Starting back

Ok, so it’s been nearly 3 months since I last worked on my voice so tonight I thought I would make some initial checks on how my voice is doing.

In the past, I have noticed that my voice benefits from periods of ‘rest’ – especially after having worked it as hard as I did between August and this March.  I recorded two songs.  One that I did before, the one with the high B flats and a new song in Russian that I have come to love.

Ingemisco – the first top B flat was amazing compared to before and even the last one wasn’t awful.

Ya vas liubil – “I loved you” by Cesar Cui – not vocally challenging but a nice tone.

After that I ran through the exercises in Lesson 3 of Singing Success.  If I say I was shocked, that would be an understatement!

I did the lip roll long scale and was pleased that it wasn’t difficult up to about male top C.  I thought I would carry on to see whether the top E was still my limit.  I hit top E and then there was a little more pressure.  I got top A flat above male top C, though it was a bit screechy, but didn’t stop.

In the end, I had to give up at top B above male top C – that’s a semitone before female high C.  I’ve NEVER got that high before!  It was really screechy but still………

All the others were pretty fluent up to top C though I could feel that my voice was a bit tired.

Still singing

Hi everyone!  I’m sorry I haven’t posted recently but life has been quite hectic and fitting exercise time in has been a bit hard.

I’ve still got a lot of the Singing Success programme to get to and by the time I get there, I’ll have to go over the first few lessons to get my voice back in shape.

Operatic Class

Tonight’s class was the one I was dreading.  I had chosen “Che Gelida Manina” from La Boheme and, to be honest, it was right out of my comfort zone.  If the B flat in the middle wasn’t difficult enough, there was a top C on the last page.

Rehearsing earlier this evening, I wimped out on the B flat and sang it pure head voice and pianissimo.  During the practice I had hit the top C but even when I started the song, I wasn’t sure if I was going to sing the high part at the end or whether I would sing the alternative line that was written on the music that topped out at A flat (my comfortable one).

I really, really didn’t want to sing tonight because I was uncomfortable with the pieces, but as it’s my last solo performance I thought I’d better.

The beginning wasn’t bad but the top notes suffered from my nerves (this was the only one I’ve been nervous about this week) and they certainly weren’t the best.  The head-voice B flat was weedy to say the least and I bet it showed in my voice.  As I approached the last page, I still hadn’t decided which version to sing but in the end thought “Blast!  Let’s do it anyway!”.  I hit it, but it wasn’t as secure as many I had got in various practices over the past weeks.  Mind you it was the 5th day of singing and already 9.20pm after a full day’s teaching using my voice.

Whatever I did, the adjudicator appreciated my voice and gave me second place with 87 marks.  I had family in the audience tonight and they confirmed that I had looked nervous for the first time they’d ever seen.  They also confirmed that the B flat and C hadn’t matched the quality of the rest of the song so I think that I was lucky to get second place!

I’m going to have a couple of week’s rest and then I’m going to come back to the Singing Success programme.

Lieder Class

I sang “Wir Wandelten” by Brahms.  It’s a lovely, seemingly simple, melody and I was worried in case the adjudicator thought it was too easy.

However, I was pleased when she gave me and my accompanist first place (it was a joint class so both of us were judged).

The hard part was that the class began at 10.10pm!  Far too late for singers to be enthusiastic about singing in my humble opinion!  It was like the graveyard shift backstage!

Voice and Piano Class

BBC Radio Guernsey decided to play my winning entry this morning on the radio.

The Choirmaster’s Burial

I had a massive amount of saliva build up in my mouth during one phrase so listen out for the gulp in the middle of one longer passage.  I still won though.

Classe Superieure and Voice & Piano

It’s been a busy night tonight but I got to sing some of my favourite songs from this year’s selection.

The Classe Superieure had “At the Ball” by Tchaikovsky (in Russian) and “Five Eyes” by Armstrong Gibbs.  Neither of them difficult technically but good ’storytelling’ songs.  I got 85 marks (I think) which was joint second.

For the Voice and Piano, I did “The Choirmaster’s Burial” by Benjamin Britten.  This has been a nightmare to rehearse as the piano and voice parts don’t seem to match at all at any point.  I’ve been panicing about my entries and whether I’ve timed them right.  Thankfully, everything came together tonight.  I even managed some more characterisation in my voice to cover the different people in the story.  I really, really enjoyed it and won with 87 points.

It must have been a hard class to judge as I was sandwiched in between Summertime and an Eva Cassidy version of Autumn Leaves together with a couple of other ‘classical’ songs.  The singers were all strong so actually, it was a bit like a concert anyway and one I would’ve paid to go and hear, I think.

German Lieder tomorrow – Brahms’ “Wir Wandelten”

Oratorio Class

This was “ingemisco” with the two top B flats!

The concert hall where the competition took place has great acoustics and so on the unaccompanied first line of the song, my voice rang out really well.

As I climbed to the first B flat, something wasn’t right.  When I got there, there was no way I would have made it with good mix so I chickened out and used an edgy head voice instead.  It was a bit of a cheat but didn’t sound awful.

When I got to the last line, and again climbed to the top B flat, everything seemed fine and out popped the B flat!  Ok, so it wasn’t perfect, but it also wasn’t awful.

Unfortunately, I placed joint last with two other singers.  To be fair, the other two singers are very good so I don’t feel bad.  We all got 84 points.  One of the girls got 85 but even she admitted that she made mistakes and you could see her shake all the way through.  The last of the singers (who won with 87 points) sang a song that I felt was too difficult for her.  It was quite florid and so sounded impressive but there were places where I couldn’t even hear her voice.  She was flat in several places and her diction (for Latin) was very plummy English!  I don’t want it to sound like sour grapes but I thought I did much better than them all.  To be fair this lady also won last year and it was well deserved!  She is a good singer, I just think she overreached herself this year.

Oh well, I’m pleased with my performance.  I did my best and I think I did a good performance as far as the audience was concerned which is important.  As for the adjudicator – well, I’ve learned not to trust her judgement.  I guess the rest of the classes will go the same.  At least I’ve got one win under my belt.

One down 7 to go

Last night was French song which I won with 87 points.  I don’t set much store in the adjudicator’s marking as she seems a bit random but then that’s what you get if you give the judging to one person.  Anyway, I won so that’s good.

I sang “L’Invitation au Voyage” by Henri Duparc which I have come to love.  Before I started the Singing Success course, I couldn’t ever have attempted it because the high notes would have killed me.  Now they come easily and I don’t even think about them.  Progress.

No I haven’t gone away!

I’ve spent most of my time in recent weeks practising for the Guernsey Eisteddfod which begins for me on Saturday with the French Song class.

I’ll report back how the classes go – especially how the top B flats and C go!

After the Eisteddfod finishes, I need to go back to the Singing Success course.

Day 154 – Vocal Masterclass with Teresa Cahill

Ok, so I know it wasn’t a Speech Level Singing class but yesterday I got a phonecall inviting me to take the last slot in a masterclass with the opera singer Teresa Cahill who had been brought over to the Island for the weekend.

It was very much a classical singing session, with focus on the normal ‘operatic’ classical vocal technique.  My voice was tired from a week of teaching and, this week, shouting, but she did get the best out of the two songs I chose to do for her.

Her main focus in my voice was using the ’singer’s mask’ to lift the tone of the voice and give it more of a ping.  It is a technique I know well, or at least, knew well, but I had got out of the habit of doing it.  It did make a difference to the tone on the upper notes (highest note = top G) and brought even more projection.

I’m still on the hunt for that elusive top B flat and time is pressing.  I had a practice with my pianist on Wednesday and actually, although the B flat cracked as usual, the top C was vaguely acceptable.  For some reason, the B flat seems right on a cracking point between chest and head.  I think I’m going to have to break this down and practise the two phrases leading to the B flats in Ingemisco until I crack it.  I’ll report back.

Teresa Cahill