Breakthrough!

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Most of the time, I talk about the weather (hot and sticky) and the sites. I still have to go to the Castle and the monastery and really spend time at the museums but I'm waiting for la famiglia (the family) to get here.

Instead, this blog entry is dedicated to the breakthroughs I'm having with the music staff. I like how I sound and so do you (you're all family - if you didn't we'd have problems) but there are always things to learn to make everything even better. If I can make small changes to make a better sound, I'll grow and growing keeps me from getting a real job.

First, I keep a lot of tension in my jaw. You know how you chew bread that has a thick crust and your jaw hurts after eating? That's tension. It's like when someone speaks with food in their mouth (a gross habit). You can't understand them but they talk anyway and their tongue works overtime to keep food from falling out of their mouth. Tension feels like that.

Also, sometimes when I sing, I sing every single note and it gets choppy. There's no line, no arc in the phrase. It's like when you learn a new language and you don't know what words to emphasize so you emphasize every syllable instead of the important words- I do that, too. Try saying this out loud: The air is breezy and cool today. Emphasize every word - that's choppiness. Now emphasize breezy and cool - that's going towards something which means you add in a little emphasis on the B and C and then pull back the volume on today. That's an arc, a line. That's what you want. That's hard in other languages.

Now imagine meeting someone who helps you understand what words are important and HOW to emphasize them and then shows you how not to work so hard chewing your bread so that everything sounds brighter, free, and just kind of rings. That's what happened so far and we're only starting week two! That's what places look for. I'm finally starting to understand that the voice (la voce) can still be earthy and meaty but the direction goes out to the audience, not to my throat. And if I can go out to the audience, I can get more sound out and more sound equals more work! I like this work, so I'll keep it.

This is why singers go through so many teachers and coaches - a new opinion helps to make sure we don't keep the same bad habits. I love my teacher more than most; she's a part of my family. However, a new teacher has a different idea on how to make la voce flourish and this is just what I needed to get out of my rut. At times, I was feeling like I was stuck, like I needed to spend a little more money to get an education for a "real job". Let's face it, opera is hard and the work is sparse and the conditions are fierce, competitive, and not always rainbows and unicorns. But if I continue to grow and get the kind of feedback that keeps me from going in the wrong direction, I could seriously have something to build upon when I go home!

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