Language Learning

Now that I have a repertoire of vocalization exercises, I thought it could be a good idea to put them all together and create sort of a daily routine. I asked Patrick about that, and he suggested an order based on the exercises that we’ve seen so far in our weekly lessons. Down below in the recording section, you can listen to my brand-new routine 😄.

When I started this project, I had anticipated that I’d probably improve some aspects of my German skills as a secondary benefit. After the seventh lesson, I can say that the German ‘gains’ in this regard are already greater than I had already expected. I’m expanding my vocabulary and getting comfortable interacting in a lesson in German all the time (we almost never resort to English; usually only when introducing new words, such as Gaumensegeln (soft palate). The main thing, though, is pronunciation.

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 7) – Vocalization Routine

One of the recent challenges I faced during this week of practice was connected with singing ‘A’ vowels in the high register. After talking about this with my voice teacher, he mentioned that is a common challenge for most students. Good to know that! 😄 But knowing others have the same problem shouldn’t be enough of a reason to get contented. There’s work to do. Opportunities for improvement!

During my daily practice, I noticed that I had it especially easy with the ‘I’ and the ‘E’. That’s one of the reasons I decided to stick mainly to those vowels in my vocalizations. Using just these vowels makes it easier to keep a forward sound and avoid the pitfalls of singing with the throat (which I still do!). I also noticed that when I keep that forward sound, I tend to rely more on a good appoggio (better breathing support).

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 6) – Vowel Transformation

One of my favorite teaching devices is using analogies and similes to explain something. I appreciate that a lot also as a student. In the past weeks, my voice teacher has used this resource multiple times. For lowering the larynx, I’ve been told to think of yawning (even, starting a yawn). The second one was thinking of the facial gesture of someone who is crying (the cheeks slightly upwards, the eyes a bit closed). This is great for inducing the kind of larynx placement we are looking for.

Speaking of crying, it seems like the body mechanisms involved could facilitate voice production for singers. Just hear a baby crying! They can get very loud and cry for long stretches of time without needing any voice training. When a person cries, there’s an emotional element already there that is part of this body mechanism. For that reason, it would be a good idea to remind ourselves of singing as an act of emotion sharing. We could even bring this to our vocalizations!

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 5) – Der Neugierige

This week I had my fourth singing lesson. The practice goes well, even though I had a couple of days when I didn’t do any vocalization or singing. I continue keeping track of the days I practice as a way of trying to keep a longer streak. The goal is to make a long chain and not to break it by missing days. I’m getting there! 😊

Speaking of practice, it’s interesting to see the differences among this project, Chess in Italian, and Pen Drawing in German. When practicing chess, I kept a log on a Google Docs document where I wrote down what I practiced every single day. When practicing pen drawing, I also kept a lot, this time in the pad I used to draw. In both occasions, I would write down the date and starting/finishing hour, day by day. This way I managed to practice most days at the beginning of the year (Chess in Italian), skipping the practice days for around a week at the end of January, due to a family emergency. With Pen Drawing in German, I didn’t miss or skip days.

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 4) – Falsetto Voice

On October 18th I had my third singing lesson. At the beginning of the lesson, I usually share with Patrick the challenges I encountered during the last week of practice. Sometimes I focus exclusively on a new thing and forget the last one 😅. I know it’s difficult to think about everything we need to get better at all at once. The idea, in any case, is to integrate the past learning experiences with the most recent ones.

In a sense, this skill building project is very similar to the first project of the year (Chess in Italian). I’m taking a lesson in a foreign language (German now, Italian in the first quarter), and during the week I practice the skill, but without much language content. In the current project, I could say there’s a bit more German during the week (the text of the songs is in German).

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 3) – Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’

This week I had my second singing lesson. I feel quite comfortable learning and practicing in German. As I expected, one of the challenges is the technical vocabulary. In the first couple of lessons, I noticed that I didn’t know very important words for a singing student, such as Lunge(n) [lung(s)], Kehlkopf [larynx], Kiefer [jaw], and Stimmbänder [vocal chords]. But I’m learning on the go 😃.

Some of these words can give rise to big misunderstandings. I need to be extra careful with anything that contains -spannung. For example, Verspannung means tension, and Entspannung is relaxation. I tend to confuse them all the time 😅. Thanks, Patrick for your patience! It’s good to have such a forgiving teacher.

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 2) – Morgen