tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6718974271981930123.post6927908174842904469..comments2023-04-15T04:12:01.092-05:00Comments on Conservatory Bound: third lessonalexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04585425683549946199noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6718974271981930123.post-81539210310036105792009-07-13T13:09:07.859-05:002009-07-13T13:09:07.859-05:00Oh, I think that you can, except I wouldn't sa...Oh, I think that you can, except I wouldn't say "auto-pilot."<br /><br />First and foremost, teacher says that expression and musical attention are the bedrocks of technique. They give you the concept of the kind of effect and phrases you want, and in doing so, prep you for that reflex. So in a lot of ways, simply by paying attention to these things, it can't be auto-pilot.<br /><br />I think that's the big issue with this way of teaching, actually. I hesitate to speak for you, but at least in my case, I was told to pay attention to the palate, to the tongue, to the throat, to the abdomen, to the head position, to the placement, to my eyeballs, to my forehead, etc. ad nauseum. If you think in this line of training, when all of that becomes invisible, it does feel like "auto-pilot."<br /><br />Instead, what teacher says is, think about the rhythm you want to sing. Make it vital. Go directly to the top of the arpeggio. Loud! now soft! Think about what you do to signal an arpeggio down after a held note; you swell a bit and demonstrate a downbeat before coming down, right? Right.<br /><br />And the exercises he takes me through means that the voice is trained to come together and my job is to first, hold on to the music -- but just to pay attention to what sorts of concepts I am using to produce this sound. And it's hard to get away from the "oh, I'm doing this by putting my tongue here and breathing deeply" instead of "I'm thinking of this kind of sound" and I'm not sure I'm doing it 100% correctly, but it's so much more organic.<br /><br />So I wouldn't say that you go auto-pilot. I think it's just a totally different way of thinking how singing happens.alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04585425683549946199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6718974271981930123.post-67402502054726037872009-07-13T12:56:10.733-05:002009-07-13T12:56:10.733-05:00Does this mean you can't sing "correctly&...Does this mean you can't sing "correctly" on auto-pilot because your head won't be in the right place to cause the necessary reflexive action in your folds, abdomen, chest, palate, tongue, etc.? Or is it possible to get to the point where, whenever you open your mouth to sing, your body simply knows what to do? I have sort of built up my confidence based on this kind of thinking. Not that I plan to perform on auto-pilot, but that when, say, nerves or illness strike, my body will still know what to do and I can produce a good sound.Betsyhttp://gettingmyvoiceback.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6718974271981930123.post-11295653910881841622009-07-13T11:48:12.290-05:002009-07-13T11:48:12.290-05:00Or maybe less opaquely --
If you're looking t...Or maybe less opaquely --<br /><br />If you're looking to have your knee react as if it's been struck by a medical hammer, you're going to have to go get a medical hammer and strike it.<br /><br />Duplicate the originating cause, not the things that respond to it.alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04585425683549946199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6718974271981930123.post-10028612541371243062009-07-13T11:26:31.959-05:002009-07-13T11:26:31.959-05:00Hm, in reverse order, this is my understanding.
T...Hm, in reverse order, this is my understanding.<br /><br />There will always be some sort of resonance sensation -- the key is that it's going to be different for everyone. I think his big point (and was a big point of confusion for me for a long time) was addressing the common principal of "not feeling anything in your throat." He said, if you're "feeling" something there, that means the sound is stopping there -- hence how people tell you to "get it out of the throat." But the reverse-side is that you can't literally feel nothing because then you aren't doing anything (what I was doing). Resonance sensation outside of the throat != inactive throat. Throat's gotta be engaged.<br /><br />As for point 1 -- my experience of how lessons go and my reading lead me to think that it's unachievable by trying to duplicate the muscle actions you feel/observe. If you videotaped yourself and your vocal chords and your palate and your abdomen and emitted a free, easy, expressive sound and then sat back down to watch yourself...what would you see?<br /><br />You probably would see a lifted palate, lack of constriction in the throat, and an easy breathing. What I think teacher is getting at is none of these is what "causes" the free and easy sound. What causes the free and easy sound is whatever was in your head when it happened. These other physical things? They showed up because your body reflexively put them that way to produce whatever it was that your brain wanted. So you're seeking to duplicate the conditions that allow your body to reflexively do what it knows how to do.<br /><br />That isn't to say that everybody is a perfectly coordinated person and the secret to voice teaching is to find whatever concept calls forth a free sound -- everything involved has to be "in shape" and you have to practice the coordination of a whole mess of moving parts.<br /><br />Teacher describes it like working out, but working out like a singer. A ballet singer is going to hit the gym differently than a weightlifter is, or a swimmer, or a rockclimber, because a big component of each of these activities requires both different muscle groups in different combinations.<br /><br />It's like when I did gymnastics briefly and we were going over the F-ing pommel horse. Pommel horses suck because it requires immense upper-body and core strength and this ridiculous coordination to swing your fat ass around a lifted block of padded wood.<br /><br />But you have to break it down into parts and condition and coordinate. Comparatively rarely do you actually get up on a mock horse to do your ass-swinging (but you do have to do it). But when you do, you just have to trust what you've been trained to do and just go, because there is no f-ing time to do anything else.alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04585425683549946199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6718974271981930123.post-4491777693676364902009-07-13T10:47:39.012-05:002009-07-13T10:47:39.012-05:00OK, I get bullet points 2 and 3. I'm still stu...OK, I get bullet points 2 and 3. I'm still stuck on number 1. This process sounds so foreign! So you're working towards a reflexive response? But if reflexive response is like a knee reflex, then isn't it unachievable by "trying"? I'm attempting to wrap my head around how you achieve consistency. Even if a technically brilliant singer gives a "rehearsed" performance lacking in emotional connection in the moment, you can count on the sound that's going to come out. I mean, that's why we train the way we do, yes? So duplication is the attempt to achieve the reflex?<br /><br />Also, isn't there always going to be some resonance sensation? Sometimes more than others, depending on the register. Is the teacher saying you *shouldn't* feel anything because that's like your head getting in the way of the sound? I think there's a difference from "holding" the sound, singing to much in the throat or whatever, and just feeling the vibrations of vocal production.Betsyhttp://gettingmyvoiceback.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com