Bric Slade SS Chapter 14

Bric Slade SS Chapter 14

Chapter Summary: Success is finding your passion. If you love something, no matter how bad you are at it, you will love to improve in it, and you will never give up. Finding your passion is the fastest way to your greatest success. We need to be continually engaged in improving our voice. A professional singer should be able to stand in front of an audience and communicate a message that is powerful without second thought for technique. Successful singers are those who continually seek to free their voices so they can express themselves freely. We are constantly improving because we love to improve.

 

Key Concepts: Signs of success can come in a lot of different forms but success in itself is simply improving on what you did last time.

Making Connections: I chose to go into music as my career because I love music. As simple as that. So many people are so worried about following their passions that they give up. Money is a huge one. I know I will be successful in music because no matter what I know music is not something I am able to give up on.

Bric Slade SS Chapter 13

Bric Slade SS Chapter 13

Chapter summary: A healthy body builds a healthy voice. Things like eating right and staying hydrated are actual factors in a singers performance. We are so much different than any other instrument being that we are our instrument. You don’t see a cellist leaving their instrument outside on the driveway to dry all week. They take care of their instruments. There are constant dangers to the voice we need to be aware of. Whispering, clearing the throat, coughing, prenodular swelling, smoking, etc. all are things we need to watch out for. A balanced diet and exercise is important to a singers lifestyle. Physical appearance is important in looking professional. As unfair as the adage is, “perception is reality”. If you are perceived a certain way there’s very little you can do about it. Things we do every day like clearing our throat or speaking to lowly, things that wouldn’t seem that detrimental, can cause monumental stress over time that creates vocal nodules and polyps.

Key Concept: “Healthy voice” means everything under the sun, not just technique.

Connection: Being healthy in your lifestyle and appearance can effect you voice in ways you can’t imagine. It can also effect your career in ways you can’t imagine. We need to always be on the lookout for choices that can make or break us while trying to build a healthy voice.

Bric Slade SS Chapter 12

Bric Slade SS Chapter 12

Chapter Summary: When choosing repertoire and deciding whether or not to audition or compete in something we need to understand that the choice is up to us. We have no one to blame other than ourselves if something goes wrong. This doesn’t mean to be hard on ourselves. We just need to take responsibility and work with what we have. Our directors have an idea of what they want as well, and in this setting it is a collaborative effort while they hold the VETO button. Don’t let pride get in the way of things. Always come prepared to rehearsals and don’t be afraid to ask for outside help. Be mindful of when to give suggestions and when to stay out of things.

Key Concepts: Be professional when you become a professional.

Making Connections: Employers are constantly looking at other traits people have when considering them for a position in anything. Constantly striving to be professional now will ensure you can naturally be professional later. There are other things like punctuality, being memorized, being respectful, etc, that can make or break anyone’s chances of ever finding a job ever again. You do not live in a vacuum.

Bric Slade SS Chapter 11

Bric Slade SS Chapter 11

Chapter Summary: Just because something works for one singer does not mean that it will work for you. We are not clones of anyone. We are individual, and we shouldn’t cover that up. We have different personalities and goals. We have to find our own unique ways of doing things. We need to understand ourselves even when we are deciding repertoire. During a performance we need to "just go on stage and give our all”. Singers are secondly actors which means the emotion we communicate to our audience is just as much a reflection on our professionalism as our technique.

Key Concept: Everyone works different. Find out how you tick.

Making Connections: I feel that emotion is a very important aspect of music. Without it we can’t be considered artists. It is this emotion that drives the arts and requires us to keep making connections with people. You can create a moving performance without perfect technique. Although perfect technique does help in this aspect. I do believe however that we can’t rely on other aspects of the music to send the message to our audience. We have to do our very best with what we have and that requires technical training to some degree. I’m just saying that through emotion, some of this technique can come naturally.

Bric Slade SS Chapter 10

Bric Slade SS Chapter 10

Summary: Singing repertoire is a lot different than practicing the inventions, which in the end are simply vocalizes designed to loosen our voices for singing repertoire, a means to an end. The means being that we are trying to get our bodies naturally into a position that is healthy for singing. When we sing repertoire the goal is that we are already in this state of vocal preparation, and we are ready to improve on expression within the song rather than technique, having done this with the inventions beforehand.. Performing requires the legato line through vowel definition. Each vowel should be song with the least amount of resistance, regardless of any changes we may experience within the vowel. Speaking the vowels in falsetto with consonants is a good way to practice them with minimal resistance. Focusing on emotion fixes a lot of the problems we have with diction as well. Musicality is inherent in the voice. When we focus on the emotion of any given song we can naturally speak with clearer diction and more fluid musicality because emotion is what connects us to the piece.

Key Concepts: During performance, technique comes through focusing on what you are trying to say. Technique should already be a part of us, and we can access it through focusing on emotion.

Making Connections: In my last lesson I found that when I focused more on the emotional content of the piece I could LET things happen naturally a lot easier than if I was constantly aware of MAKING my tongue and the rest of my body relax. Emotion is have the battle of the piece anyway, and in ways, probably the most crucial. It is through emotion that we connect to our song, and our audience connects to us. All a singer has to do is be free and loose, and stay connected to the emotion of the piece.

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 9

Bric Slade Chpt. 9

The change in chiaro to oscuro is the change from your normal speaking voice to your sigh voice. Modulating between the two can be a challenge, that is what "getting high" is all about. While singing, you move between the vowels 'e' to 'a' to 'o', with 'o' sung at the top of the register and then all the way down. You start with an 11-note scale sung on 17 notes. You begin in the lower part of your range and ascend on a major scale 11 notes, descend on a dominant 7th chord and return to the original pitch.  You want to try to blend both your sigh and speaking voice on each pitch but you will notice a shift on different pitches. The switching between the two sensations should feel "seemless".

Key Concepts: When modulating between chiaro and oscuro it should be smooth and transitionally seemless like driving a car with an automatic transmission as opposed to one with a manual transmission.

Key terms: getting high, chest and head voice, flute voice, whistle voice, secondo passaggio, messa di voce

Connections: I need to be able to create the sense of seamlessness when I make this transition. I can do it with the invention "getting high".

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 8

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 8

The idea behind absolute freedom is complete surrender to your voice. Trust is a big word. Trusting yourself. Trusting your larynx to do what it has done correctly everyday from the moment you were born. We have "the wobble" as the ultimate goal in mind and we get there by being flexible, trusting, and free. It is a sense of natural vibrato that comes when you focus entirely on keeping your air grounded and your upper body loose and trusting. It doesn't come from micromanaging the muscles in your neck and everywhere else. It comes from two simple things we need to focus on. A strong center and a trusting larynx.

Key Connections: The wobble is the natural vibrato that "happens" when your singing and doesn't ask you to "do". It comes from a strong center and free and flowing air.

Key Concepts: The wobble, flexability

Connections: A lot of the time I myself micromanage my larynx. And I do it subconsciously. I tense up everything because it feels safe. I just need to trust that my body will do what its designed to do and the only thing I have control over is whether I feed it or not. In this case I feed it with energy from my core rather than my tongue and larynx.

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 7

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 7

Once we start on a bad habit it can be very hard to correct in the middle of the process. In normal spontaneity its less prepared but in spontaneous combustion there is a sense of being prepared at the onset so we don't slide into the correct method in the middle of singing. We are open and trusting from even before we sing.

Key Concepts: Spontaneous combustion is keeping that same healthy resonant sound from the onset.

Key Terms: Poise, Spontaneous Combustion, onset,

Connections: At the very onset of phonation or even before then I need to be open and resonant. Free air is not something you want to slide into, you want to always have it free and flowing rather then beginning tight and moving into a free sound.

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 6

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 6

A big problem in singing is the over correction. Going into too dark of a tone or too light of a tone. We need to find a way to balance them out. We do this in a few steps beginning with arpeggiating 1-3-5 and back down on Ni Ne Na No Nu. The key is to keep everything relaxed with free flowing air. This is the only way to blend the chiaro and oscuro in a pleasing way.

Key Concepts: We blend the dark and light timbres of our voice by keeping in mind what we have learned with free flowing air and arpeggiating.

Key Terms: Chiaro, Oscuro

Connections: I feel the dark timbre of my voice is so strong I need to focus more on lightening it up before I worry about an overcorrection.

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 5

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 5

The second invention in bringing about the naked voice is free flowing air. It has to do with a lot of sighing. First, you start off with a sigh. The aim is to let go of holding on to the air. We need to have the feeling like we are losing our breath. When we can figure this out we are able to bring out so much more sound with so much less effort than normally. The second phase is to sigh like a siren from a low a to a high o. We need to keep strict attention to the base of the tongue. If it is pulling back in any way we are not releasing the air flow but we are still holding back. We need to have the feeling that the space is coming up from up and back in the throat, not up and down. The last phase is to bring that sense of no restraint in the flow of air and practice a downward five note scale, sirening up to the top of the scale and coming down.

Key concepts: The key to free flowing air is a relaxed tongue. We follow the steps to find out how to relax the base of our tongue.

Key terms:

Connections: The base of my tongue is always locking up and pulling back. I was experimenting today and I was able to relax my tongue and keep it from pulling back and it was a world of difference.

Bric Slade SS chpt. 4

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 4

Singing needs to be more and more like our own natural voice, so naturally it makes sense when your learning a song to speak it first. We need to break it down into a few steps. Speak it, then add volume, then add line. adding line is drawing it out and elongating the speech. Then we need to add inflection or pitch to our line. Keep in mind we aren't singing yet we are only adding a sort of pitch to the sound. Finally we need to focus on purifying our vowels. Focusing more on the space the vowel creates rather than creating the space with the tongue. When we "try" to create the space, our tongue tenses up and causes more problems. The space should sort of happen on its own.

Concepts: Beginning with speaking and adding a new layer slowly upon the next will help us bring our singing more into line with our speech.

Purifying our vowels, essentially, Is loosening the tongue to the most fundamental function.

Connections: I feel that my biggest problem with singing is I don't know how to do my vowels. I feel like its more complicated than it needs to be and thus, I make it more complicated than it needs to be. I tighten my tongue so much in my singing. I need to purify my vowels so I can loosen up my air and bring more projection to my voice.

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 3

Bric Slade SS Chapter 3

Most of what we hear when we take our voice lessons is what we should feel when we do something right. Breathing is a prime example. When we breathe, the number one thing we need to focus on is breathing naturally. It shouldn't be forced and irregular as if we are calculating in our heads how much air we need. It should be equal and free. The best thing I can think of to describe this is thusly. When we speak we rarely think about how much air we need to complete a sentence. We just speak. The same should be when we sing, we shouldn't be thinking so much about it. When we give it little thought we come closer to our own true sound rather than a manufactured sound.

Key Concepts: Breathe Naturally, sing naturally.

Key Terms: Sensation of Flow,

Connections: Sometimes I am so caught up in making sure everything is correct for my breathing that I over correct and I'm like a lung robot. I need to remember I am a human being. Practice speaking the text gives me the proper flow of the song and will give me a better idea of how to breathe for things, and when I have that idea, I can forget about everything and just do it.

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 2

Bric Slade SS Chapter 2

Communicating is the main purpose of phonation. Singing and speaking are in direct correlation one with the other. They are similar in the fact that we want to communicate a message. When we don't think about the message we are communicating when we sing it is mere sound making and is manufactured. People don't believe us. We fail in performing for people when we manufacture emotion. The fact of the matter is, each of us has a unique voice, one that can be found when we strip away everything we have thought we "should" be doing. Some of those things are good. A lot of those things are a compilation of what we have been told to do and what we interpret as what works for us. By reverting to our naked voice we can begin to find that unique sound that makes us, us. The sound that we were born with, the sound that simply comes to us when we speak. Our own personality and artistry can be expressed through it. We can get people to believe us on a more intimate level.

Key concepts: you can't manufacture emotion. The naked voice is our own unique, honesty, and we should always be striving for it.

Key terms: Utterance, Vernacular

Connections: A lot of the things I have picked up through my studies, might not have been beneficial to finding my own voice. True, there is technique that could help me sing in a more healthy way but if I tether myself to technique and forget my soul there is no artistry in my craft. I can't be honest with my audience if I am manufacturing what I feel.

Bric Slade SS Introduction

Bric Slade SS Introduction

Summary: We can be our worst enemies. We hold ourselves back with bad technique or bad habits. The best thing we can do to begin learning about the voice is to start with the naked voice by dropping everything we have picked up thus far along the way. Then we can begin again with good habits from scratch. There is no silver bullet. The silver bullet is practice and experimentation. Learning about ourselves. This is what gives us our individual edge, our fingerprinted voice, probably the most important thing to a singer. The thing that makes them stand out.

Key Concept: The key to great singing is practice and experimentation with your own voice.

Key Terms: The Naked Voice, Authenticity

Making Connections: Personally, the best thing I can do for my own voice is to clear my slate and start over finding out what best works for me.

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 1

Bric Slade SS Chpt. 1

The voice is more similar to other instruments than one might first believe. Like other instruments, it matters little what condition they are in. What matters is the musician and how they handle the instrument. The way we as singers connect with our audience is by being expressive in our body and faces, not being mechanical like other instruments. Learning the basics helps us with the foundation but expression and art is what moves ourselves and others.

Key Concepts: Thinning and elongating the vocal folds produces high notes. Fattening and shortening the vocal folds produce low notes.
Get to the root of the problem instead of worrying about the leaves.
The instrument is only as good as the musician.

Key Words:
Generator
Vibrator
Bernoulli effect
Bronchial tubes
Crucial Positive Focus
Self-actualization
Vulnerability
Emotional Honesty

Connections: If I can look at my voice as a whole instead of just a bunch of mechanical pieces that is half the battle. Expression is art. If it doesn't have expression its science.