.

Third goal: keep applying the technique to my classical songs, (third and a half: keep thinking about breathing..really honing that breathing technique) and fourth and most exciting start thinking about the next future adventure.

here I am in Nashville

This is a picture of the new symphony in Nashville (sorry I forgot the name.)

So here I am in Nashville. This all started when I went looking for voice lesson-related blogs on-line. I googled. I found many, mostly very dry. I found the Singing Success web-site. My first impression was...hmmm, looks pretty slick and commercial. But I kept looking. I forget what exactly impressed me the most. I was intrigued that they promised to increase your range by an octave and a half. I was impressed by the testimonials, from well-known names in the music industry, other things as well, the underlying philosophies. You can go read them for yourself. I chunked out the money and waited for the package.

In the meantime I began using my audio studio to record with Jessie. I did notice a difference in my songs as I listened to the CDs. Use less air I think was the most helpful suggestion. It is intriguing to me how the exercises designed to help more contemporary styled singers avoid using head voice actually made my head voice feel more free and effortless, when I returned to head voice singing.

So one day Rob started talking about an work-related trip to Xi'an and I started to feel like I needed the chance to do some exploring on my own too. It had been thirteen years, nine pregnancies, do I need to go on? Rob was immediately supportive. He has always encouraged me to find what made me happy. All our happiness can't be totally wrapped up in the family. That's too much pressure on them.

I was so enthusiastic about this Singing Success method that I wanted to come see where it all began, meet these guys, find out if I was following the method correctly. And I've never spent time in Nashville. I had thought about going out to meet Roger Love in LA but I've been there many times. I was more intrigued by Nashville.

So I have been to three out of the five hours of lessons that I bought with Dave Brooks. He is very kind and encouraging, and an extremely talented singer. We have worked on some interesting new exercises to bring my voice in to a more commercial sound, that is less vibrato and more chest voice in to the higher notes. We haven't approached at all the classical pieces. We've focused on my more com temporary sound...however we should call that. Do I love the very commercial compressed sound? I'm not sure. But I am happy to be able to learn how to do what other singers do. I've always wanted to be able to be versatile. I'm not sure that my popular sound is really that good. Dave suggested I write my own songs to find my voice and my style. Finding myself as a singer has definitely been on my mind. Writing songs...that's big homework.

style CDs

This week I focused on the style CDs. I particularly like the lessons on improvising over chord progressions.

I set up appointments for voice lessons in Nashville. Now to make the other arrangements.

I managed to practice guitar several times during the week.

I need to be better about keeping up with the classical practice. I also want to prepare program notes for the next time we perform the recital.

more CD#6

My access to Blogger has been off and on so I haven't written much lately.

I have been going over CD #6 and the second style CD lately.

It interests me that the exercizes help my classical sound as well. Even the ones that are designed for the more popular sound.

I managed to get to the piano this morning...just for about fifteen minutes of scales. Then the field trip, then I played guitar and sang for about one hour while Caitlin played nearby. I've started into CD#6 but got distracted by baby William. I'll try to get back to that. One morer day until my open house/ recital. I hope a few people will come.

I e-mailed BMS about coming out for a visit in the summer.

digrastic muscles

Tuesday I put on the Singing Success CD#6 while I made shepherd's pie for dinner. So here are some notes.

-rapid scales help build agility and vocal freedom, free up tension in the neck, sing through the bridges without consonants

-sustain vibrato above the bridges

wee wee, pure head voice to chest voice
a "a shading exercize"

could change to gwee

squeaky head to chest voice, use edgy sound to keep from breaking into falsetto

digrastic muscles- disengage outer muscles of larynx
vocal chords vibrate freely
squeaky sound to open vowel sound
cancel out outer muscles
my voice is going legit-not staying edgy

Later I practiced Ebben n'andro lontano

almost out of hiding

Saturday morning Rob went off for a jog. I tried to do some writing as the entropy began. We were all kind of half diapered, half fed etc. My Saturday morning voice student arrived unexpectedly. I had kind of given up thinking that the high school kids had reached that busy time of year. Two of them came. I was glad to have the chance to go over some of the new exercises. I didn't feel focused or prepared though. And there was much chaos in the house. We did our best.

This week I reviewed CD #4 and 5 and the style CD. Here are some notes:

"Drinking up the sound"

"chest to middle to head- no pushing or pulling" "tone thins out and releases"

I like the mum for bringing down the larynx, yawn to feel it drop, open the resonating cavities, mouth, head and throat
slightly dopey sound

The no no no on a long scale encourages the head voice because it is narrow. Broad vowels pull you down to chest.

nueh good for mixed

I made my flyer for the mini recital I want to do. I'll attach it...now to actually show it to someone who could come. I need to reconfirm with Jessie today and send it out as an e-mail after. Now to practice these songs...the time?

Rob made a great contact at work. I'd been praying to know how we could learn more about recording. He met a man who does recording at local universities. Great! We want to get any experience we can. I can't wait to learn more about this.

tongue twirls

I went back to the third Singing Successes CD. My high note now is g above high c. I didn't really imagine that his exercises would go above that. The soprano sings up to c above high c. Pretty amazing. I'm trying to think about releasing to get higher.

I am in love with the tongue twirl. I've never done this before. Bethany, loves it too. At first I couldn't do them on breath. I had to focus on keeping my breath flow smooth and consistent to keep the twirl going. I think about the tongue twirl when I am singing arias to keep the sound free and spinning.

I also love the nasty sounding 'ne' for closing the vocal chords properly. This is a popular style exercise but it helps the classical too. I don't know how to explain why right now.

The emphasis is on 'the least amount of strain'. I think singing should be vicariously relaxing for the listener...or releasing if the mood calls for it.

my notes on the first CD

Its been several weeks since I started listening to the Brett Manning Singing Success CDs. I've gone through about four CDs, still appreciating them very much. Its a great way for me to learn. I don't have a teacher available. I don't have a lot of free time. I get anxious doing just one thing. I have the CDs in the kitchen so I actually look forward to doing dishes and cooking because I know I can listen and sing along.

Tonight I went back and listened to the first CD again. I decided I wanted to go through them one time again, taking notes, before I go on to the other technique and style CDs. I wrote down a few things. These are my notes.

-Speech level singing

-importance of "the God given unique facial structure" gives us our own resonance or unique sound

-different coordinations make different sounds...i.e. chest, middle, head

-middle voice has "deeper vocal chord compression" and an "edgier sound"

-inner and outer larynx muscles..use inner to sing with less effort

-deliniation...gradual blend

-when larynx is too tight we are using the swallowing

muscles..want to find a middle ground

-don't lift soft pallet too high...don't want to distort natural bell shape

-if voice lacks power..don't shout...don't force the voice "let it blossom"