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cantando

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I would like to hear him attempt the exercise steven suggested. I would also like to hear him attempt to make the smallest lightest highest noise he possibly can. Build from that

"Its like trying to swallow looking at the sky"

That is one hell of a quote, that really does some up alot of the un informed classical technique teachers fire off. I was there once too, make this sound like you have a mouth full of peanut butter and you get a pat on the back. It was only through my own training and research i was able to get a real voice and reverse all the useless and damaging stuff i was taught. Then the same group of teachers hear me sing 2 years later and pat themselves on the back. Very irritating when i use nothing they taught me really, and it even set me back from having to reverse the bad muscle memory.

Sorry for the rant there, still a sore spot with me. Also dont get the vibe i am saying classical teachers are bad. The good ones can teach you to be more powerful than any school in my opinion. This was only to the miss informed school, which seems to be in a higher majority than the good ones.

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I would like to hear him attempt the exercise steven suggested. I would also like to hear him attempt to make the smallest lightest highest noise he possibly can. Build from that

"Its like trying to swallow looking at the sky"

That is one hell of a quote, that really does some up alot of the un informed classical technique teachers fire off. I was there once too, make this sound like you have a mouth full of peanut butter and you get a pat on the back. It was only through my own training and research i was able to get a real voice and reverse all the useless and damaging stuff i was taught. Then the same group of teachers hear me sing 2 years later and pat themselves on the back. Very irritating when i use nothing they taught me really, and it even set me back from having to reverse the bad muscle memory.

Sorry for the rant there, still a sore spot with me. Also dont get the vibe i am saying classical teachers are bad. The good ones can teach you to be more powerful than any school in my opinion. This was only to the miss informed school, which seems to be in a higher majority than the good ones.

 

I will try to post a recording of myself doing that sort of exercise. Like I said, I have been doing exactly those things for a long time now, and they absolutely have done a lot for me. My thinnest, smallest thin is pretty clear and easy, especially with thyroid tilt, and I can do it with twang. It's extremely soft and completely unusable in any performing whatsoever, but I know that it's the foundation for what I'm after. I should mention that just in the last 2 months, I've finally started to find a slightly thicker version of that (a sort of "thicker thin") that could become the effortless sounding tenorish heady "mix" I've always wanted, but it's proven extremely difficult to maintain and find again after I lose it, and is very hard to control when I do find it. So far, I have had no luck getting it more readily or refining it.

 

Your rant resonates with me completely. We're far from alone on that.

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I really appreciate your suggestions. I've been practicing EXACTLY what you described for quite a long time now. It has gotten me quite far, but isn't working anymore. I like the suggestion of sirening on voice fricatives, and I've heard of that being recommended for work on passaggio stuff, so I'll give that a try.

The thing that makes me particularly furious is that my voice just doesn't respond to attempts to any attempt to lessen mass or "release" anything in any way that is presentable and clean.

Cantando: Ok, I understand. This is helpful to know about what you are already doing.

On the fricative sirens ( AKA, semi-occluded voiced consonants,) some are more occluded than others. Two exercises that are very occluded without provoking tongue-position tension are Dr. Titze' 'sing into the straw' exercise

www.youtube.com/watch?v=asDg7T-WT-0

and the use of the back of the hand to nearly-completely block the mouth, with the jaw dropped. I particularly like this one, as the jaw dropped position seems more relaxed to me than the position used for the straw, and the amount of occlusion can be varied quite easily. The principle is the same. Other ways to do this same thing are to sing through a multiply-folded handkerchief rolled around a finger held sideways across the mouth, or to sing with the jaw down but the lips shut almost completely. I like the otherwise-undesirable American 'er' vowel for this, as it makes a nice 'trombone' sound.

To any of these, to reduce any tendency to oversing, you can also lay on your back on the floor, and use very small inhalations, what some call 'teacup' breaths.

The purpose of all of this is provoke a reflexive laryngeal coordination response, characterized by light, firm adduction with thin-fold phonation. It works best for me (I Do it every day) when I Am playful with it...not caring so much. I even 'fling' the pitch around, swooping up and down to provoke it to crack into the thin upper sound. Once I get there, I release and onset the same note in the eame sound a number of times, and then very, very slightly reduce the occlusion as I repeat the onset.

This is the really challenging part for me personally. As a lyric Bass, I tend to sing too heavily myself. What I find most useful is to begin the singing day establishing light-mass onsets as I have described. Once I have 'broken through' to it, and begin to onset there, by reducing the occlusion very, very slightly as I repeat the onset, I am reducing the assistance of the occlusion, and (hopefully) moving toward an actual light vowel onset with the same coordination/placement.

And _that_ is the intent, to be able to onset with that coordination anywhere in the range, on any vowel, and from onset to move to build dynamic control using messa di voce, etc of classical training.

I confess, I am still a 'work in progress', but things are much, much easier now than they were for me when when I Started this work.

I hope this is helpful.

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One thing you can try, this was actually my first big break through many moons ago. Originally i couldnt get past about a d4 or so without breaking into falsetto. I was perma stuck in chest, I naturally have a big voice and always spoke powerfully. Obviously that set up a huge hurdle in singing effortlessly and efficient up on the higher end. I actually had a teacher call me a baritone bass.

Anyways the exercise is using vocal fry to find an efficient lighter position. So I would find say an a4 in falsetto, then remember that feeling in the throat. Then do the same with vocal fry, well at that high it more resembles a creak, but it certainly is fry. Also dont add support with closure right now, keep the same breath support as you do with the fry.

When you reach the note in fry, then just slowly add a little more closure and the note will come together as an actual note. It will be a bit shouty at first, but it will give you something to work on and feelings to build off of. Dont do this staccato, once you find the note in fry, continue the sound without stopping and slowly add the weight then.

Before someone flames this as kind of something close to a manning like exercise. Well i didnt get it from him, and it was a huge break through for me so it worked at least for me. I was a hair close to training as a lyric bass before this.

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