Random Ramblings Ending With Earrings

I came here thinking I should write about my voice lesson. The hope/idea is that once I start typing a wonderfully clever and insightful post will magically appear.

So let's see.

It was a pretty mundane lesson. Not bad, not earth-shattering. Went over a few bits and tricksy parts of Ouvre Ton Coeur. My teacher was once again all gushy about how much I've improved. She even drew BOTH a smiley face AND a star on my music. But grrrr that French. What is UP with that pronunciation? Apparently I'm not making my lips kissy enough. Who knew. Maybe I need some kissing practice. *smooch!* There I just kissed all my readers. I hope no one has a cold.

So we decided to put Ouvre back in the folder and revisit Apres un Reve next week, and then... yes... something new!!! Of course next week I won't have my voice lesson on Thursday evening because I'll be in New York City watching Nathan Gunn in Firebrand of Florence. And, you know, maybe saying hi, getting a new photo. You know, for the blog. We're still at the "I'll see what I can do" phase of the adventure. Who is seeing what who can do? Well that part I'm not at liberty to say. Can't give away all my secrets! But the word is, someone is seeing, uh, what can be done. By that someone. Got it?

Dang so if this pans out and I do end up backstage, I can't go empty handed. Same old dilemma. What to bring? CD of some live performance? Been there, done that. Gift CD from Alex? Done. Ya know, if he wore dangling earrings this would be so much easier. Maybe I'll throw a few gifty pairs in my bag, just in case. You never know who you might need to give a gift to. Oh I should post pictures of some of my recent creations! Let's see...

I made these today:





And here are some others I recently made:







So the plan is to sell enough to finance my opera habit. Of course I don't have a shop, or a craft fair, or any other regular place to sell them. I do, however, have a group on Facebook called "Earrings for Sale." If you're on Facebook and you like what you see, join the group to see the rest! And shop, shop, shop! This operamummy is running out of operamoney!

Old Friends

Voice lesson tonight. Same old story. I was picky, picky, picky, my teacher kept pointing out all the improvements and told me to shut up when I got too down on myself. I'm sure if I were standing closer she would have smacked me.

Pulled out the old friends - Vedrai Carino and Ouvre Ton Coeur. I can definitely hear a difference. I feel it too. I was almost intidimated by parts of Vedrai Carino, but now I'm taking charge. There are still parts of it that I need to work on, but I hear a difference even from last week. Ouvre Ton Coeur sounded better than I've ever done it before! I still have some, uh, issues, with the French pronunciation, but I'm working on it.

This Sunday my voice teacher is going to see the Met Finals. One of her friends has a student in the competition and invited her along. Yeah, these voice teachers, they all know each other.

Next week's lesson is canceled so no voice lesson until March 5!

Thoughts on Singing (and the original title somehow vanished!)

Had my voice lesson yesterday. Worked on going up and down without hearing a break. It takes some concentration when the notes get lower. But once I sort of figured out how to do it, it got easier. Well duh of course that makes sense for anything. Went over a few parts of Vedrai Carino that I had questions about - the timing of one part, the progression of notes in another, then we went back to French. Tried Ouvre Ton Coeur in a lower key, from the mezzo book. It felt really comfortable there so I'll probably stick with it. Now that doesn't mean I'm a mezzo (darn!), but my teacher said that singers do that quite often - they're just more comfortable with certain songs in a different key. We also worked on me not being influenced by the background music. It's got quite a beat, for lack of any other way to describe it. But the singing is fluid, so I have to ignore that beat and keep the singing part smooth. Here, like this:



Hear that piano? On the accompaniment CD it's very sharp and staccato. I have to ignore that and sing smoothly. It's a nice contrast. The CD is also very very fast. I feel like I'm running a race sometimes.

My homework is to learn the words, translate and IPA a new one in French - Apres un Reve.



Sometimes the first time I hear a song I'm going to learn, I don't like it. I don't necessarily dislike it, but I'm not always instantly crazy about it. But then, once I get into it, pick it apart and learn it bit by bit I really do fall in love with it. Or maybe I just get used to it????

Tuesday Post # 2: Lack of Coordination

Having a frustrating moment, vocally. I'm thinking it might be time to put Ouvre ton coeur aside and start something else. Most of that dang song falls right where my voice breaks. Then there are these jumps from notes there to notes above or below, notes that I'm comfortable with on their own but those dang transitions are hanging me up. I've been practicing all sorts of vocalizes (vocaleses?) to help train myself to just do it. I think that first I have to get through the mental thing. I mean, duh, first I have to conquer this mental thing. It's not a jump, right? I shouldn't look at the staff and think, gee, I have to jump up to that note from there. I need to keep it all on the same level and just go there, otherwise I either punch it (out of control) or close down and swallow it. It's not easy to digest so swallowing it is not ideal.

It's not a jump. It's just a go. Go from here to there. No problem.

I'm still working on the energy thing, controlling my abs and my breath, getting the breath lower in my body so I can sustain the higher notes without that blurt-and-swallow thing.

The truth is, I want it to all come together the first time I try to put it together, and of course that's not possible. So now how does my logical brain get the message through to the singing brain? I guess that's why the Evaluators suggested I try this song - for the learning experience. Or, as it seems to be today, the frustration experience.

Cats in My Tessitura

Voice lesson yesterday. Wasn't finding it. It was in me. I had it the day before. Had a bit of tension in me though and couldn't figure out how to get rid of it to relax and open my throat. It's so frustrating. Why can't I produce That Sound, that rounded, full and beautiful Sound, all the time?

We did vocalises (sp??) for much of the class just to practice that. I have to get the memory of the sound into my muscles, into my body, so that the whole thing comes together when I want it to.

My homework is to go over Ouvre ton coeur, aaaahhhs only, then vowels only, and not to add the consonants back in until next Tuesday. So Tuesday will not only be the first day of Rosh Hashanana, it will also be Consonant Day.

Wow that all barely makes sense but I'll restrain from editing it.

I have access to a photograph that you, dear reader, may find interesting, however I must pursue the Proper Channels before posting it. It's possible that the Channel may say "What? Are you f'ing kidding me? No way!" but it's just as likely that the Channel will say, "Sure, whatever." So if the picture appears in a future post, you'll know the answer. If not, you'll just have to wonder.

Cat Pic Friday:


Viola glares at the paparazzi.



Diego cozies up to his scotch.


This next one is blurry but I love how it makes his canines look longer. Why felines have canines is a subject for another post. Uh... another post on another blog.


Arrggh, get away from me scotch or I'll bite ya with me canines.

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.

Oper fur alle

My voice lessons have resumed. I don't quite feel the psychological benefit yet. Part of that is my fault. Ok, it's all my fault. The day before my lesson, I had a bizarre and dare I say, bad, dream about my voice teacher. I dreamed that I arrived for the lesson and it was in this glassed-wall building, like a store-front. Some guy was playing the piano and she was there insisting that I sing, and I kept saying that I didn't know the song so I wouldn't sing, and there's no way that these minutes were counting toward the lesson. In the dream we were yelling at each other. I finally left. Later I tried to call her to apologize but I couldn't get through. I learned that the guy playing piano was her brother and he didn't like the way I was yelling so he told her she could no longer get in contact with me. I finally went to a dinner party where they both were, and we were watching a movie about her life, and it became real (yay, dreams) and it was a part where she gets raped by some guy she had one date with. I was her roommate and I knew what was going to happen but I had to leave the apartment because I couldn't interfere with history. It was terrible. The whole thing was terrible. Then the next day I had my lesson - so that's why I wasn't able to open up. I felt guilty about the dream. I felt guilty IN the dream. Weird stuff. Gotta get over it so I can get back to work.

That said, it was a pretty good lesson. I told her about singing for my friend's mother and the other guests, and about how I rehearsed all summer, and watched the professionals, and finally how I managed to relax, use my abs to push the air and my throat just opened, allowing me to hit higher and rounder sounding notes. She said she could definitely hear the improvement. I sang Una Donna and it was much better than ever. Of course I can always do it better at home or in the car than I can during a lesson. What's up with that? Anyway, I can hear that I'm singing better, she could hear it and I could see that she was excited about it. Another of my many problems is, when she gets excited I start laughing. I had to turn my back on her at one point, and other times I just kept my eyes closed. But I can't always sing with my eyes closed, can I?

We worked on Ouvre ton Coeur. You'd never know that I studied French all through college - the pronunciation is driving me insane -- I have too much Spanish and Italian interference. Plus we were doing the words before I felt confident with the notes. Must remind myself (and my teacher, in this case) to slow down. My plan is to feel totally comfortable with each part of the song before putting it all together.

Look! One of her friends is from and/or went to Germany and brought her a t-shirt that she gave to me:




Next lesson: Thursday, Sept. 18.

First of Three

I have three things to catch up on:

1. My most recent voice lesson
2. That outdoor concert
3. Sunday's rehearsal

So....in this post I will discuss....


1. My Most Recent Voice Lesson:

Had a make-up lesson Saturday morning in one of the practice rooms at Westminster. Like the space so much better than the 6th grade math classroom the lessons have been in so far! With it's "Black Holes are God's Way of Dividing By Zero" banner across the board... yes it's a Catholic school. Yes I'm Jewish. Yes it's vaguely disconcerting to me to be surrounded by crucifixes and other Catholic symbols but I've gotten used to it. So anyway... wow I digress a lot... so Saturday we were in the practice room. The sound was great! My teacher told me that I did really well at the studio class - I didn't realize that this was my first time seeing her since then. Then we did some vocal exercises - one of my favorites where I sing See-YAAAA Ahh ahhh ahhh all legato... I think it jumps up a fifth (?) from see to yaaa and then down in, what, 3rds? I don't know... but it's so much fun to do. She always tells me to "Let loose, sing like an opera singer" and so I do and it sounds great and then I laugh and have to stop because I can't believe it's me singing like that. Then there's usually a point where I don't let myself slide up to the YAAA note for whatever mental block reason and I have a pause between the two notes. It's like I don't feel like I can control the slide to stop at the right note, although I can just hit the note. I think it's the C. I try not to peek at the piano but sometimes I do. So I KNOW I can hit the note, I just have to trust that I can slide into it from below. Anyone out there have any tips for overcoming that mental thing?

So we moved on from there and started "Ouvre Ton Coeur," which meant first checking the IPA, meaning, I copied it onto my copy of the music, then we went over the words and how to pronounce them, back and forth, a word and then a phrase at a time, then the rhythm, chant chant chant to get the words with the right number of beats, then she played the tune on the piano without us speaking the words at all. I recorded it all and have been listening to each part. I'm forcing myself to be comfortable with each aspect before I seriously try to put it all together. I have problems with the pronunciation once I try singing it. And I took French all through college - you'd think it'd be easy for me.

So I have one more make-up class to do over the summer, probably at my teacher's house.

Whew Just in Time

Today, this afternoon, I got the info to check the daily rehearsal schedule with the opera company. I also found out where I need to go on Sunday. I'm excited to find out what exactly I'll be doing, to meet the chorus, hear them sing and scope things out. You know I'll post a complete report afterwards.

And now, off I go to IPA "Ouvre ton coeur."