Suck it Up

You know how sometimes you're trying to learn something and you're just not getting it… then one day someone describes it in a different way, or uses a different word, and suddenly it all makes sense? That's what happened when I switched voice teachers a year ago… my current teacher had a different way of describing what I needed to do and suddenly it just clicked. I made a huge leap in my singing ability based on that… and while I've slowly continued to improve and refine my singing, I don't feel like I've made any huge leaps since then.

Then at my last lesson, we were doing vocal warm-ups at some lower notes and she said, "Think of sucking your voice up." I had been thinking along the lines of throwing it out between my eyes, focusing over my nose, or up and over inside my mouth and face. When she said to suck it up, I thought of trying to suck it into my skull. Of using my brain to pull it up there. That one word somehow made something click, and I was suddenly able to keep my voice up on top of the air at a note that I had struggled with before.

So off I go now, to suck it up.

More Grapes and More Cake!

Photos and reviews of Grapes of Wrath are showing up online. Of course my review is the only one that counts so I'm not going to link to the others. But I will link to the photos. The photos there are excellent, possibly the best I've seen of a performance I've been to.

On to more important thoughts. I can't stop thinking about the cake pictured in my previous post. I didn't, I mean, I couldn't finish it. I ate only the part that was soaked with chocolate sauce, so there was a pile of leftover cake on the plate. I want those leftovers. Forget about the dude who asked me why I was standing next to the door to the theater. (where, I might add, I was allowed to stand, but later I realized it was near the top of a flight of stairs that lead to backstage, which I suppose led to the question? Yeah, ok...) The truth is they should be guarding the door to the kitchen in the restaurant. I'm liable to sneak in and steal the cake, or better yet, the pastry chef.

Opera Project recital is Saturday. I confirmed that admission is actually $15. I've been practicing NOT cutting the notes early to sneak a breath in, and suddenly I sound so much better! I sing the note the correct amount, take a nice breath and yes, there I am on time for the next line. When I finally managed to do it and I liked how I sounded I started laughing! I love that. I can't control it - I just start laughing when I have these "breakthroughs" and I hear the improvement. It's the joy of making music - it bubbles up and bursts out in giggles.

Cake. Cake. Cake. Yum.