This soprano has a glorious voice which she confessed she has not been using very well for a while. She wanted a re-tread.
I have been espousing the same vocal ideas for lo, these many years, but even students who haven't dropped by for a while need a reminder or two.
My idea of beautiful free singing always begins with the inhalation. If this isn't correct, lots of luck with what comes out. Today we started from scratch. Unless one decides there is only one way to take a singing breath, there is no point in singing a song or aria.
Anyone who has read one of my books on singing can stop right not. My methods have not changed. Probably over the 65 years during which I have been working with singers I have had new ideas and made changes, but not in the last 30 years or so.
Let me illustrate with lesson 1.
1. Blow out all your air.
2. Inhale, listening to the sound of 'aw' as the air passes down your throat.
3. Immediately, blow out all the air again.
This is the singing breath. Nothing else works.
Now,
1. Blow out all your air again.
2. Inhale the 'aw' breath.
3. Release the air through an 'H' and add a vowel. This is making use of the Bernoulli effect, starting the free air and adding a vowel. This allows no time to fuss around with how you make the sound.
4. Now repeat parts 1 and 2 and sing the vowel without the Bernoulli effect. Allow no time between the inhalation and the sound. I often use a tennis ball to demonstrate this technique. Inhale (aw) as the ball hits the floor and sing the second you catch it. This is the timing from breath to sound.
This is so simple that many people feel they have to do something more in order to sing. You don't.
Olga Averino, my mentor, used to say 'Sing from the impulse!' That is what this vocalise is all about: Impulse!!
Buy yourself a tennis ball and try this. You will like it and sing more freely!
