Tougas- Voice Overview- 09/28

 This week in my voice lessons I employed a lot of the techniques from the McCoy book. One in particular that worked well for my breath support was expanding the ribs out with the diaphragm and holding your hands there to sustain and control how quickly your ribs retract. I was working a particularly difficult climbing series of triplets that I cosas continually losing breath to get good ring. Dr. Hart asked me to breathe a little deeper so I thought low and outward. I put my hands on my ribs and distinctly considered the change in pressure and slowing it down. This gave me enough support to get good placement and ring despite the staircase sensation of the song. I would recommend this for anyone as it helps you get to a ceiling feeling instead of a climbing out of the basement feeling when ascending. Another thing we worked on was snorting to lift the soft palate and create that exact placement. Since then in my practice and warm-up, I have been deep-practicing this sensation with a shift from a nasty, obnoxious snort to recreating the same exact sensation through a birthday-candle/ surprise party breath in, as this can be recreated in an actual performance. It sets my mouth up for the exact spot in which my notes need to hit and then resonate off the hard palate. 

In Voice Recital Hour, Sam Teuscher sang Fight The Dragons from the musical Big Fish. It is really fascinating how since discussing it, I can hear the shift in placement more distinctly. There is a dichotomy in this song of back and forth between a lower range in the verses but a register shift to the chorus. While Sam sang, he engaged his abdominals let on the verse areas and allowed his diaphragm to retract less slowly. However, on the higher notes and especially overall during the chorus, he expanded the diaphragm more but there was an audible and visible push back from his ab muscles in almost a fight with his diaphragm to effortlessly pressurize the air for the high notes. I want to be able to find this distinct balance that I think isn’t an involuntary function of the body. In other words, it requires more effort to master for each distinct song and style of singing. Something else notable about Sam’s performance was how loose his jaw was and how much brighter his face was on the higher parts of the song. He created that look of surprise/ excitement that McCoy relates in chapter 5 for creating the ideal space for sound. 

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