Practice Drive

I know you're supposed to only practice when you do nothing but practice. I know. And I know you're supposed to make the time in your day to do so. But too bad. I can't always do that, and I'm not a professional, so I have to bend these "rules" to fit my lifestyle.

I sing in the car all the time, and yes, I practice there too. To me, the difference between practicing and singing is, when I sing I just sing, but when I practice I focus on incorporating or improving particular aspects of singing.

Today on my way to work it was all about the breath.

A few weeks ago I made a CD of the piano accompaniment of the songs I've learned so far. Some of these are from when I first started my lessons. So today I was going through the CD and singing some of the early songs while focusing on my breath. Or more accurately, on the support. Like in that Pearl Fishers video, I was actively pushing out my abs and then pulling them in in a controlled manner for each measure of the particular song I was singing. Controlled being the important word in that sentence... I'm getting much better at controlling it so I can hit the higher notes without sounding like I'm blurting them out. And one thing about sitting to do this is that I can really focus on the abs while the seat supports the rest of me. I mean, I relax into the seat and really concentrate on what my belly is doing while I'm singing. Or should I say, what I'm doing with it. And when I'm really controlling the outgoing air, I'm then able to focus on relaxing my throat to really open it up. Bit by bit, little by little, I feel the layers adding up.

And one other positive aspect is, it makes the commute (ok it's just 10-15 minutes) fly by!

Let's Change the Mood

Lyric Opera has been posting clips of last season, both to their website and to YouTube. Look!



This may sound strange, but I keep looking at their stomachs - especially near the end of the clip, where you can really see them - and how they use their breath to sing, low in the abdomen. During Lucretia, the only person whose stomach was really visible like that (well, beneath the sweater) was the Female Chorus, and I watched hers too. Let's face it, when it comes to studying voice and vocal technique, I'm an equal opportunity stomach-watcher.

6/17/09
Edited to add: In case that link above stops working, here it is in another format: