Quarantine Practice, Day 2
I stuck with the same practice routine that I wrote out yesterday, but fleshed out a few more exercises I felt comfortable doing. I think The things that are lacking right now from my quarantine regimen, aside from high notes and actual singing, are things like staccati, vocal trills, and messa di voce in an effective range. Some of the exercises that Iām doing I can only do in a teeny tiny range...but again, itās better than nothing. Since yesterday I found I was pretty comfortable lip trilling through rep even with high notes today I trilled through even more pieces, those pieces being āWhat Good Would the Moon Be?,āĀ āCanto abruzzese,āĀ āSerenade,ā āMarechiare,ā and Abigailās aria. Not bad for not even being able to sing.
While Iām here I may as well write a little bit about how working with L has been these last four years. My voice really has filled out. Her style is very simple, there are no really wacky exercises or tricks she employs. Sheās just really good at bringing out young, small voices. Iād say my voice is very warm, moreĀ āmatureā sounding, and resonant than it was when I left off 4 years ago here. If youāre reading from back in the old days, you probably know that if I was crying myself to sleep for any reason, it was my vibrato. Iām happy to say that itās fairly consistent now, minus in my super high notes. I think whatever residual issues there are with vibrato are psychological at this point. This might sound dramatic, but something about my own mind and my environment made my straight tone voice really traumatizing for me. I always felt like it was that one thing that separated me from being taken seriously as a singer, and itās hard to let all of that baggage go sometimes. But L got me to a really good place.
That being said, for the past year Iāve been really feeling that itās time to move on from her. I feel kinda bad that I didnāt spend these last 4 years writing about the good good times with her and the progress Iāve made, because she really is a wonderful lady and teacher, but you know...itās just that time. But I still have another year here. Realistically, I only do a few of the exercises sheās given me. One of the great things she imparted on me was how to be my own teacher, and thatās pretty much what Iāve been doing. The more recent lessons Iāve had have been somewhat frustrating because 1) I feel that now what she wants to change in my voice are subjective things or things that really canāt be changed so it seems I canāt give her what she wants, and 2) Iāve been going through my own mental health issues and donāt always come in doing my best. Those revelatory lessons are just not happening anymore. And I say this with no bitterness: I feel like a chronicled my time with S here pretty consistently and sheās also an amazing woman and teacher to whom I owe a lot, but I reached that point with her, too. I just NEED some new breakthroughs and thereās that part of my mind that wonders if they would come with another teacher. But I must be patient and try to maximize the time I have left, especially considering I may have to devote a lot of my time to studying something else for grad school.
Anyway, thereās a little bit of an update, even if this journal is really for me to get my own feelings out.













