: Did I say break? - singing journal, post 1
After the irony of missing Noel's Big-Money Game Theory for a lecture on probability (the reader of this blog will no doubt care that we covered the binomial random variable in a manner noticeably different from A2 Mathematics), I headed towards the Music building, quietly singing to myself while waiting for Gemma to arrive. She was delayed for around ten minutes, alas, but it was worth the wait.
As the reader of this blog may have worked out, Gemma is my singing teacher.
The lesson took place in one of the underground practice rooms in the labyrinthine tunnels of the Music building. This one, which may or may not be typical of them, was very clearly rectangular, far moreso than the rooms in my sixth form. In fact, the shortest two walls could only have been a few feet long; from the entrance, the room seemed to expand out in only one direction, towards one's left. The piano was immediately left of the door, and most if not all of the wall furthest from the door had a mirror - which was moderately useful.
After a number of loosening-up exercises - mostly non-specific, but those dealing with the facial muscles have to be considered specific - the focus moved to breathing exercises. Initially this simply meant a cycle of breathing in for four counts, holding for four and breathing out for four, the count changing to 6-4-6 later; later, hissing sounds were added on the exhalation, and in some (but not all) cases the exhalation was extended as long as was comfortably manageable. Contrary to my own opinion, Gemma insisted said period was reasonably long; neither of us were counting though, so no further comment can be made on this particular metric.
The majority of the lesson then comprised of variations upon scales, with various different sounds. Gemma's suggestion of moving the hands and arms forward slowly upon doing so was intended to ensure a smooth sound, and certainly appeared to work. Indeed, I sounded better than I reasonably expected in general, and Gemma sounded impressed also. At this point, my confidence - which has been bumping along the seabed for most of the last two years - was soaring faster than the mean on Brenda's game of Noel's Big-Money Game Theory.
Short snippets of folk songs were used to put some of what I'd learned into practice; the break in my voice proved particularly problematic here, but not a lot else did.
And to confirm what had been implied in the middle of the lesson through the varying scales, the lesson ended with a range check. Through what can only be described as serendipity, my range is an octave lower than Gemma's and otherwise almost identical. In fact, alarmingly, my range is actually bigger, even if the difference comprises of very soft high notes. For what it's worth; expressed as per this link, my range is G2-A4, with a break around C4. For the benefit of Hels, whom I suspect may be reading this: in Helmholtz notation, that would be written G-ai. (Gemma's range is G3-F5, or g-fii in Helmholtz notation; and she has a break at C5/cii.)
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LESSON IN SUMMARY
General trend: strongly positive
Areas of strength: increasingly confident sound especially in lower register; breathing better than I thought
Areas of weakness: upper register relatively weak, problems singing around/across break
Next meeting: All Hallow's Eve, 1500 GMT
Expected content: Gemma has implied that I may be learning a musical theatre ballad. Ironic, as I thought musical theatre didn't suit me.
-----------------------
After the irony of missing Noel's Big-Money Game Theory for a lecture on probability (the reader of this blog will no doubt care that we covered the binomial random variable in a manner noticeably different from A2 Mathematics), I headed towards the Music building, quietly singing to myself while waiting for Gemma to arrive. She was delayed for around ten minutes, alas, but it was worth the wait.
As the reader of this blog may have worked out, Gemma is my singing teacher.
The lesson took place in one of the underground practice rooms in the labyrinthine tunnels of the Music building. This one, which may or may not be typical of them, was very clearly rectangular, far moreso than the rooms in my sixth form. In fact, the shortest two walls could only have been a few feet long; from the entrance, the room seemed to expand out in only one direction, towards one's left. The piano was immediately left of the door, and most if not all of the wall furthest from the door had a mirror - which was moderately useful.
After a number of loosening-up exercises - mostly non-specific, but those dealing with the facial muscles have to be considered specific - the focus moved to breathing exercises. Initially this simply meant a cycle of breathing in for four counts, holding for four and breathing out for four, the count changing to 6-4-6 later; later, hissing sounds were added on the exhalation, and in some (but not all) cases the exhalation was extended as long as was comfortably manageable. Contrary to my own opinion, Gemma insisted said period was reasonably long; neither of us were counting though, so no further comment can be made on this particular metric.
The majority of the lesson then comprised of variations upon scales, with various different sounds. Gemma's suggestion of moving the hands and arms forward slowly upon doing so was intended to ensure a smooth sound, and certainly appeared to work. Indeed, I sounded better than I reasonably expected in general, and Gemma sounded impressed also. At this point, my confidence - which has been bumping along the seabed for most of the last two years - was soaring faster than the mean on Brenda's game of Noel's Big-Money Game Theory.
Short snippets of folk songs were used to put some of what I'd learned into practice; the break in my voice proved particularly problematic here, but not a lot else did.
And to confirm what had been implied in the middle of the lesson through the varying scales, the lesson ended with a range check. Through what can only be described as serendipity, my range is an octave lower than Gemma's and otherwise almost identical. In fact, alarmingly, my range is actually bigger, even if the difference comprises of very soft high notes. For what it's worth; expressed as per this link, my range is G2-A4, with a break around C4. For the benefit of Hels, whom I suspect may be reading this: in Helmholtz notation, that would be written G-ai. (Gemma's range is G3-F5, or g-fii in Helmholtz notation; and she has a break at C5/cii.)
-----------------------
LESSON IN SUMMARY
General trend: strongly positive
Areas of strength: increasingly confident sound especially in lower register; breathing better than I thought
Areas of weakness: upper register relatively weak, problems singing around/across break
Next meeting: All Hallow's Eve, 1500 GMT
Expected content: Gemma has implied that I may be learning a musical theatre ballad. Ironic, as I thought musical theatre didn't suit me.
-----------------------