Try Two

Okay so the first time I attempted this I quit after 3 weeks. Now I will try again.

Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" seems to be just barely out of reach, I can sing it, but it sounds strained and a bit bad. I'll record myself now, before the program, and then as a measure of my progress, record myself at the end (or if i get impatient, somewhere in the middle) to see if I've made any progress.

So as the scent of strawberries waft into my nose, I begin my journey on thursday, february 22, 2011.

Failure to Close

So I exhibit this one particularly unattractive trait. I eat with my mouth open. I wish it were that simple, cause then I could just close my mouth and problem solved. No, my problem is much more agonizing than an open mouth chewer. I consistently fail to close. I'll say "okay I'm going to get buff this semester" and then I'll work out for 3 weeks and quit. I did Air Alert (a jump training program when I was into volleyball) for about 3 weeks before I just stopped. I've quit volleyball, consistently failed to close on good grades for class. I quit piano, I quit violin. I even quit WoW before I got to slay (or heal people who were slaying) the Lich King - although this is a good thing.

The same has happened with Singing Success. I did it for 3 weeks and (it was the week where most people begin to notice benefits [see blog]) then I just stopped.

This is not someone who I want to be. I want to be someone who starts something, and finishes it. Ghandi said "be the change you wish to see in this world." He probably said it with some hilarious british-indian accent but he was an old guy who knew a thing or two about closing.

I'll start by setting a goal for myself. I want to be able to sing "Elephant" by Damien Rice from his album 9. Its got some high notes that will really push me to exercise supreme control over my vocal chords.

At least this hobby is cheaper than antique cars.

Here's to closing

Singing Success III

Singing Success
Lesson 3:
According to Brett Manning, this is the lesson where most singers being to notice the benefits of the previous lessons. I can only hope I feel the same way also.
Goals:

1. Build more flexibility and encourse elascticity
2. begin developing vibrado
3. sustain notes in an easy chest, head, and mixed voice
4. apply the technique to a song ("and the rockets' red glare")

Excercises:

1. lip rolls on a long scale (like lesson 2 but sung faster)
2. tongue trills on a long scale (ditto)
3. lip rolls a mixed octaves (1 3 2 4 3 2) where 1 is the root and 4 is the octave. The benefit from this exercise comes from the gaps and disorder of the notes. You start low, go high, and all of a sudden you're going down again, then go high again, and then back down. This reduces the body's tendency to tense up when approaching high notes as you prepare to strain (due to years of terrible habit). Every note is treated as the first note. The broad spacing between notes means you're in and out of chest and head. This helps you find and get into and out of those voices quickly and easily.
   
4. tongue trills on a repetitive scale
5. "No No No" on a long scale + low larynx. Similar to "nay nay nay" only with a narrower vowel. The narrower vowel has a greater tendency to pull the voice into head voice and out of chest. Unlike nay nay nay, which has the opposite effect. This establishes head voice
   
6. "nuah nu-ah". Nuah opens your mouth, where No closes it. This exercise sees if you can open the valve without ending up in pure chest, establishing a mixed voice
7. Susatined lip roll on a an octaive scale (hold the top note, and bend the pitch). Its the first vibrato excercise! (only got to C)
8. holy crap there are a lot of excercises. "yeh yeh yeh" with vibrato. I don't know if the vibrato is produced by stopping the airflow and starting it quickly, or by moving the pitch up and down. He said if you don't have vibrato yet, force it by mimicking a starting engine, and eventually your body will learn what vibrato feels like
9. "mum mum mum" on onctave scale susatained at the top. The examples use vibrado at the top but I don't know if we're supposed it. He says "relax and let it happen." This excercise sounded gross. I might be doing it wrong
10. First application! We're putting these excercises into a difficult section of the Star Spangled Banner. "And the rockets' red glare."
    

Problems:
During excercise 3 and 4, Around the A, Bb, B range under middle C, there is inconsistency when getting into the lower notes
During exercise 5, it feels as though I'm skipping head voice except for 2-3 notes, and then going straight into falsetto. I make a very airy sound. I can get to the Bb below

Well this one for sure is difficult, I'll be on it for atleast a week (from today) before I move on. Alternatively I can also take a look a the the Style CD, ooh!

Singing Success II

Vocal Range: Bass Bb below middle C to F above high C

Now this is using a technique that holds your vocal chords together through the breaks when you go into higher pitches. I can achieve much higher pitches using this technique than I can with regular singing. The F above high C is reached 1:30 into the practice track. The pitch keeps rising and rising until 3:20. That's two whole minutes of more pitch that I can't reach. My current range even using these techniques are a mere octave and a half. Well I am still only the second technique disc out of 10. The point of this exercise is to keep the vocal cords moving through the break, so instead of relying raising the chest voice to reach certain pitches, or lowering the head voice, you can use a mixed voice.


Lesson 2:
Objectives:

1. Expand the range of the voice
2. Erase the breaks, and smooth over the transition between vocal registers
3. Take even more tension off the voice
4. *new objective* begin lowering the larynx, which will a) reduce tension. b) make the tone quality richer. c) cancel out the swallowing muscles which interfere in the tone making process

Excercises:

1. Warm up with humming on a 5 tone scale
   
2. Lip rolls on a 5 tone scale
3. Tongue trills on a 5 tone scale
4. Lip rolls on a long scale, two octaves (1-3-6-8(1)-3-6-4-2-7-5-4-2-1) The long scale takes you from chest, to mixed, to head voice, all in one go. Giving you a running start for the higher notes.
5. Tongue trills on a long scale
6. Nay nay nay on a long scale, less nasal sounding
   
7. Mum mum mum on an arpeggio scale. That sound brings the larynx down. A high larynx yields excess tension, and tend to pull chest voice. A dropped larynx produces a richer tone. With the larynx raised, you decrease the amount of distance between your vocal chords and the cavity in your mouth, allowing less space for resonance.
8. Warm down with a yawn at the top of your natural range into vocal fry
   

I just hope I'm not doing them wrong, that is the problem with these self study programs, there's no one to correct you. Also I can't tell if I'm in my head voice or my falsetto at times. I'll move on to disc 3 monday.

Other news
I bought a book titled Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs on the recommendation of my french friend Margot. There are a lot of pop culture references I don't really understand, but I'll keep reading.

Hello World, Hello Singing Success

I've been thinking about whether or not I should blog. Honestly I'm not very good with words and I don't have much to write about. Luckily I'm trying to change both of those. With a written history of everything I've accomplished here, I'll hopefully accomplish more things. In an effort to fill this blog with enough memories so when I'm old, or 5 years later, whichever comes first, I'll be able to read through everything and remember everything. We are our memories, are we not?

What I've been doing:
There's an audio program called Singing Success by Brett Manning. Its 12 discs featuring analysis, discussion, and explanation of techniques that are supposedly proven to increase range, accuracy, tone, and quality of voice. I've been writing songs for awhile now and my vocal range frustrates me. I'm 6 days into the program, on the second technique disc, and so far I have not noted any remarkable progress. I plan to finish the whole series. Too many times I'll begin something and I won't finish it. Don't be a dilettante, be a closer. The world needs more closers.

My singing faults:
is not full sounding
lack stamina
insufficient vocal range
inability to bridge the gap, or break, in my vocal range
uneven sound

My natural range is lower than most people's, this is bad, because its harder for me to sing popular songs, and if I write popular songs, harder for people to sing along.

Lesson 1:
Objectives:

1. Develop consistent and evenly produced vocal sounds
2. erase the breaks
3. extend the vocal range
4. alleviate tension caused by trying to reach high notes

Techniques:

1. Warm up - humming on a 5 tone scale
2. Lip rolls on a 5 tone scale. (Sounds like a man going "brrr" in winter, but with a dopey umph undertone)
3. Lip rolls on an arpeggio scale
4. Tongue trills on a 5 tone scale (sounds like rolling your r's)
5. Tongue trills on an arpeggio scale
6. Nay nay nay on an arpeggio scale, really whiny like a child crying "wah." The crying sound keeps the vocal chords together through the break. Thinning out your chest voice to meet your head voice

I have the most difficulty with excercise 6. I feel as though I keep going into my falsetto, or I keep pulling up chest and I never get into head voice