July 05, 2005
When analytical people take voice lessions...
Posted by Jess in
Day to Day
I love to sing Karaoke. The problem is, or was, that Karaoke is usually imitation. When I sing, I try to make it sound as close as I can to the original person that sung it. Why not?
Therein lay the problem. After all this time, I had absolutely NO idea what my "real" voice sounded like. I decided about two months ago to take voice lessons to fix this problem.
Not only am I learning alot about singing, but I'm also learning about myself, and the way I approach things. If you ever want to learn about yourself, take voice lessons. No lie.
The lessons themselves are a blast. I can sing soprano (who knew?) and get to watch myself improve on a weekly basis. I also have an excellent teacher who has been in lessons since she was young, has sung on stage, and still sings jazz locally. She knows what explanations and methods were the most effective for herself, and teaches me accordingly.
That said, we also tease each other because I'm causing her to have to change her teaching style just for me. One of the excersises is to exhale slowly while the instructor counts to 10. Well, I'm SO busy carefully planning the exhale around the boundaries of a 10-count that it ends up coming out not smooth and way too forced. Finally, she told me just to forget the counting, and do it anyway. Much better!
Something else I never thought would be so hard is to actually sing words. It's a truly humbling experience. You'd think singing a simple song would be easy. Much of the lessons starts out singing the vowels, "ahhh" "oooh" "eee" "ooooo" before getting to words.
Well, this is also a problem for me. I'm so busy listening to myself sing and trying to concentrate on how to form the words, that the actual song comes out timid and unconfident. (We've been singing standards so far because there is no predisposition to want to imitate.) Again, in a final act of desperation, my teacher sung alongside me one time saying "who cares how it sounds right now, concentrate on how it feels."
She's so right. It's SO hard for me not to analyze every step of the way, and wonder if I'm doing it correctly, and try to put together everything I've learned in between the tone and the words themselves.
The funniest thing you could ever see is watching two analytical people try and figure out how to put up a teddy-bear wall border for a new baby's bedroom. *cough cough* Cindy and I *cough* cough*.
"Now it says 'curl the edges backwards around the top of the water'".
"How can we curl it backwards when it doesn't specify which way is the front to begin with?"
"Do we have to submerge the whole thing in the water, or just the backside?"
"Arggggggg!!!!!!"
That said, I can't wait until next week for more lessons. Now if I could not take my analytical work with me to the lesson, I'd be all set!
Author's Note. I would now like to point out that Cindy's son DOES indeed like the teddy bears regardless of how crooked they are.
Permalink
Comments
I know what you mean about the counting and breathing Jess! Singing is so much about breath control, and even when I was in a choir I found it a really hard thing to master. Our conductor kept going on about the 'golden girdle'that you needed to cultivate to 'support' the sound - I never really found mine. But singing is so liberating - I miss it now that I can't get along. Enjoy.
OK, so the next question, of course: Does Matt sing? You're a soprano, Shirley's an alto, I'm a bass ...man, if Matt can sing tenor, there needs to be some singing get togethers! Or if Matt's like my brother Bob, it's better if he sings "ten-or" ...ten or twenty miles away! Bob took voice lessons for a while to improve his singing so that folks (this is TRUE!) at his *CHURCH* would stop asking him to be quiet when they were all singing congregational songs!! Is that a hoot or what?! :-) ....anyway, it's totally cool that you're taking voice lessons. This is yet one more reason why you guys have to come and visit for a while.
Carolyn: Singing as liberating - YES! You hit it right on the head why I love it so...
Joe: Of course we're coming down. Don't think you're getting off THAT easy. :-) Hopefully some time in August we'll be down helping Matt's parents settle in.
Matt can rap like there's NO tomorrow. Ask him. In fact, his pickup line for me was The Sugar Hill Gang's "Rappers Delight". The entire thing. With no background music. It's a 10 minute rap originally done with three people.
wait, is that the one with the line, "I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast, but I like hot butter on my breakfast toast!" ??
i love that tune. that's all i remember of it tho... (assuming i have the right one)
:-D
True... "i dont mean to brag and I dont mean to boast, but I like hot butter on my breakfast toast."
So... "Skittle-da-be-bop we rock a-scooby-doo, guess what, jonvon, we love you cuz you rock and a roll with a so much soul, you can rock til your a-hundred and one years old"
Peace out biznitch
Jess
Good job that the ability to sing isn't just a genetic thing. You should hear my dad. I last heard him sing at some wedding or other. The memory still haunts me!
Like the teddy bears, it is the characteristic imperfections in each voice that give them character and make the difference between art and artisanry. Well, that and love. Forget the analysis and find your own voice -- a singer without character makes a good chorister but a poor soloist. (Of course, it IS nice to know how to make your own voice disappear into a choir when you need it to. Dammit, now I'm analyzing the need to analyze. I wonder why that word starts with A-N-A-L?)
