Matching It Up

Every week I take Alex to a swimming class. The pool is indoors at a nearby school. It's echoing and chaotic. I sit sweating in the stands, taking advantage of the enforced sitting time to read my music.

I want to learn as much of the music I'm working on as I can while I'm NOT in a lesson, so that during the lesson we can focus on singing. I had been having trouble matching the words with the notes for El Majo Discreto so finally I read along while listening on YouTube. Then today during the swimming lesson I tapped out the rhythm and (very quietly) chanted the words, over and over. I realized after listening on YouTube that the triplets were mixing me up. Once again my lack of musical background is getting in the way. I sort of figured out and sort of remembered that the triplet has to fit in the space like a regular note (sorry to the musically knowledgeable, I know there are real terms for all this). Basically, what it boils down to is, I had been giving them too much time and then getting all off beat. So I adjusted how I'd been thinking about the syllables that are attached to those notes and suddenly it all made sense. I can now match the words with the music.

My teacher will be away this coming week so I'll have plenty of time to learn as much of that piece as I can, along with another one she suggested I learn called Songs As Mother Sang Them. Or Songs My Mother Taught Me. I've seen both titles. So in order not to confuse myself with the words, but to help me learn the melody (since my iPhone suddenly refused to record any more voice memos after the warmup of my last lesson, and I'm trying not to take that personally) I've been listening to this one. I'm learning it in English so I'll eventually match up the words to the melody by reading along. I don't always have the luxury of having the music in front of me, or of being able to sing along, or pause and repeat, so I do what I can.

Today I had some time home alone (a rarity!) so I recorded myself singing Lascia Ch'io Pianga to see how I looked and sounded. How I looked was, I had my eyes closed too much and how I sounded was, I still need to work on the legato, but I was able to get my voice on top of the air for most of it. So while the video came out ok, I'm not going to post it because I know I can do better. Legato, legato, legato. Next time I'll swan my arm back and forth as a reminder. Won't that look lovely. Hopefully I won't also sound like a swan.

Legato, Laughter and RSVP

Created an event on Facebook for the upcoming Opera Project recital. The listing is open to the public, so click, and if you're on Facebook, RSVP.

Did I not say yesterday that I'll do what my voice teacher says because I trust her advice, especially when she makes me laugh? I know she didn't read that blog entry but she may as well have. Yesterday morning during our vocal exercises she had me do that chew-on-the-tongue thing to help relax. Again, too hard to do without laughing. But I suppose that on some level laughing relaxes you too, so it was effective.

Cool - while looking for and failing to find a link about tongue chewing, I found this blog entry about creating and maintaining the legato line while singing.

Daylight savings time has me all mixed up. I think I'm up too late but I'm not sure. But just to be safe, I'm off to bed now.

Legato in the Mountains

I may be able to get away from home and work, but I can't get away from music. I don't want to. So my goal these next few days is to:

A. Memorize the rest of the words to Batti Batti
B. Sing it without consonants to improve my legato
C. Try to figure out where to breathe

Wish me luck.

Off I go to the mountains.

Starring, the Vowels!

I'm not thinking about the voice evaluation tomorrow. Nope. I wasn't even going to blog about it, not directly. I'm afraid if I say I feel comfortable with the songs, I'll jinx myself, and if I say I don't feel ready, I'll believe it. So I'm saying nothing.

Except this - Vertical space. I have to remember to open open open and create vertical space. I was paying close attention to the singers in La Cenerentola. There was a whole lotta vertical space going on, for both the high and the low notes.

And this - Caressing the notes. How to caress the notes? I decided to go with the vowels and almost ignore the consonants. They're just there to bog me down. I'll use them as much as I need to, and no more, in order to connect the vowels and of course aid in the legato. They will not affect my vowels. They will not upstage the vowels. They will support the song like a bird's skeleton. Or like a mouse's - can't they squish their bones to fit through tiny holes?

Yes it's obvious to me too that I'm rambling.

Ho Ho Ho Triplets!

Triplets are my new love and my new foe. I love how they sound and I love how they feel. But the feel will have to change because I'm sort of aspirating an "h" on them. How to explain in writing...

Ok so in If Music Be the Food of Love... the word "music." In one part of the song, the "zic" is a triplet going up. Instead of a nice legato line, I'm singing more of a "zi-hi-hic" sound. I keep trying to NOT do it but it's hard. I need an exercise to practice it on different vowels because I'm doing it on some of the others. **note to self... tell this to my voice teacher on Thursday...** I'm also not liking how the "myu" part sounds. Too much y, too nasal. Not enough u. I'm thinking a vowel-only sing-through is in order. Again. I've done it already a few times. So many schwas, so little time.

I still (love-love-love) the song. Note my attempt to write a triplet. Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Fun with the blog-tracker. The house centipedes are coming out, that's all I have to say. One lousy off-topic post about house centipedes and somehow all these searches end up here. And no, not one person has clicked to see any other parts of the blog. Dang do NOT click on the house centipede link unless you are ready to be GROSSED OUT.