Flexibility

As I mentioned in a previous post, in order for me to sing my best, I need to do warm-ups that require a lot of flexibility. Flexibility is not one of my vocal strengths. In fact, if I see a song with lots of 16th notes, or bouncing around all over the place, or even sometimes slower melismas, I know that it's not going to be a good fit for me. So why do I torment myself with exercises that focus on that kind of stuff? First of all, you can't just avoid the things that are hard. Yes, my voice likes long, drawn out lines much better, but occassionally for whatever reason, you have to sing some melismas or faster notes and the exercises help prepare me for those times. The second reason these warm-ups are essential for me is that in singing all those long lines, with rich full tone, I tend to get a little heavy. Flexibility exercises keep the weight out of the voice and help me to find a high vowel placement. When I stay light and high, I can do these exercises. If I get heavy or the vowel drops, they are impossible. When I can do several flexibility exercises in a row, I know that I am warmed-up enough and that I have found the place my voice needs to be. Then I sing my long, drawn-out phrases and I can add warmth without getting bogged down.

But all of that is not the real reason for writing about flexibility. Even more important than working flexibility in my voice is working flexibility in my life and practicing. I'm loving the fact that I have so long to prepare this music. When I was in school and knew I had to sing a song for my next lesson, I would work it, even if it didn't feel good that day, and I think that led to more frustration than success. Now, I have a general plan for what I want to do in practicing, but if something isn't going well, I can move on to something else and come back at another time. Here's what happened last night:
My voice had been quirky during lessons that day, so I took about 15-20 minutes to warm-up before starting songs. I was feeling pretty good, so I decided that it might be a good day just to run through all the recital rep since I haven't done some of the songs in awhile. I started with Strauss' "Ich trage meine Minne" since it's usually the song that sets me up for good singing. It was awful. Instead of helping me find my place, it was just totallly tight. So obviously, this was not the night for a sing through.

I left the Strauss and tried a little "In quelle trine morbide" just to see how it was feeling. Even though it is harder, it worked much better. I did a work through instead of a sing through, stopping whenever I got tight. I love the B flats in this. The approaches, especially with the first one, make it so easy.

After the Puccini success, I went back to the Strauss and worked through it this time. As I checked for tension and went through my checklist of the things most likely to make it better (start in the space of the highest note of the phrase, high consonants, etc.) everything started to fall back into place.

I like to work technique and interpretation all at the same time, but there are days like yesterday that I just have to break it down to simpler components again. I had to give up the interp and thinking to the end of the line and just worry about getting the vowels to line up high.

By the time I had worked through the Strauss, I was ready for more. I worked a little on each of these songs--Dein blaues Auge, O kuhler Wald, Allerseelen, Ach lieb, ich muss nun scheiden, and Schlechtes Wetter. I also played through the accompaniment to them listening for how the piano interacts with my part. I also had some great intepretive break throughs. I figured out who I need to think about for Dein blaues Auge. It totally changed the song and I found the tonal color I was after. Those same blue eyes also made "deiner susse Blicke" in Allerseelen really click in.

If I had just become discouraged with the first bad time through the Strauss, I would have quit practicing and missed out on all those other wonderful moments. But, since I'm becoming more flexible, and go-with-the-flow in my life, I was able to let it go and move on to something that was more successful.

One more observation for the night--When I exercise, there is a moment that occurs somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes into the work-out when my body just relaxes (plus all those cool endorphins kick in). I think I have a similar thing going on with singing. If I'm struggling, but keep going and concentrating on staying loose, there is a spot somewhere after 30 minutes, where my voice quits fighting me and the beauty kicks in. So to get myself through the rough times, I just have to keep reminding myself of how much I love it when it is good.