In and Out of My Tessitura

Voice lesson yesterday. My teacher used the word tessitura. Love that. Working on Ouvre ton coeur. For anyone whose not familiar with the piece, here's a clip of Beverly Sills singing it. I actually meant to link to this one, which I think I like better than the Sills clip, because it sounds more, I don't know, realistic. Like, I listen to it and think, I can sing this. I don't think that when I hear B.S. sing it. Ohh found another with the lyrics...



So anyway... my tessitura... It's those darn middle notes. I can do the lower ones, I can do the higher ones, but those middle ones... not in my neighborhood. At least not that day, not those notes. Have to work on getting those middle notes into the range so there are no gaps, no discomfort, no lack of confidence. My teacher pointed out that that's one of the reasons the evaluators recommended this particular song - to help me learn just that. Of course, I've been practicing all summer in controlling my breath for the higher notes. I need to use more breath to hit the high ones (got to a D flat in my lesson!!) but then I feel like I'm forcing it all out, sort of blurting out the note without any control. It's frustrating. I know I just have to practice the breath control. I remind myself (and my teacher keeps reminding me) how far I've come - a year ago I never dreamed I could sing this high and forget about vibrato. But now it's like, I've had a taste of my potential and I want to gobble it up. I have to slow down. I know that if I keep practicing, I will get better at relaxing my throat. I'll get better at using my diaphragm only to push out air. My breath control will improve so that I can hit the high notes with control - loudly or softly whenever I want. It's like I'm slowly changing from a harpsichord to a pianoforte.

So it looks like the psychological benefits of the voice lessons have returned! What a relief.