Something New -- Singing Music on my Blog -- "An die musick" by Schubert

Many of you Avocational Singer blog readers have gone for visits to Frescamari's Practice Room to sit and listen in on all my experimentations and voice discovery missions.  I first invited everyone to come over to that virtual practice room in this post, where I compared visiting my practice room to visiting a painter's studio.

I chose the Posterous site for my virtual practice room because it was a convenient way to store mp3 files for free and it was simple to get the files posted, by merely e-mailing the files.  Posterous would automatically embed the files in a player, so the work was done for me.  I will continue to devote time and attention to the ramblings and scribblings and trial and error of that Internet practice room.  It serves as a kind of online practice journal for me and I have benefited greatly from posting my practice mp3 files there and commenting on them.  From the looks of the numbers (thousands) of visits, it seems that people enjoy browsing through some of the stuff I've got up there.

However, I have wanted to be able to post a file once in a while on this blog.  I just needed some time to do some research and tinker around and figure out how to embed a player.  I have created a little test blog to play around with this technical stuff and have been busy experimenting over there.

I think I have figured out how to neatly and easily embed a little player so that I can, once in a while, put up an mp3 file right on the blog, so you will not have to take the little cyber-journey over to the practice studio.  This would have been great to do when I was pursuing the 24 Arias in 24 Weeks project (which I have not abandoned entirely yet -- I'm just splitting the sessions up -- having completed 10 of them in 10 weeks last winter.  I think I may start another 10-week session this Fall.  If you are a new reader and don't know what I'm talking about, 10 of 24 Italian Arias I learned in 10 weeks are posted in Frescamari's Performance Space, another posterous blog.)

So, to test out my new mp3-player-embedding abilities, below I have embedded this morning's rendition of "An die musick," by Franz Schubert.  To help me learn this song, I purchased a book Music Minus One High Voice Soprano, Vol. 1 Schubert German Lieder (Book & CD), and have used the CD that came with it for accompaniment.  I have done most of the work on this song by myself, since I am between teachers right now.

Some other work I did on this song leading up to what I've got today can be found in Frescamari's Practice Room.

So, here it is, my progress thus far on "An die musick" in an embedded player right on the blog:

Friday Cyberspace Recital -- Do You Have Something to Say?

I have been considering a question over and over again for the past couple of weeks, and it seems as if it is cropping up everywhere:  Do I have something to say?  Do I have something to say to the world?

Not only that, do I have something to say with my singing? Am I holding back my emotional truth for when my technique is good enough to finally say something?  Do I need to wait to say something, or can I begin to start saying something now, even when the singing is flawed, even when the dream of what I would like to say does not match the reality of what comes out?

As I write this blog, and read books and articles about how to develop my writing abilities, the topic of whether I have anything to say, what I will choose to say, and how I will say it is very frequently on my mind.  So it seems obvious that a writer has to think about what he or she might want to say.

But does a singer have to think about what he or she might want to say?

The judges of the Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions seems to think this is important.  In a television documentary about this event, The Audition, which I watched on PBS recently, one of the judges tells us that this is something they look for in a singer -- someone who has something to say.

This message also popped out of the pages of a book I'm currently reading, The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear, by Ralph Keyes.  He confirms that, yes, everyone has something to say, and what we have to say is important, but the most important thing we have to say, and what we would really like to say, is often very scary to expose to an audience.  The real things we would like to say are often mortifying.

At first glance, the 24 Italian Songs and Arias appear to be "saying" the same things over and over again in different ways.  The poetry is mostly about love and basic emotional fundamentals surrounding the human experience of falling in love: Unrequited love.  Hope for love returned. The pursuance of love.  The hopes for romance.  The torture and teasing of love. The vulnerability of love. The deep pain of love. On the surface, we think immediately of classic situations: "I liked this boy in high school and I thought he was noticing me but I found out he didn't even know who I was" -- or, "We were going to be married, but then he met her" -- or, "He left me after many years of marriage.  He said he never loved me."   Yeah, yeah, yeah -- unrequited love.  Been there; done that.  I can sing that.

As I've looked at the song "Tu lo sai" I have gone through the usual tasks of examining the language and figuring out what the poet of the song has to say.  As I've examined the music, I have tried to understand what the composer has to say.  This is what I usually do with a song, and I have to admit that I have often hid behind expressing what the song is trying to say, but not thinking too much about what I want to say with the song.

But, bearing in mind the words I heard from the Metropolitan Opera judge, I have begun to realize that as a singer I must -- just as I do when I write -- figure out what I want to say as well. Just as writing can be murky when the writer is not sure of what he wants to say, a singer's performance of a song can be "murky" if the singer is not clear about what she would like to say.  So I must look at the poetry and music of "Tu lo sai" with new eyes.  Can I use this song to express something about me, something I would like to say?

In this case, the answer is yes.  There is a way I could use this song.  I have been struggling with something that is painful to me and I realized today that this song can help me say what I would like to say about it.  For the purposes of learning about this aspect of preparing a song, I'll tell you a little bit (but not too much) about that "something."

I had taken the risk of having made overtures for a friendship with someone I admired greatly. At first I experienced joy as I saw the promise of a response from this person, but my joy turned to pain and disappointment when later my overtures were completely rejected, and to make matters worse, this person will, in a short time, be absent from my life almost completely, so a deep sense of loss is being added to the mix as well.  I have been trying to resolve these feelings, but have not yet been able to work it out emotionally within myself and find resolution and peace. Perhaps "saying something" with a song would be useful in this process.

The language and sentiments -- musical and verbal -- of  "Tu lo sai"  match up somewhat with this personal event of mine.  It is not exact, but it works with my personal experience, and I think I may be able to use this song to "tell" this person how I feel.

You know how much I loved you

you know it, cruel one!

I wish no other mercy

than that  you remember me

and then despise me an unfaithful one!

Usually, a singer would not need to explain the personal experience behind her song.  In fact, it would be safer not to, because when they know, people might listen more critically. This motivation may now be scrutinized. Is the singer succeeding to express her intention?

I think it is preferable to privately use the personal experience to feed the poetry and the music and the voice.  However, I have used it as an example in this blog for the purpose of discussing and illustrating this aspect of a singer's calling and work.

In the above-mentioned  book The Courage to Write the author says he would rather read something honest from someone who had something to say even if the writing was not technically up to snuff.

The more I read, and write, the more convinced I am that good writing has less to do with acquired technique than with inner conviction.  The assurance that you have something to say that the world needs to hear counts for more than literary skill.  Those writers who hold their readers' attention are the ones who grab them by the lapel and say, "You've got to listen to what I'm about to tell you."  It's hard to be that passionate.  It means you must put your whole poke on the table.  Yet this very go-for-broke quality grabs and holds a reader far more surely than any mastery of technique.

I might tend to agree with that up to a certain extent, but it doesn't address that there is a limitation that comes with lack of technique.  The technique is what gives you the freedom to really portray what you're trying to say. Technique gives the ability to say something more accurately and eloquently.

Imagine the frustration of a child who knows what she has in mind, and would like to show you her idea of a tree, but cannot draw it.  The mother looks at the drawing and says, "Oh, is that a monster?"  The child is disappointed because the mother does not see a tree there.

An explanation like this of not having enough technique to say what I want to say could be a way of backing away from my emotional truth.  Do I lack courage? And do I disguise that lack of courage by claiming I don't have the technique yet?  Do I only give you a little generalized version of the story of my painful incident because I am embarrassed by it?

Mr. Keys says of writers, but true of singers as well:

We all have secrets locked tightly in an inner safe.  Writers must unlock that safe and risk letting its contents creep onto the page ...  Exposing that life takes courage

Aspiring writers are often driven to write because there are things deep inside them they wnat to get out.  But after they peer deeply within, few remain sure that they want anyone else to konw the most interesting things they see.

Well, a singer might have to do a similar thing if they want to "say" something with a song.  But maybe singing and a song (and acting and theater) are amazing tools for being able to express the very real and honest experience of a person while keeping a safe and protected distance from the specifics of that private experience.  Can we express our pain as artists without anyone having to know the details?

In the movie The Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers, there is a scene where the character of Eowyn sings at the funeral of her brother, Theoden, and she lets out a crying lament, where her inner pain is definitely present in the sound.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06f2-IuGJyA)   High levels of vocal technique are not there, but there is enough ability with singing to be able to connect voice with that wail that is born of pain.

I feel that this scene from the The Two Towers is very "honest" even though it is scripted and we are not using the actress's actual experience.  Yet, we guess that she knows what this kind of pain feels like.  We can tell because she is able to "say" it to us through her character.

I can tell by that the way the vocal line works in "Tu lo sai," when my voice is finally free and can use the line the way it wants to, that this is a great piece to tell "my story" about rejection in friendship.  It is also a vehicle that will allow me to express my feelings to the individual, since I'm not in a situation where it would be appropriate to address the person directly and discuss these things.  Singing the song can work the same way writing a letter to a person does, a technique a psychotherapist might use to help people resolve emotional issues.

Therefore, I conclude that this song, "Tu lo sai" can help me say something I want to say, something I need to say.  Just like multiple revisions of a letter that I am trying to get just right, each time I sing a song, each time I develop a next detail of the song, I come closer to the message I want to send -- to that person, to myself, to the heavens, to the people around me, and to the world.

"Tu lo sai" this week in Frescamari's Performance Space, is a working copy of a letter I'm writing.  It's been through a few revisions but is not in it's final state yet.  Nothing is ever perfect, but the writer/singer will know when it is doing a good job of expressing the feeling.  The writer/singer will know when it's "ready, and time to send it off, time to click "publish post" or "send."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Much progress made, but still stamina issues that cause the end of the song to deteriorate.  Yet I will post this one, since it was the chosen song of the week and I did not prepare another.  Took my very best stab at "saying something with the song," although by the end of the song had to scrap "saying someting," and merely survive.  But that's so okay! Click to to go Frescamari's Performance Space:  Tu lo sai

Wednesday Cyberspace Recitals will now be Friday Cyberspace Recitals

Today would usually be the day for me to put up one of the 24 Italian Songs and Arias after having spent the week familiarizing myself with it.  However, there is going to be a change this week.  I have decided to shift the Wednesday Cyberspace Recitals over to Fridays and I would like to explain why.

I have my voice lessons on Tuesdays, and very often, like this week, my teacher gives me some great technical assistance after I have tried to figure things out on my own.  If I continue the analogy of the young reporter learning to write by having to submit two newspaper articles a day, then this would be like that reporter, after having wrestled with the article he is writing, bringing it to his editor for suggestions and help.  Once the editor had made suggestions, the writer would bring his piece back to the drawing board and re-write, incorporating the advice of the more experienced person.

Vocal changes take time.  My teacher does not give me quick fixes.  She gives me an approach that I can play around with to discover where these positions are in my own physical instrument.  Once the positions are "found" it takes time to develop the muscles specificity and strength of these positions, develop facility with them, and then repeat them enough to make them an automatic part of my singing. (As my Kung Fu Sifu repeats to us all the time: "Repetition is the mother of all skills.")   I would like to have a little more time to work with the ideas my teacher gives me for the songs I'm learning each week before I post the songs up in Frescamari's Performance Space.  Shifting the cyberspace recitals over to Friday will allow me to have a couple of days to work with the stuff my voice teacher gives me.

Specifically, this week I have been working on "Tu lo sai."  I soon discovered that this piece is hard to sing when vocal cords are just recovering from a head cold and cough.  I also discovered that this piece is hard to sing period, and if you have been following along in Frescamari's Practice Room, you know that I've been struggling with strength and stamina.

Well, when I got to my voice lesson yesterday, my teacher confirmed that "Tu lo sai" is indeed a hard one to sing, despite how simple it looks and sounds. It is one of the more difficult of the 24 Italian Songs and Arias.  The key it is in, the key of E, is very difficult because it sits in the passaggio.  Even many experienced singers might choose, when they perform the piece, to sing it a half step lower, in the key of Eflat.

Before writing this post today, I tried to study up on this "second" passaggio area, the part of the voice between D5 and G5, but most of the writing on passaggio issues that I've found in a short amount of time has been of the one lower in the voice, and the various passaggio issues of tenors.

I have been trying to figure out exactly why is is so hard to sing when a song sits so long between D5 and G5.  The best I can figure with my limited knowledge is that there is a whole lot going on in this part of the range that must be strengthened and coordinated.  For one thing, the laryngeal muscles have to find a good position while there is an increased airflow.  All the little laryngeal muscles that are controlling pitch, approximating the vocal folds and cords have to be in just the right position, stretch, thickness and closure, using just the right amount of strength without becoming tense.  The surrounding muscles that are stabilizing the larynx, and that help keep it from rising, must also be firm and strong, but not tense.  The whole mechanism must "brace" itself in a flexible, not rigid way, for the increased wind energy that is coming, not unlike the way we might have to use more strength to keep good posture while standing outside when it is very windy out.

Yet the "wind energy" must be a regulated and mastered wind.  The support muscles that are regulating the breath energy and airflow have to work harder when singing in the passaggio, especially because the greater demand for air does not mean to let loose without control.  These muscles must regulate the air pressure enough to get a generous stream of air flowing evenly, but not overwhelm the laryngeal muscles.  It's not a matter of using all of one's strength, but using just the right amount of one's strength, which can actually require more strength in a weird kind of way than using all of one's strength.  I picture a child who is going to blow out the birthday candles on his cake, and he inhales very deeply and blows with all his might.  Yet, he does not know that there is a way to blow out the candles with using his strength in a controlled way, with a steady stream of strong air.

And on top of all this, the muscles of articulation must sustain postions without strain that are favorable to the activity occurring during phonation.  In fact, the work to keep space for the larynx to do its thing, and also maintain a space that keep conditions of the air currents and sound waves free and moving is a very taxing job.

That is the best explanation I can come up with for why it is so demanding to sing "Tu lo sai," which is mostly sitting between D5 and G5.

In the blog Bonne Chanson, the writer explains this difficulty well in her post "Writing for Voice".  In that post, she explains that a song that appears to be a simple ballad can sometimes be very taxing for the singer.  It has to do where the song "sits" in the voice, and how much sustained singing without a rest is required.  She gives a good example as an illustration of why it is harder to stay singing in the passaggio than to move up and down through one's vocal range:

Waving one's arms up and down in a 180-degree arc for two minutes is less tiring than holding them outstretched at 90 degrees the same length of time. 

I told my teacher about how I had worked phrase by phrase (See "Tu lo sai: Practicing Chip Shots") and we both were pleased how this work improved my singing of the song in just one day (perhaps I will be able to post the file of me singing "Tu lo sai" during my voice lesson later on today).  But my teacher had some excellent suggestions for another way to work which would show my voice just how much play it really has in a region that feels so cramped and tense for me.  She suggested taking "Tu lo sai" phrase by phrase, as I had done, but changing the keys as I repeated the phrase.  This would show me where the space was surrounding those phrases and help me to free them in the key of E.

She also suggested adding some ornamentation the second time through.  The ornamentation can also act as a freeing mechanism to keep the muscles from getting too fixed when they are in that state of tension.  It can loosen things up and keep the static nature of holding the tone from making the voice too frigid. (These words are my own interpretation of what my teacher told me to do.)

This called to mind another passage I read on the  Bonne Chanson blog on the same subject called "Cadenza Workout"  In this post, the author speculates that ornamentation in baroque music served the purpose of freeing up the voice and eliminating the tension that can build up when singing in the passaggio area:

Perhaps this is why ornamentation, fioriture, trills and other devices that keep the voice on the move (with a high ratio of vowels to consonants) are so characteristic of baroque arias and nineteenth-century bel cantooperas. This type of vocal writing ensures that no single set of muscles gets to carry the burden for too long and that the voice is allowed to flow freely without constant interruption by consonants.

I ought to be able to figure out some of my own, based on the face that I got an A in that ornamentation class I took this past summer.  (post on baroque ornamentation class)  Perhaps now would be the time to dig through my notes from that class and see if I can apply some of what I learned there (Why is this scary for me?)

So, rather than posting "Tu lo sai" today,  I will work for the next two days in the ways my teacher has suggested, and post this work in Frescamari's Practice Room for any who are interested.  Then I will add "Tu lo sai" to the growing list of 24 Italian Songs and Arias in Frescamari's Performance Space on Friday, the new Cyberspace Recital Day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recordngs of the work my teacher gave me to do:
Tu lo sai phrases in 3 keys I
Tu lo sai phrases in 3 keys II

Wednesday Cyberspace Recitals -- Amarilli

Well, I'll tell you, I thought I was going to have to postpone another Wednesday Cyberspace Recital.  But -- and you can see that I am getting this in very late tonight -- just in the nick of time I finished "learning" Amarilli and am so happy to put it up in Frescamari's Performance Space in time to have completed my 5th week of learning 24 Italian Songs in 24 Weeks.

The big obstacle I had to face over the last couple of weeks was getting a really bad head cold.  Maybe it was even more than that, because at times I felt flu-like, but I just let it run its course.  In the midst of this cold, I took a trip to Florida, where it was absolutely freezing.  I brought my music with me, but did not really get around to working on music while I was there.

Now, here's where my trip converges a little with what is going on vocally.  Last  year, around this time, I signed up to run the Disney 1/2 marathon, which was this past weekend.  I enthusiastically began my training, but ended up with an injury.  I was very disappointed as the weeks of the injury getting worse revealed to me that I would not be able to achieve this goal I had set out to achieve, and would not be participating in the Disney 1/2 marathon after all.

I was very disappointed because I had originally planned to run this 1/2 marathon with all three of my sisters.  Facing this trip down just to watch the marathon was a little bit hard for me, because of how I was feeling.

Yet, when I got down there, I heard and saw and learned many things that caused me to understand that everything was really okay.  For one thing, chatting with people revealed that this is something that happens to athletes all the time.  They are training for a race and they develop an injury or a setback, or a sickness, and they have to "drop out" of the race.

It has even happened to my own sisters, who are veterans in the race circuit for many years.  All I have been aware of over the years, watching and admiring from afar, was their having run multiple marathons and 1/2 marathons and relay races over the years, but I found out that it took them several tries sometimes to finally get through certain races.  Each time an injury changed their plans, they took the time off to get over the injury, and then began the process of getting in shape again, and then choosing a new goal.

This is what happened to me during my 1/2 marathon training, and it is also what happened to me as I set out on my project to learn 24 Italian Arias in 24 Weeks.  I have had a setback over the past couple of weeks with illness, and now it is time to "journey back" from this cold, and rehabilitate my voice from the damage the coughing has done to the vocal cords.  Just like the runners go through their training cycles, the singers go through their cycles too.  It's all part of it.

So, on this, my first day of rehabilitation and a new singer training cycle, I have posted the next in our series, Amarilli.

I have also posted the files of the process that I used today to get Amarilli in fair enough shape to make a recording tonight.  You will hear that my singing in the morning did not appear to be what would get the job done, but a little work throughout the day, and I was able to produce something by nightfall.   That's really something for me.  It has only taken 5 weeks to learn what I need to do to get a song into my voice.  I was able to do some of that throughout the day.  I feel pretty darned good about that.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To listen to this week's Aria:  "24 Italian Arias -- Amarilli"
To hear this morning's work on Amarilli:  "The Journey Back After a Cold -- Adventures in Amarilli"
To hear it shape up in the evening:  "Amarilli in the Evening -- Diction Lesson and First Hoarse Run-Through"

Wednesday Cyberspace Recitals -- "Le violette" Postponed

Dear friends of my blog,

I had been preparing the song "Le violette" this week as part of my project to Learn 24 Italian Songs in 24 Weeks, as you may know if you are one of the readers who regularly pops in to Frescamari's Practice Room just to see what's going on there.  However, I came down with a doozy of a head cold this week and it looks like I am going to have to postpone putting up this fourth of the 24 songs I am learning.

I could just go ahead and sing it today.  After all, the purpose of this project is not to perfect the pieces in one week.  This is an exercise that is to benefit my singing. To remind you, or to let newcomers know, I had read in a book about how to become a good writer that a writer who got a job at a newspaper and had to write two or three articles a day would, over a six month period, develop many skills that a writer needs, and learn to solve many problems that writers need to work out.  I had been inspired by this idea, and decided that there might be a way to rework the idea for a singer that might bring about similar benefits, and came up with the project for myself of learning the standard 24 Songs and Arias in 24 Weeks.

If you remember, the specific idea from the advice to writers that I wanted to apply to singing was that you "learn to write[sing] by writing[singing]" and "the only way to learn to write[sing] is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words[songs] on a regular basis."

The idea of the writer[singer] having to force himself to write[sing] those two or three articles[songs] a day[week] was not that he was going to be a better writer[singer] after six months, or that the writer[singer] would necessarily be writing[singing] well; the writer's[singer's] style might still be full of clutter and cliches.  But that the writer would be exercising his/her powers of putting the English language on paper [singer would be exercising powers of putting song language into the voice], gaining confidence, and identifying the most common problems.  (See my post referencing William Zinsser's book On Writing Well)

So, keeping in mind the intent of this project, and knowing that the product, at this point, does not have to be polished,  I could just go ahead and record it while singing with the remnants of my cold, provided that it does not hurt my voice.

I am going to test it out a little later today and decide whether to just go ahead and record it or wait.

(Update: 1/7/10, I still had the head cold, but the voice was serviceable the next day, so Le violette is now posted in Frescamari's Performance Space)

In the meantime, I'll let you know that my blog may be a little slow over the next week because I am going on a little trip.  I am going to bring my netbook with me, and perhaps I will get a chance to put up a post while I'm away.  I'm also planning to bring my little roll-up piano, along with my Edirol digital recorder and do a little practicing in the hotel room (Frescamari's Portable Practice Room), so perhaps I may even be able to update the practice room while away and talk a little bit about practicing singing while traveling. But it is likely that I may not have time to get stuff up on the blog until I return from my trip.

I have several blog posts in mind for the next few weeks.  For one thing, I have finished reading that book Head First: The Language of the Head Voice: A Concise Study of Learning to Sing in the Head Voice by Denes Striny, and I would like to write out my impressions of what Denes Striny has to say in the book.

Another topic I am researching a bit is that of larynx position, high, "neutral," and low and I would like to share with you what I am learning and finding.

I would also like to write out some thoughts I have about learning the language of vocal science and why I think it is worth the effort to become conversant in that terminology when you are a person who wants to talk about singing with others.

Another idea I have coming up is writing about how to manage fear as a singer. I am reading a book called  The Courage to Write: How Writer's Transcend Fear, by Ralph Keyes, and -- surprise, surprise -- I am gaining insights that apply across the board about how to work with fear in general.

So, there will be a lot of ideas being explored by Avocational Singer blog in this new year and I look forward to my return from this trip so that we may delve into them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow Up 1/7/10:  I still had the head cold, but the voice was serviceable the next day, so Le violette was posted in Frescamari's Performance Space the next day, on the day she was supposed to be packing for her trip in the afternoon.)

Wednesday Cyberspace Recitals -- O cessate di piagarmi -- or, Learning Vocal "Make-Do"

Well, folks, I didn't think I was going to make this recital today.  If you have been following along in Frescamari's Practice Room at all, you will know that weird things started happening to my voice on Monday and I came down with a cold and sore throat yesterday.  I decided to use the time to figure out how my voice works under less than optimal conditions.

It reminded me of having a bad hair day.  When faced with a bad hair day, a girl has a couple of choices to make.  She can just decide not to go out altogether, and wait until the hair springs back.  Or she can figure out a few "tricks" on how to make herself look good even when her hair is not at its most cooperative.  Based on this, I figured a singer ought to learn how to do the best with her voice even when it is not in its most fabulous shape.

Or maybe it's also like making dinner when you're just "making do" with the things you happen to have in the house, rather than a refrigerator full of the freshest ingredients.  You sing with what you've got that day.

I just remembered something that happened to me a couple of weeks ago that illustrates this.  I had a guest coming to the house and I had absolutely nothing to offer him to eat while he was here.  I scrambled around and found a couple of bruised apples, some cheese, a pack of graham crackers, and some hard-boiled eggs. Not much to work with.

Now, when I was a young bride, I would have planned some elegant and sophisticated snack to have for the visitor. I would have fretted that everything be perfect. (Isn't this like the young singer who must have her recital come out perfectly in every way?)

But, here I was now, stranded in the position I was in, and I had to make do with what I had.  I quickly sliced the apples, sprinkled them with cinnamon, and fanned them attractively on a china platter, discarding the bruised parts.  I used my cheese knife to thinly sliver the cheese, carefully broke the graham crackers into their quarters and arranged them around the peeled and halved hardboiled eggs. (It's in moments like these that one steps back and begins to feel like one has been quite "clever.")

What a strange assortment of food items!  But it actually worked and the plate was empty by the time the guest left.  It worked because over the years I had developed some quick-thinking habits and knowledge about presentation that came in handy in a pinch.

Well, this is what all those O cessate audio files were about in Frescamari's Practice Room over the past couple of days.  I was playing around with the voice I had, trying to see if there was some way to make it presentable by Wednesday under these vocal conditions.  In the practice room you will find all the "bruised" apple sections I had to discard.

The result is that today, dear readers and listeners, I am serving you up a platter of this week's "O cessate di piagarmi," accompanied by myself on piano in Frescamari's Performance Space.  I hope you enjoy this addition to the growing list of 24 Songs and Arias.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Other posts in this series:
"24 Italian Arias in 24 Weeks"
"Wednesday Cyberspace Recitals -- Per la gloria d'adorarvi"
"Wednesday Cyberspace Recitals -- Sebben, crudele"

Wednesday Cyberspace Recital -- Per la gloria d'adorarvi

This is part of a project I am working on to learn 24 Italian Songs and Arias in 24 Weeks. This is week 2, and I have completed "Per la gloria d'adorarvi."

In just two weeks of tackling this project, I am discovering a new way to work with a voice teacher.

In the past, I usually arrived at my lesson an empty vessel, waiting for the voice teacher to pour into me all the wisdom and vocal knowledge that he/she could.  Now that I have chosen this project of learning these 24 songs, taking one each week, I am developing a completely different idea of how to use my teacher as a resource.

My teacher remarked to me that by sharing my singing journey publicly in a blog like this I was "teaching."  At first, the comment caused me to wonder, because I have not set out to teach.  How could I, since there is so much I don't know?

As I pondered this, I asked myself just what it was I was doing in Frescamari's Practice Room then?  I realized that what I was doing is teaching myself.  And I am letting all of you observe me learn how to teach myself.

A few years ago, I was without funds for my voice lessons.  I was pretty desperate, because it was a bad time for me to be without a teacher, as I had not got even near a clue about how to sing yet.  In the midst of despair,  I came up with the consoling notion that perhaps I knew enough now to teach myself.  Maybe there were books out there about singing I could buy and figure out what to do.  I had been participating in an online forum to discuss another interest of mine, scrapbooking.  Perhaps there was a similar type forum where there were singers discussing their voice lessons.

I began to hunt and dig for information.  Somehow, I stumbled upon a web site of a voice teacher who lived far away.  I can't remember who this was now.  I e-mailed him a question.  I asked him if it was possible for a singer to teach herself?

I received a basic short e-mail reply:  No it was not possible for a singer to teach his/her self.  A voice teacher was necessary.

I was a bit crushed by this answer, but I proceeded with my hunt for information.  Perhaps he was wrong.  After all, somebody had to figure out how to sing the very first time, didn't they?  Someone, once, had to do it without a teacher.

Well, after a long search, and much gathering of information, I found out what most classical singers already know, that a teacher is absolutely essential.

However, in these past weeks, I believe that I am using the teacher in a much more productive way than I ever have in the past.  With my 24 in 24 project, I have chosen my own path.  I take the entire week to teach myself the song, the language, and try to work out what problems I can.  At the end of the week, I take the unsolved problems to my teacher.  It is amazing how this different way of working is growing me.  I see my teacher as my main resource as I proceed to teach myself.  I am able to come to the lesson not as an empty vessel, waiting to be filled, but with a jugful of many questions and issues, so many that I hardly know where to start.  Instead of coming just to take, I bring something to my lesson.

It is a wonderful experience.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click here to listen to this week's "performance" of Per la gloria d'adorarvi in Frescamari's Performance Space.

Also, if anyone out there can instruct me in how to make the Italian diacriticals in html, please send me an e-mail.  I have tried the ò-type commands, but I'm obviously leaving something out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Wednesday  Cyberspace Recitals:
Week 01 - Sebben, crudele
Week 03 - O cessate di piagarmi

Wednesday Cyberspace Recitals -- Sebben, crudele

Seven days ago I announced on this blog that I would be learning "24 Italian Italian Arias in 24 Weeks".

I am proud to let you know that the first completed song -- "Sebben, crudele" -- is now up in the brand new posterous site called  Frescamari's Performance Space.

I have decided that I will add one of each of the 24 Italian Songs to Frescamari's Performance Space every Wednesday, so be sure to look there every week.

If you remember, I started this project because the author of a book I was reading claimed that a writer could improve his skills in six months if he got a job at a newspaper and had to write two articles a day.  Apparently, the writer would encounter and be forced to solve many common problems of writing while doing that work.  I tried to think of a way that I could discover and solve many of the common problems singers might encounter.  As a means of doing this, I decided on the project of learning all the 24 Italian Songs that are used in voice lesson classes.  (cf "24 Italian Arias in 24 Weeks")

Little did I know when I came up with this idea. how exciting this project would turn out to be for me.  It has been very interesting so far -- from the very first read-through of the song, to the final performance.  I learned so much just from attempting to learn "Sebben, crudele" in one week.  I have left a trail of links to my work at the bottom of this post, should you be interested to observe and listen to the process.

One of the things I learned was to focus my practice more specifically.  I had to schedule certain tasks for certain days, and as I have done so I think I've come up with a little model to use for learning the rest of the songs.

Day 1:  Select song, first read-through without words, practice words, second read-through with words
Day 2:  Work on song in phrases and sections
Day 3:  Put the whole thing together and identify problem areas
Day 4:  Cut and paste:  work on problem areas, then "paste" back into song
Day 5:  Rest, or sing-through
Day 6:  Bring song to lesson and work with teacher on remaining problem areas.
Day 7:  Record and put in Frescamari's Performance Space

It has occurred to me that I can also use this project to hone some of my piano skills.  So I have decided to add sightreading and practicing piano accompaniments in both high and low keys for each song.  If I ever become a voice teacher, it would be beneficial to know how to accompany a student in these basic songs.

Eventually, maybe after this project is complete, I may undertake another project of recording each of the 24 while accompanying myself on the piano.  For now, I am using the CD piano accompaniment that comes with the 24 Italian Songs book.

If you would like to follow the whole path of his week's learning, here is the progression of links in Frescamari's Practice Room, ending with the final performance in "Frescamari's Performance Space."  I hope you enjoy it.

"Sebben, crudele" learning progression:

Day 1:  Song Selection and Read-throughs
Day 3:  Put the Whole Thing Together; Identify Problem Areas
Day 4:  Cut and Paste; Work on Problem Areas
Day 7:  Final Performance of "Sebben, crudele"

----------------------------------------------
Follow Up With Other Cyberspace Wednesday Recitals
Week 02 - Per la glora d'adorarvi
Week 03 - O cessate di piagarmi

24 Italian Arias in 24 Weeks

I'm embarking on a new project.  Starting today, I have decided that I am going to explore and learn all the 24 Italian Songs and Arias in the book, the standard ones that we cut our teeth on as we begin to study singing.  Of course, over the years I've learned quite a few of them, but there are all those mysterious ones lurking on the pages I have yet to visit.

There are two recent influences that combined to make me to think of this project for myself.  The first was found in the pages of a book I am reading, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser.  Even though I purchased this book to learn about and improve my writing, specifically for this blog, I have been finding inspiration for my vocal development as well.

In the chapter on "Unity" in his book, Mr. Zinsser said, "You learn to write by writing ... The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis"

Well, if you know me by now, you know I have the habit of transposing sentences like this from other disciplines for a singer.  So I heard, "You learn to sing by singing ... The only way to learn to sing is to force yourself to produce a certain number of songs on a regular basis."

The second influence came as a statement from my voice teacher.  She said, "Do you notice that you are learning songs faster?"

This reminded me of more of what Mr. Zinsser had said.  He claimed that if a writer went to work for a newspaper that required the writer to write two or three articles every day, that person would be a better writer after six months:  "You wouldn't necessarily be writing well; your style might still be full of clutter and cliches,  but you would be exercising your powers of putting the English language on paper, gaining confidence and identifying the most common problems."

Well, what could I do in singing that would be the equivalent of workng for a newspaper and churning out two articles a day?  I realized that the 24 Italian songs and arias would serve this purpose well, and that my newly developed ability to learn songs faster would make a project of learning them all in six months a suitable one to undertake.

"All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.  It may be a problem of where to obtain the facts, or how to organize the material.  It may be a problem of approach or attitude, tone or style.  Whatever it is, it has to be confronted and solved.  Sometimes you will despair of finding the right solution -- or any solution.  You'll think, "If I live to be ninety, I'll never get out of this mess."

According to the synopsis on the Barnes and Noble site  "For well over a century ... 24 Italian Songs and Arias of the 17th and 18th Centuries has introduced millions of beginning singers to serious Italian vocal literature ...  it is likely to be the first publication a voice teacher will ask a first-time student to purchase."

I believe that those 24 Italian Songs & Arias contain most of the most common problems singers will encounter.  I also believe that working on solving the problem of each of those songs will exercise the powers of expressing one's self through a singing voice.  Since I'm now able to learn songs faster, I am betting that if I learn these songs, I will improve even further in this regard.

I wish I had this realization when I was in my 20s and my first voice teacher kept making me sing "Caro mio ben" week after week, month after month, and -- if my memory serves correctly -- year after year, over and over again?  I didn't really practice it because I couldn't relate to the song, so it seemed like those vegetables your mother makes you sit at the table and eat.  But if I had really understood what the vegetables were doing, maybe I would have been more enthusiastic about them.

Well, I'm enthusiastic now!  Better late than never.

Unlike the newspaper reporter writing two articles a day, I don't think learning two songs a day would be beneficial, due to the nature in which the voice develops and grows and the time it takes a song to sink into a voice.  However, one song a week should do the trick, while I'm working on all my other vocal stuff.  I have an accompaniment CD for all these songs, so at the end of each week I will try to put a "performance" of the song in a new space  I am unveiling this week called "Frescamari's Performance Space."

I have decided to start with the song "Sebben crudele."  You can find it in "Frescamari's Practice Room."  You'll hear my first read-through of the song -- and I was quite surprised at how more quickly I was reading the melody of a new song -- and then the second read-through adding words.  You'll also read about why I have selected this song to be the first one.  See you there! (Click "24 in 24 -- Number 1 -- Sebben crudele")

-------------------------------------------------------
Follow Up and Hear the Results:
Week 01 -- Sebben Crudele
Week 02 -- Per la gloria d'adorarvi
Week 03 -- O Cessate di piagarmi