{"id":3943,"date":"2016-01-31T10:03:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T14:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rockwellblake.com\/blog\/?p=3943"},"modified":"2016-01-31T10:09:30","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T14:09:30","slug":"tenor-to-tenor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/31\/tenor-to-tenor\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenor to Tenor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time to tell a tenor what not to do: Don\u2019t despise your voice.\u00a0 Don\u2019t go all negative about yourself just because God gave you a vocal instrument that seems small whenever you think of Del Monico, Corelli, Bonisolli,,,,,, I could go on, but it doesn\u2019t change a thing.\u00a0 There is always space in this world for singers who are effective.\u00a0 Big voices are really rare (that\u2019s why they were valuable), really hard to manage (that\u2019s why some big voice owners were considered stylistic pigs) and those big voices often get misdirected.<\/p>\n

The biggest misdirection I can think of is down.\u00a0 That is, like you know, the COMMAND: DOWN.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good command for a big dog with dirty feet, but a \u201ccommanding\u201d mistake for any singer with an un-rare gift to put his or her larynx down all the time.\u00a0 It will have an effect, but it will almost always cost the instrument more than it can afford to pay.\u00a0 Most students adopting this \u201call the time\u201d command never get further than completing a college career.\u00a0 Some manage to populate regional theatres, and represent, to some opera operatives, the hope for the future.\u00a0 A few rise high enough in visibility to become shooting stars in the Opera world.\u00a0 Very, very few become durable Stars, and most of these show us, in the twilight years of their vocal life, the symptoms that quickly overcome all those youthful voices unable to sustain the cost of the DOWN command.<\/p>\n

Petter Reingardt\u2019s<\/a> question was:<\/p>\n

3. I feel that my voice is quite small but high and light. I’m searching for that dark timbre you have by breathing low, relaxing jaw and throat, and keeping the larynx in a lower position. Now I wonder: have you ever felt that your voice is not big enough? If you did; how did you solve this problem?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My response to Petter:<\/p>\n

For you to focus on laryngeal position is a misdirection of your attention.\u00a0 You need to concentrate on the quality of sound you are making.\u00a0 It is primary for all singers who want to be real artists.\u00a0 In your recordings available on the internet, you sing as if you do not recognize the difference between Chest Voice<\/a> and Falsetto<\/a>.\u00a0 In your \u201cAh! Mes amis<\/a>\u201d video, you manage to do a little Chest Voice but you insert it with no apparent artistic logic and darken enough to make the moments when you sing in Chest Voice hard to discern.\u00a0 Don\u2019t think that you can use tools like \u201cDark Timber<\/a>\u201d to tweak your voice into sounding like mine, and please forget imagining injections of Botox<\/a> to your jaw and throat.<\/p>\n

I did a blog some time ago about Falsetto, and confusion.\u00a0 I suggest you consume it: Just click here<\/a>.\u00a0 Follow the music and Luciano\u2019s singing to get an idea of how Falsetto should be incorporated into an interpretation.\u00a0 There is logic to Pavarotti\u2019s moves from one function to another.\u00a0 I wonder if you can hear it happening in Luciano\u2019s voice.\u00a0 I can hear it happening in your Donizetti recording, but can you?\u00a0 In your audio recording of \u201cLanguir\u2019 per una bella\u201d I am hard pressed to pick out any Chest Voice singing.<\/p>\n

Please stop telling your instrument that it is just not good enough.\u00a0 Sing in Chest Voice when you intend to sing mezzo forte or louder in your low register, your middle register and your high register.\u00a0 Chest Voice is for the louder bits and Falsetto is almost exclusively for the softer bits.\u00a0 High or low doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 The big \u201ctrick\u201d is to hide your transition from one function to the other so that the in-expert listener takes no notice of the event as you go from soft (Falsetto) to loud (Chest) to soft (Falsetto).\u00a0 Sadly, your singing hides Chest Voice when you find it.\u00a0 You need to make Chest Voice ring in the ears of your audience.<\/p>\n

Yes, my voice is and was a \u201csmall\u201d voice.\u00a0 All high voices are \u201csmaller\u201d than lower voices.\u00a0 The real measure of a voice used to be its audibility.\u00a0 If the audience could hear the singer, and the singer inspired the audience to applaud, then the voice of the singer was not \u201ctoo small\u201d.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have a vocal size \u201cproblem\u201d back in the early years of my vocal life.\u00a0 I did learn to ignore those who criticized my voice for various qualities it had, and those who criticized me for some qualities that a few of my detractors said my voice should have had.\u00a0 Size was an issue that surfaced in auditions and shortly showed up in print.\u00a0 It took a while, but I learned that it was less about my voice than it was about my category.\u00a0 You are of the same category as I, and I\u2019m sorry that you seem to have internalized the standard carping about the \u201csize\u201d a voice in our category normally displays.\u00a0 Making a voice sound bigger than it is by nature is a formula for microphone dependence, if the voice survives.<\/p>\n

My hope for you is that you can let go of your obsession with laryngeal movement management, and change your focus to hearing continuity in the sound your instrument produces.<\/p>\n

So, Petter, please don\u2019t wrastle<\/a> your larynx to the floor.\u00a0 It won\u2019t make your voice bigger.\u00a0 A big voice used to be a mixed blessing, and I often went all \u201cWhy couldn\u2019t I have a voice like that?\u201d when I listened to Franco Corelli.\u00a0 I am a tenor. \u00a0So I did try to make like Franco, but my instrument put me on notice: \u201cOK! As long as you do this \u201cNessun dorma<\/a>\u201d and \u201cE lucevan le stele<\/a>\u201d \u00a0thing in front of that Navy Band microphone then we\u2019re on, but if you take your mouse in elephant costume show on the Operatic Stage\u00a0then I\u2019m out-uh-here!\u201d<\/em> I\u2019m glad, I got the message.<\/p>\n

I will try to answer your other questions briefly.<\/p>\n

1. Coloratura: what is the secret? How should I train this the right way? I feel like I can’t be agile and sing with full voice at the same time. So how do you do it?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The secret is in your ability or inability to make your diaphragm flutter and with your coordination.\u00a0 The primary physical apparatus that produces good coloratura is the diaphragm.\u00a0 This controller of support acts in a negative fashion.\u00a0 That is to say that the potential energy developed in the pressure under which your viscera are place by your abdominal muscles is blocked and controlled by the diaphragm.\u00a0 That pressure created by your abdominal muscles, unopposed by your diaphragm, would normally be transferred to the air in your lungs, and if you didn\u2019t stop it by other means the air in your lungs would escape you immediately.\u00a0 So your diaphragm stops your tightened abdominal muscles,,, you do know,,,\u00a0 I forgot.\u00a0 You\u2019re a tenor!\u00a0 The source of energy that goes through two conversions and several modifications before ultimately landing in our ears as your voice are your abdominal muscles.\u00a0 Anyway, your diaphragm is in charge of controlling the transfer of the pressure in your viscera to the air in your lungs which then motivates your vocal chords which provide the vibrations that the rest of your vocal instrument converts into intelligible language and hopefully satisfyingly attractive singing.\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t care a whit about coloratura, that would be enough said.<\/p>\n

But, since you ask, the diaphragm is also the main generator of the pulsations that we recognize as coloratura.\u00a0 It is even logical.\u00a0 Not all vocal things are logical, but this one is.\u00a0 There is no other component of your anatomy to which you can award credit.\u00a0 Leo Nucci once told me that he believed that the old school castrati used to do coloratura with their lips.\u00a0 He demonstrated his proposition on the Met stage during a \u201cBarber of Seville\u201d rehearsal.\u00a0 It was a good laugh, but I was never quite sure he meant it as a joke.\u00a0 The diaphragm takes care of this work.\u00a0 I have often offered the following advice:<\/p>\n

Sing the violin part from the shaving scene in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA.\u00a0 Start it in any\"Saving<\/a> convenient key, really slow at first and singing every note without any interruption of vocal cord\"Saving<\/a> activity except during inhalation. \u00a0And, by the way, not forgetting my target audience, do\"Saving<\/a> breathe and breathe where ever you find convenient.\u00a0 String players don\u2019t have to breathe, so\"Saving<\/a> composers can forgo putting in breathing points some tenors need in the melodic line.\u00a0 You\"Saving<\/a> could say I am calling for you to sing legato. When you get to the repeated notes, just keep on\"Saving<\/a> singing without interrupting your vocal chords\u2019 intonation of the pitch.<\/p>\n

You will find that the diaphragm is the only thing that will get the job done.\u00a0 If it does not do the job, then all those repeated notes that represent bow direction changes on a violin will become one long held note or you will be forced to stop your vocal chords from vibrating between each note\u2026. Oh!!! I forgot.\u00a0 Leo Nucci\u2019s method does sort of get the job done, but it would inspire most people to laugh, so I don\u2019t recommend it.<\/p>\n

2. Low notes: I find it hard to be heard in the lower register (below g3 down to a2). It feels either breathy or very tight. I’ve been singing “vado incontro…” from Mitridate, re di Ponto, and it’s extremely hard to keep access to those two octaves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When you have a good idea what Chest Voice is, then you can address this problem.\u00a0 You must use Chest Voice in the Chest Register if you ever hope to have those notes heard while an orchestra is backing you up.\u00a0 The way you sing now leaves the orchestra little choice.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to cover you up, if it is composed of more than a dozen or so instruments.<\/p>\n

When you can sing in the middle register of your voice with Chest Voice, then you can experiment with descending by 5ths into your Chest Register keeping Chest Voice function active.\u00a0 When you find yourself singing in Chest Voice in your middle register, you will likely also find your pharynx to be less dilated and your larynx at a higher position than you seem accustomed to maintain.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to use the \u201cGlottal Attack<\/a>\u201d of Garcia.\u00a0 Tight is not right.\u00a0 You will need to allow for more space into which your vocal cords can comfortably phonate those low tones in Chest Voice.\u00a0 Just be aware that the lowest notes require the least tension on the vocal cords, but they are going to be asked to flap large slow vibrations.\u00a0 They require the chamber above them to accommodate the larger wave forms\u00a0of the low notes\u00a0as compared to the 5th above.<\/p>\n

\u201cMitridate\u201d was designed for an expert.\u00a0 If you master that Opera, you will have solved the low note problem.\u00a0 Oh! By the way, you will have solved almost all the rest of your vocal problems as well\u2026.. ooops!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The coloratura thing might still be unresolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time to tell a tenor what not to do: Don\u2019t despise your voice.\u00a0 Don\u2019t go all negative about yourself just because God gave you a vocal instrument that seems small whenever you think of Del Monico, Corelli, Bonisolli,,,,,, I could go on, but it doesn\u2019t change a thing.\u00a0 There is always space in this world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4,53,85,51,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-featured","category-garcia","category-opera","category-singing","category-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Banner-flipped.jpg?fit=1114%2C655&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kj1l-11B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3943"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3965,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3943\/revisions\/3965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}