Progress!

Great voice lesson today!!! I warmed up beforehand, like I usually do, but instead of warming up in the car up to the time of the lesson, I warmed up at home and was pretty much silent in the car for the 15 minute drive. Did that make a difference? One of the many questions I have about warming up... that could be its own blog entry.

So we did all these vocal exercises up and down the scale and I was in great voice. Then we did Batti Batti and my teacher was impressed!! She said I sounded really really nice. She jokes that I'm the poster child for a good voice student, because all her other students are teenagers and they don't pick up the music or practice in between lessons. Yeah well when I was a teenager, whenever I sang my two older brothers would tell me to shut up and that my voice stinks. So I can imagine some of them might be in a similar situation that makes them self-conscious. Hell they're teenagers - everything makes them self-conscious. Plus I pay for my lessons... but that's not why I practice. It's the "I don't give a crap what you think" attitude about people overhearing me practice. And as I've said before, my neighbors have all heard me. And I love singing, and I want to sound better and to learn more more more!!! THAT'S the real reason I practice - because I WANT to! I can't NOT sing. Hokey hokey hokey I know. Anyway she gave me some exercises to do for a few of the tricky spots in Batti Batti - the "ah" sound at a certain note is coming out sort of strained, so she reminded me to keep what she calls a "dumb jaw," a wide open mouth to create vertical space. For myself, I also think it forward, sort of up and out, and I have to remember to use my low breath. The more I practice, the more easily I can fit it all together. So I was really pleased at the end of the lesson.

Alex started his lesson today too. He's getting a 30 minute private lesson which will mostly be a piano lesson but will include a lot of music theory appropriate for his current musical knowledge and skill. His teacher is excited because he picks it up so quickly. She said he really fits best in-between the levels of the group classes, so private lessons are perfect for him.

I'm thinking that if he's learning some piano, we really ought to pick up an electric keyboard for him to practice on. But do I need to get one with piano action keys? They're so much more expensive, and who knows if he'll continue with it.

I've decided that I will save the warming-up questions for another post, as it is now 12:01 am and although daylight savings time means an extra hour of sleep for most people, young children aren't clued into that. But the good news is, he'll go to sleep at 6:30 tomorrow night.

Tamales are Calling for Me

You should hear Alex sing Art is Calling for Me. He's a pro. I just hope it doesn't get him harassed by his peers as he gets older.

His latest and greatest, in my opinion, was yesterday, when he was singing Una Voce Poco Fa, but instead of "e cento trappole" he was singing, "Cecilia Bartoli." I asked him about that... apparently he thought those were the words. Husband, of course, knows that they're not, which is why HE sings, "a chinchilla barfed on me" in that spot. Charming, no?

The conservatory has been able to arrange private lessons for Alex with his former teacher. He starts tomorrow. I'm so happy! He's happy about it too. I wonder what she'll do with him.

So it's all working out. Since his lesson will be 30 minutes to my 45, Husband will have to take them. Then they'll go to the farmer's market where, besides fresh produce and local meat, this little hole-in-the-wall Mexican grocery store sells fresh tamales from a big container in the back. No doubt someone is up at 3am making these to sell every Saturday at $1.50 each. You unwrap those babies to find chicken or pork with red, green or mole sauce, surrounded by corn meal. Spicy enough to burn but not so spicy that they ruin your day. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. My only fear is that the health department will one day realize what's going on and will shut them down. Until then...Saturday's lunch AND dinner taken are care of each week.

Now I'm so distracted by the thought of those tamales that I can't write any more.

A Cancellation, an Un-Cancellation and a Sort-Of Audition

Woot! The person in charge of that opera group I've mentioned before called today! He wants to hear me sing and finally I can make it to the rehearsal. He kept talking about putting me in the program for the next performance ... but I'm not listening to that part of the conversation just yet. Let's get through the "hearing me sing" part. I'll post about that after it happens. Ok and probably the day or 10 before...

Of course the next performance is the same night as this super fabulous Halloween party one of my friends is throwing. Of course. And the babysitter I lined up for that already backed out because he's in a choir and they have a performance that night. The other babysitters I've asked are not available. I still have two more on my list before I give up.

So he was totally casual, said that if I can't make it on the 24th, the next performance will be in November, then they take a few months off and resume in March. That's fine. I'll still be singing in March.

In other news, Alex's Saturday morning music class has been canceled. However, the head of the Early Childhood Department at the conservatory suggested that we either:

1. Switch him into her Friday afternoon class
2. Consider music therapy with one of their specialized faculty or
3. She'll see if his regular music teacher would consider a private lesson for him at the same time as my voice lesson.

Her Fri afternoon class won't work because the two convenient ways to get to the main campus from our house are now under construction and have very out-of-the-way detours, plus the class would let out at rush hour. Rush hour + too many detours that everyone would be taking = no thanks.

I am interested to know what the difference would be between music therapy with a special ed music person and a private lesson with his current teacher, so I'll be speaking with the department head shortly. So in a way, the cancellation could be a good thing.

Chesty Voice

Yeah. I know. The title of this post is going to pull in all sorts of strange google searches. But I couldn't resist. After all, my voice lesson yesterday was about chest voice and head voice and blending the two. I almost feel like I'm going back to how I sang before I started voice, but that's not true. Some of the physical element is the same, but before, it was all in my throat. I didn't know proper breathing, so I was forcing the air out pretty high up. So now going below the break in my voice puts the sound into a similar type of range as before, but I (try to) use proper breathing technique. And keeping the breath low produces a much nicer sound. Then we did a little blending - not much yet. I've been focused for so long on keeping my voice above that "shelf" as I sing the lower notes, and then it would switch on its own to chest voice. So now I'm learning to control the switch to make the transition smoother. I like it. I love it, actually. I love learning another layer, and to me this layer is much more tangible than some of the others. I mean, literally, it's tangible. I can feel it in my body. As I practice it'll start to feel natural, but for now I'm focused on it so of course I'm aware.

We also did the next two pages of Gretchen - IPA, pronunciation, rhythm, more pronunciation of course and singing. Oh and more pronunciation.

I told my teacher about the potential thing this weekend. And do I need to get a clean copy of the music? If I do sing, I'll do Una Donna, but my copies are all pencil marked. She said that for something casual like this I probably don't need to. I'm thinking, I can probably buy the sheet music online, download it and print it for $5, so I might as well get myself a clean copy.

On my way into the building I ran into Alex's music teacher. She was there setting up. She has been fabulous at modifying her teaching style to fit with his special needs. She has been in touch with the case manager of his school's child study team and she'll be visiting his class to see how he is in a larger group, although I'm pretty sure that the music class will be small again, like 4 or 5 kids. Alex is very excited that she's coming to visit. I asked if he likes her and he said he DOUBLE likes her. Love that!