2-3pm 4 x 15minute mini yoga for singers sessions with Heather
4-5pm Open Mic. Accompaniment TBD
Siren Song Enterprises offers Voice Lessons and space to rent by the hour for music teachers, yoga teachers, massage therapists, and other body workers. These open houses are an opportunity for those using the space and those interested in the space to come and meet each other and enjoy the space to create community.
Currently on offer in the space are voice, brass, and piano lessons.
As a baby singer (teenager) my voice was very light and very high. It still has A LOT of height and is certainly not heavy but it is heavier than it was and I have low notes now that I've never really developed.
I was also trained to sing with out a microphone.
With my work with GGRO singing on a mic (It's necessary for GGRO. Because of the acoustical set up we work with I would blow out my voice at every rehearsal with out one. I've sung over a full orchestra un-mic'd and been heard at the back of a 300+ seat hall) I've had the opportunity to work on the lower end of my range more regularly. Additionally I have the good fortune that in most all of our arrangements the vocal line is written an octave higher than it's sung which has the effect of disorienting me enough that I can't rely on the sight to muscle memory and I often don't know how low I'm singing and have discovered later that I'm comfortably working in notes lower than I would normally choose or feel strong in. I've used something similar to this technique at the opposite end of the spectrum for students who think they can't hit high notes.
I've discovered that my insecurity about the strength of my lower notes leads me to over compensate and push too hard in the lower third of my range.
When I first heard Jessie Mueller in the NY Philharmonic presentation of Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel I immediately recognized hers was a voice I could match well with. So I began looking to see what else she had done. Turns out she had sung the role of Carol King in Beautiful and Jenna Hunterson in Waitress- totally the other end of the spectrum from a legit soprano role like Carrie Pipperidge. I thought to myself..."Well if she can sing that, and we have similar ranges and vocal quality, then I should be able to as well. Especially if I sing it on a mic."
I've made other attempts, most recently Astonishing from Little Women, to dig into the bottom of my range with little success, I think because I've pushed too hard and fast and worried too much about volume (I know Lenore, "don't worry about volume") Again an old anxiety.
So I've come at this using the, new to me, SOVT exercises, practicing a little on a mic, and trying to slow down with this one and get a good foundation built with the transitions note to note. Because with higher material I'm so comfortable and practiced I can move more quickly from the raw material of the song, the notes and rhythms and words, to the more polished points of emotion and phrasing and color and expression and dynamics. Indeed I was so moved by this song I did start there and suffered a bit for it in a sore voice for a couple days till I could still the tears it would raise and focus in on the technique and memorization.
There was a recording before this, and even if I could find it I wouldn't share it, that illustrated the pushing I was doing in the lower parts which was messing with the pitch and introducing tension into the upper parts of the song which should have been easy and light.
I didn't record it but I went through the song once on a silicone straw and cover over a couple of inches of water in a 8oz mason jar. This is the second take after that. The first take I closed my eyes a lot probably because I was thinking very carefully about everything I was doing. In this take I'm letting a little more emotion come through which is translating into an instinct for more volume and some slight pushing but it doesn't go over the edge. I need to fix the breath and note memorization on the climax ("Bring back the fire in her eyes that's been gone but used to be mine") I also want to dirty it up a little more- more growly in places. The diction could be more regional to the south, there are hints of it but it isn't strong enough yet. I'm thinking generic country music twang since the play doesn't seem to specify where in the American South they are. I also really want to get in with a live accompanist so that I can get some space in the tempos and I'm not tied to what is essentially a metronome on my musicnotes.com app.
Even with everything I still want to do with it I'm super pleased with it. It's a really good tool to be able to record myself and hear that even with as loud as the speaker sounds to me in comparison to my voice it isn't actually overpowering me. It helps allay the fear of not being heard or being too weak or soft.
Something to note about key signatures. The "original key" I purchased this music in is -2 half steps from where Jessie Mueller sings the song on this recording
And -1 half step from where she sings it on the original cast recording. Because musicnotes.com labels it as in the style of Sara Bareilles and she did play, for some period of time, the role on broadway and released an album of the music with Jason Mraz I'm guessing that the key it's published in is hers. I'm singing it +2 half steps from Sara Bareilles key and in the same key as the rehearsal video from Broadway.com
It still doesn't solve the problem of auditions which aren't mic'd. But that's a problem for another day and for a live pianist and third ear in the room to give me feedback on how well it carries.
Having some fun with my friend Hugo Pierre Martin and poking some fun at Petrarch at the same time. My kitty Po, ever the diva, makes a cameo. This will be entered into this new little film festival -http://filmingshakespeare.com so we'll have to see if it gets picked up.
I had this idea the other day so I'm going to experiment with it.
I'm going to start holding office hours online. It's like the office hour your professor keeps in college.
I will be available on the business Facebook page or Skype for one hour each week from 7-8pm Tuesdays for any questions or concerns you may have about pretty much anything. But it must be related to the business. This isn't social hour.
In return I ask a minimum of $5 placed in the virtual tip jar here on my web page. If you can afford it and think that what you receive is valuable then please contribute more.
Understand that you may not get fully one on one attention but I'm hoping to stay more connected to my students during the week and potentially connect with new people.
Here's a new series where I show you the rough side to compare the polished moments against. My dad is in the process of transfering all my old highschool performances from Vhs video tape to DVD so that will be coming down the pipline. For today. My face is angry with me. So here's one of the most pimply days I've had in a long time. No make up. They were angrier yesterday but still pretty blotchy. I almost wish photo booth showed more 'cause it makes me so red all over so you can't see all the little ones. Anyway. It feels yucky and painful.
*UPDATE! Appologies if you couldn't see the video! The nature of the private setting on YouTube has changed and I wasn't aware of it. It's been fixed and made public so please enjoy. *
This song was recommended for me by Mr. Paul Gemignani a couple years ago.
Some times it takes years to get comfortable with a performance. Thankfull this time it only took a few months. Thank you to Osvaldo De Leon-Davila for the accompaniment and congrats on your Masters!
This is dedicated to the brave young ladies who performed this weekend for me and their families. Love you all!
ps. I went through at least 3 different Keys for this and this still isn't the perfect key but it suffices. Sometimes it's not the song or the singer just changing the key can make a huge difference. Thanks for that lesson Mr. Gemignani.
So my wonderful friend Merry Welker-Tolla who teaches Piano gave me this wonderful idea that she uses- A practice incentive program. It's pretty simple if you practice 100days you get a small prize. Some questions you might have-
Q:Do the days have to be consecutive?
A:No! Days once earned do not expire
Q:How long do I have to practice for it to count as a day practiced?
A:At least 20 minutes but more is better.
Q:How do you keep track of the days practiced?
A:My friend Merry also gave me this sweet little chart that you can put stickers on to keep track of the days. Don't worry about losing it. I'll hang onto it for you.
Q:Are the prizes really worth 100 days of practice?
A:I think they are but you can decide for yourself. Below are Pictures of the offerings.*
*while supplies last, first come first served, additions may be made in the future check back for current options.
I think the goal is doable for shorter songs with smaller ranges- in other words Pop/Rock songs which is why I was successful with the two Tori songs.
Losing My Mind wasn't hard to memorize but finding the right key was incredibly challenging and set me back at least 2 weeks. The key I really wanted which was only a half or a whole step up from the orriginal wasn't available so I had to make a compromise which put it in a more difficult place in my voice. There was a bit of a mental block with it too. It was given/ suggested to me by the inimitable Paul Gemignani so I wanted to really live up to all I'd learned from him at CSU Summer Arts a couple years ago. That kind of feeling really creates a lot of physical tension, particularly in the voice, which is detrimental in general but doubly tricky in the middle of the voice. It still doesn't feel done but certainly serviceable. But maybe thats the best place for a song to be so that it's always fresh and alive....
The Gounod was a choice that was meant to go quickly because it's something that I had started memorizing many years ago. That turned out to be a wrong! Apparently it went sideways in my head over the last 10 + years. Then I got too ambitious and spent two hours straight practicing it and lost my voice for a few days. It has a lot of high fast runs. Which when in top shape I can do but not right now. So I've shelved it for a little bit to work on some lower things and let my voice recover.
Fair Robin is fun! I'm looking forward to the end product. It's going to be a really good audition song for the light opera companies around here- such as San Jose Light Opera and Lamplighters- that I'm trying to get to work with. I think it will wrap up quickly. If I can get out from under the crud from last week I think it might wrap up quickly over the next week.
It's still an excelent exercise in developing myself as a performer and singer. I'm hoping to be able post some recordings and things here. I get nervous about copyrights and I don't want to step on any artists toes or get myself in trouble but I really want to share my work and progress with you. Maybe I'll just have to arrange a concert.
52 Song Challenge: I've set a goal/challenge for my self. I've decided to memorize one song a week and polish one song every other week. So I should be working on about 2 songs a week. This week I'll be polishing Tori Amos' Winter and solidifying the memorization of her Silent All These Years and polishing that next week. Haven't got an idea yet what will come after those two but it's a start. So here's the tally so far-
October 3rd: 1/52- Winter- memorized not polished
2/52- Silent All These Years- Being Memorized
Stay tuned for weekly updates and occasional recordings and maybe videos of songs I've completed. Perhaps some posts with tips on memorization.
Join me if you like and comment here, cross post to your blog or facebook or what have you and we can all share the growth. Doesn't have to be songs- just something you want to do work on focus on each week.
I was going to wax philosophical about this awesome TED talk by Benjamin Zander I saw the other night on Netflix but instead I decided to find out what you think.
I know people stop by and pass through but I never hear from you and I so want to know what you are thinking.
So watch, I know it's 20 minutes but it is very worth it, and comment below so we can discuss impulses, avoiding endings, following the line, leadership and anything else in this talk that moved you.
