Learning Projects

As I mentioned before in this series, many of the exercises with do in class with Patrick exert an indirect influence on certain parts of the vocal tract. One example I mentioned in the past was the act of yawning or sobbing. Both take the larynx down and are good resources to have an experience of what we’re looking for (i.e. bring the larynx down). We don’t need to do anything else. When we yawn, the larynx automatically goes down. It cannot be any other way!

If you yawn and slightly close your eyes (as when sobbing), you will notice that the larynx goes even a little more down. You can try it yourself, putting one hand on your throat and yawning (and then closing a bit your eyes). You’ll notice a downwards movement at the level of the larynx. That might be one of the reasons why opera singers use that facial gesture when singing. Because it helps in keeping the larynx down (and that’s exactly what we want!).

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 11) – Taking the Larynx Down

I heard about the importance of good breathing support (appoggio) since the first time I started learning how to sing, more than 10 years ago. But knowing something for a long time doesn’t guarantee that we actually use or act on that knowledge. That’s how I feel about appoggio. It’s not something new, but at the same time, it feels like a wholly new experience. At least, in the context of the singing lessons I’m taking this quarter.

My current teacher told me from the get-go that singing training is, in part, muscle training. Especially when we speak about the breathing technique. It’s like going to the gym, but without evident external changes 😄. And that’s exactly what makes it so elusive. We don’t see the muscles and the parts of the body that we want to strengthen or get more control over. It’s all trial and error. This is ‘the unseen’ in singing training.

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 10) – The Unseen in Singing Training

This week I continued practicing the falsetto with and without last week’s song. During the lesson, my teacher shared a few clarifications on how to practice the falsetto. I learned that it was okay to go high, but not really high (beyond the high C). I discovered that it was such a thing as a low falsetto register (I never knew about that). My teacher showed me how that sounded with his voice, and then I tried it myself (you can listen to a recording down below).

In the lesson, we also tried different vocalizations derived from the ‘I’ to ‘O’ exercise. I found it interesting that, as he showed me the exercises, he changed from ‘I’ to ‘O’ very quickly. Somehow, I thought I should stay there for longer. My teacher also mentioned that this register was important to round up the voice in general. Now that I know that it goes lower than what I thought, this makes a lot of sense.

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 9) – Falsetto (part 2)

One of the side benefits of taking singing lessons is that you start noticing new things in the music you listen to. That can happen even with songs you’ve already listened to dozens of times. Sometime during last week, it occurred to me as I was listening to All night, all day, by Lawrence Brownlee. There’s a part in the song where he sings with the UH falsetto-sound, I used during my lessons. Or, at least, it seemed to me! 😄

My idea here was to use this fragment of the piece to practice falsetto myself. I know by experience, that making a practice session or routine more fun or interesting always pays off. My goal was to make the practice time more entertaining. To add one more reason to look forward to it. This one is not in German, but hopefully, it will help me with the other songs!

[Read more…] about Singing in German (Week 8) – Falsetto Practice with Songs

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