This week in Voice Recital Hour, Kate Wilson performed L-Invitación a Voyage. Something that was really awesome was the placement remained the same through out each note. Every word was in the shape of an “ah” just with different lip shape to round out the desired vowel. This gave great resonance and each note could springboard off of the hard palate! Also, Kate usually takes a stance of putting one hand on the piano which in turn expands the area for the diaphragm and deeper breaths. One thing I noticed was that depending on high notes or low notes, Kate would move her head slightly in the same direction. This probably is more a psychological effect but leads to out of alignment breathing, actually making it more difficult to sing. I noticed this in particular because it is exactly what I worked on in my lesson this week. We had an awesome break through where I realized I had root tension due to moving my head up for high notes and so Laurie and I worked on singing an Ah then to ...
I'm going to be completely honest here: the first section went right over my head and I was very confused because I didn't feel like enough examples or explanations were being given. So, I was very relieved when section two opened with how singers can apply the information about the formants and harmonics we learned in section one. He used three examples which consisted of the male passaggio, the female upper passaggio, and a personal example of intonation. I love the consistent reference to the singer's vowel shape and how significant of a role this plays in producing resonance and harmonics. In the female upper passaggio, he talked about subtly shifting the shape of the vowel and in the intonation example, he discussed how vowels make a big difference in our ability to blend and tune to the other singers we perform with. I had a teacher once and during my time with them, I really struggled producing resonant sound through my passaggio and higher. This really confused me ...
I think reading about how stuff works inside our body is interesting. The fact that my vocal folds are 18 millimeters is crazy! I wonder if that’s why men sing lower, because their folds are slightly larger? It’s also wild that our folds oscillate hundreds of times per second when we sing. I was amazed to read that the when singing the F6 in Queen of the Night, the vocal folds vibrate 1400 times. I don’t feel the vibrations when singing so it’s strange to think about. I think it’s amazing the sounds we can make through the larynx, which is only the small size of a walnut/pecan. It’s important as teachers to consider onset and phonation. If our students are singing with excess breath, we can know one of the reasons might be their vocal folds aren’t completely closed. It’s also important to consider the difference between adduction and abduction, and basically what the body requires for the voice to sound balanced.
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