| Tales of a strangled cat [message #22581] |
Tue, 03 November 2009 20:19  |
 b_twin_1
Messages: 2594
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
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Tales of a strangled cat.
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Tales of a strangled cat [message #22583 is a reply to message #22581 ] |
Tue, 03 November 2009 20:22  |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2594
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
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Gee. Sounds... fun?
Mum's singing teacher is getting her to practise singing with her tongue sticking out.
It's a good thing we live in the country.
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Tales of a strangled cat [message #22585 is a reply to message #22584 ] |
Tue, 03 November 2009 20:39 |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2594
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
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Well. If you say so. LOL I'll stick to singing along with a CD. In the car. Alone. *g*
Finally got the piano tuned as well. Poor thing hadn't been tuned for years. But after the move it *definitely* needed doing! haha
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: Tales of a strangled cat [message #22590 is a reply to message #22581 ] |
Tue, 03 November 2009 23:26 |
Annagail
Messages: 68
Registered: August 2009
Location: PA |
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Apparently I have my voice lesson on the same day as you.
Has Blondel yet told you the mind-exploding truth that you can't listen to yourself while singing and expect to get a good sound? It's totally obnoxious and absolutely true. Stuff to do with the fact that you hear yourself through bone and muscle and everybody else hears you through air, so you have no idea what you actually sound like. That being said, "the ear" (in terms of pitch) is of course quite necessary- but one must hear the pitch in the head, then trust one's ear and sing it without listening to what comes out of you. It's absolutely maddening and feels like driving a car at night without your lights on. And it's the only way to do it. Additionally, if you try to "edit" or "control" the sound by listening to it and then changing it to what you think sounds good you generally get a very tightly controlled sound with a very high, tight larynx and throat. Relaxing and allowing yourself to be a complete fool will get you at least three times the sound you had with the careful listening. Possibly more. Of course, actually doing it is something like actually jumping off the high-dive and then getting up and trying to convince yourself to go again. It was exhilarating, but it feels better (initially) to just stay with your feet on the ground, TYVM. But in order to sing you have to fly.
One thing you might try that my teacher did with me today- put your fingers in your ears and then sing a phrase. Pay attention to the way your body feels (you're supposed to do this anyway) and try to do with your body what your teacher says without listening to the sound that's coming out- it's much harder to do with your fingers in your ears. Then try to recreate, without the fingers in the ears, the way the body felt during that experience, still without listening to yourself. I think it works better with a voice teacher there to tell you "don't you DARE do that any other way, now take your fingers out of your ears and sing that nasty high passage again and recreate EXACTLY what you did with your breath."
Oh- did you also know that you're not supposed to make judgments about the quality of your sound? My previous, much-loved voice teacher would be on me like white on rice when I started getting annoyed with myself for Not Singing Well. Particularly in practice. Apparently what one is supposed to do instead is go into the practice room (other room full of hellhounds) and say "Now what is my voice going to do today?" in tones full of excited anticipation. And one is supposed to leave a bad practice session elsewhere and come in fresh to every practice. I would like to meet the person who is actually able to do this. I have a feeling they're not being graded on their performances, nor do they have any deadlines or auditions whatsoever. Either that, or their vocal issues have never made them want to take up road-building or set construction or ab
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| Re: Tales of a strangled cat [message #22595 is a reply to message #22581 ] |
Wed, 04 November 2009 02:06 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2729
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
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Apparently having your dedication crammed in on top of the copyright stuff is quite common, and therefore no one thought to ask us about it.
Really. I can't say that I've noticed this much, except in books published during a wartime paper shortage, or cheap mass-market reprints. I had noticed that there isn't a lot of extra paper in FIRE, though, and figured that publishers like to save a nickel here and there.
Why do we have half titles anyway?
So people like me can write their names in their books! 
Lovely to hear Marilyn Horne. I thought of you over the weekend when Scott Simon interviewed Cecilia Bartoli about her new album of arias written for castrati. Although she's very good, she's never been one of my favorites, but this was beautiful music and she sings it very, very well indeed.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: Tales of a strangled cat [message #22596 is a reply to message #22581 ] |
Wed, 04 November 2009 02:33 |
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Bratsche
Messages: 269
Registered: October 2008
Location: Washington State, USA |
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�� Okay you voice teachers out there. How long do do I give myself to stop sounding like a cat being strangled before I take up the crumhorn instead? Cheez.
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I'm not a voice teacher, so I *know* you weren't talking to me.....I'll chime in anyway! Have you thought about asking Blondel this some day (sort of soonish, say in the next few months, as opposed to some day safe-ish like a few years from now!)? I realize that would take extraordinary daring on your part, but you might be pleasantly surprised by the answer.
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Especially one with a killingly gorgeous basbass-baritone voice. He didn’t hear me knock the first time today and when he opened the door after the second time he apologised, saying that he’d been singing. It took great strength of will for me not to say, oh, fine, I’ll just sit in this chair here and you keep going. . . .
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I can understand the temptation!
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The lesson itself is an hour, and because Blondel clearly enjoys self-torture we usually run a little over
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Or maaaayyybeee he enjoys teaching you and thinks you are worth spending time with!
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Apparently having your dedication crammed in on top of the copyright stuff is quite common
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Yes, I have seen it in a number of books, although I can't remember if it was in hardbacks or not.
I got my copy (well, I guess I have to say our copy, since my husband is looking forward to reading it too) of Fire earlier this week and have been doling it out (to make it last as long as possible this first reading). I happened to read "Hellhound" first and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you for all your time and energy spent wrestling with the Story Council! I'm glad you continue to do it, in spite of the ungleblargs and dranglefabs and what-have-yous.
Wendy
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| Re: Tales of a strangled cat [message #22601 is a reply to message #22596 ] |
Wed, 04 November 2009 08:36 |
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blondviolinist
Messages: 1068
Registered: October 2008
Location: Midwestern United States |
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| Bratsche wrote on Wed, 04 November 2009 02:33 |
I'm not a voice teacher, so I *know* you weren't talking to me.....I'll chime in anyway! Have you thought about asking Blondel this some day (sort of soonish, say in the next few months, as opposed to some day safe-ish like a few years from now!)? I realize that would take extraordinary daring on your part, but you might be pleasantly surprised by the answer.
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Yes, this! I tell my adult students up front, after the first couple of lessons, what the learning curve will be like, and how soon it will probably be before things start to click and fall into place. I am almost always right. (Well, actually, I haven't been wrong yet.) It's always a shorter span than they think. (The steep learning curve on the violin is very daunting after the first couple of lessons. Adults get a deer-in-the-headlights look. Kids are used to steep learning curves, and used to routinely messing up as part of the learning process, so it doesn't faze them.)
"Purity of heart is to will one thing." Kirkegaard
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| Re: Tales of a strangled cat [message #22605 is a reply to message #22601 ] |
Wed, 04 November 2009 11:40 |
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Bratsche
Messages: 269
Registered: October 2008
Location: Washington State, USA |
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| blondviolinist wrote on Wed, 04 November 2009 05:36 |
| Bratsche wrote on Wed, 04 November 2009 02:33 |
I'm not a voice teacher, so I *know* you weren't talking to me.....I'll chime in anyway! Have you thought about asking Blondel this some day (sort of soonish, say in the next few months, as opposed to some day safe-ish like a few years from now!)? I realize that would take extraordinary daring on your part, but you might be pleasantly surprised by the answer.
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Yes, this! I tell my adult students up front, after the first couple of lessons, what the learning curve will be like, and how soon it will probably be before things start to click and fall into place. I am almost always right. (Well, actually, I haven't been wrong yet.) It's always a shorter span than they think. (The steep learning curve on the violin is very daunting after the first couple of lessons. Adults get a deer-in-the-headlights look. Kids are used to steep learning curves, and used to routinely messing up as part of the learning process, so it doesn't faze them.)
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::looks around to make sure Robin's not in view, whispers furtively::
I'm actually wondering if she ALREADY doesn't sound like a strangled cat and just doesn't realize it yet. I bet her voice-teacher-with-the-gorgeous-voice might have an opinion!
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| Re: Tales of a strangled cat [message #22807 is a reply to message #22581 ] |
Sun, 08 November 2009 02:28 |
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I think she's just monumentally drunk...
it goes on about the same for the entire length (granted, it *is* rather long). I just feel bad for the tenor standing there next to her and having to bear it...
she does have a few other videos where she's really singing, though. I just think that performance is the most unprofessional thing I've ever seen.
"they say that absence makes the heart grow fungus".
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