IziBlog - Creer son blog, photoblog ou meme audioblog - Quand blog et communaute se rencontrent

sir_quirky_k (

sir_quirky_k) wrote,
@ 2008-06-12 10:52:00

The Law of Unintended Consequences
Final lesson with Helen this academic year was yesterday. Now, as you may have noticed, we've placed a lot of focus on high notes with more than one eye on extending my range upwards, although we've slightly flipped that round lately as we've worked on Sarah McLachlan songs (an octave down, natch) which seem to work extremely well for me.

Did a range check at the end of this lesson. Guess what?

D2-E4.

That's not a typo. My range has actually stretched a third down with no corresponding move upwards. That wasn't in the script! I'll take it, although F2-G4 would be a darned sight more useful - but I suspect that I'm not really supporting my high notes as well as I'd like (Helen picked up on that in the lesson, too) and it may well be that if I can get that sorted, the upward expansion will come. Remember, I've sung G4 before...

In other shock news, I'm considering not living on my own, but with one other person. Only one, mind, but at least half of the savings that can be had from living in a large student house (relative to living alone) can be attained with just one person to share with, and I've been informed that many postgraduate students are awaiting funding news and by implication are by no means all tied to a given location yet. With postgraduates rather more likely to meet my requirements as housemates, this could be very promising. More on this as it happens...

(Post a new comment)

daweaver
2008-06-17 05:04 pm UTC (link)

Corky o'rorky, getting that Glickoblog database working was far more difficult than it ought to have been...

Final lesson with Helen this academic year was yesterday. Did a range check at the end of this lesson. Guess what?

D2-E4.

Mmm, interesting. I'm not going to offer any reasons why this might be so, merely note that it is, and that it's... interesting.

In other shock news, I'm considering not living on my own, but with one other person... With postgraduates rather more likely to meet my requirements as housemates, this could be very promising.

At times, it's worth remembering that you are a little older than the average student, and have more in common with postgraduates than the average student.

I wish you well in your hunt.

[derail]

Mr. Pokery has advised that he does not yet know his schedule for September, making precise planning and booking of trips a little difficult.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

sir_quirky_k
2008-06-17 06:52 pm UTC (link)

Mmm, interesting. I'm not going to offer any reasons why this might be so, merely note that it is, and that it's... interesting.

I'll offer a couple. We were stuck in a tremendously small practice room that's really good only for a pianist, rather a distraction from projecting properly (although EJ, preparing for her recital that night in a similar room, didn't seem too bothered... and was loud enough that we moved rooms...); really low notes tend to come more easily when sung softly. In my experience anyway. Furthermore, the two songs sung earlier in that lesson were relatively low (well, once transposed an octave) - Answer and Fallen, both from the Sarah McLachlan album Afterglow. (Which, incidentally, I recommend.) Had I sung something sitting rather higher, in a more spacious room, the range check may have thrown up a different result.

I don't care to call the D2 anything other than a one-off or unusable, but (turning to my Wicked score once again) I feel relatively able to call E2 usable now, subject to conditions. (I'm Not That Girl goes down to E3 at the very end, and I can get that an octave down, but mostly because it is so soft. I couldn't get that low any other way.) I'm quoting my range as E2-E4 in the highly unlikely event I'm auditioning for anything musical any time soon, and believe that (contrary to last week's implication, but not contrary to the European Central Bank's interest rate policy) the next move will be up.

At times, it's worth remembering that you are a little older than the average student, and have more in common with postgraduates than the average student.

Thoughts like that are still at least mildly (and used to be tremendously) triggering with regard to life in Weymouth. Doesn't make them wrong.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

daweaver
2008-06-18 05:08 pm UTC (link)

really low notes tend to come more easily when sung softly.

Good call.

Had I sung something sitting rather higher, in a more spacious room, the range check may have thrown up a different result.

Sounds entirely plausible.

I feel relatively able to call E2 usable now, subject to conditions.

Which brings about the philosophical question: is a note usable under certain conditions really usable? Answers on a postcard...

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sir_quirky_k 2008-06-18 05:37 pm UTC (link)
	I would imagine that the extremes of one's range generally are usable subject to conditions. I don't know enough to know if this follows a predictable pattern, or whether it varies between individual voices; I shall have to ask. (Reply to this)(Parent)