Low Notes

Hey everyone,

So I've been practicing for the dress rehearsal Thursday (eek!), and I'm still really uncertain about my low notes. I know Travis said not to think about it and just to sing, and I've been trying to follow that advice, but so far, it's not working out that well. Does anyone have advice on singing notes that they think are out of their range?

See you all Thursday!

Vowels

I wanted to learn to sing because I saw the passion great singers exuded when they performed. But as I've learned to sing I've learned that unrestricted passion is not always correlated with a good sound. What I've found to work is flowing from clear vowel sound to another clear vowel sound and holding that sound. The practice is definitily difficult and a lot different from what I believed singing to be but it establishes a nice vibrato and produces the most pleasing music.

Tomatis

So I've been trying to listen more carefully to when I sing.
I've been playing around. When I cover my left ear, it sounds different than when I cover my right ear. I can't seem to hear as well when my right ear is covered, and i used to notice that even before the reading and I thought I just had bad hearing in my left ear or was better with my right ear. But it seems to make sense, unless it doesn't and I really am deaf in that ear. I've also been trying to pay attention to the other pitches that come out of different pitches that the singers aim for.

Singing!

I was at the Maroon 5, One Republic, and Bruno Mars concert in San Diego on Saturday, Oct 16th. First off, I love Bruno Mars... His voice amazes me, and before Saturday night, I had only ever heard the recordings from youtube etc. But when he got on and sang, it sounded just as great! I was so excited about this especially with all the stylistic and/or correctional auto-tuning. He has a slight rasp, which seems like it is because he invokes a rasp for stylistic purposes, but has maybe done that improperly or not with the more appropriate technique with the false vocal folds. Other than that he sings fluidly/smoothly as we have been learning with our exercises. It is really noticeable when he breaks from the fluidity of phrases, and it serves a more stylistic purpose.
....
and his dancing makes me happy.

hey all

After the class on last Thursday, I became so hesitant to use my voice. I went to the football game on Saturday and I tried not to scream even at the moment of touch down.

Anyway, I am so excited to practice the new song I pick.

See you guys on Thursday!

April

Postino for free!

Hey all,

I found a free offer for the Opera Postino. I heard there's a really famous vocalist.

Tickets are expensive, but they have a screening for free this weekend! Check it out!

http://www.laopera.com/offers/screening/

Kavinee

Sound vs. Diction

Hey everyone!

As I was practicing for our Midterm tomorrow, I kept running into a conflict between pronouncing the words the way I wanted to and getting the best sound out. Like we discussed in class, we should be focusing on the best sound, but I've had to break a habit of focusing on diction to do that. Thankfully, by the time I was done practicing today, I feel like I had achieved that to an extent. Hopefully that will show tomorrow.

See you all then!
Eric

P.S. in case any of you would be interested in hearing an acapella version of the song I'm singing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl9vqlnm84E