LAST MONTH’S TIP

“Feel free to send me a pithy paragraph covering the essentials and I will try to pick a couple of them to address in each of the next several Tips. Your name will be used only as, i.e. “David L,” unless you have a preference. Don’t be shy ... I always enjoy a challenge.”

I signed off last months “Tip” with the suggestion above, hoping for than the modest response I received. Boy … that was your chance! Naaawww … put your mind to it! If you take the time to actually sift through my many articles in the archives below each monthly Tip, I suspect you could come up with a few more interesting problems you might have found puzzling.

From those who did respond, there were three that variously asked the same question—and   I paraphrase …

“Would you technically explain how to diminuendo a tone to its cut-off at the end of the final note of a phrase?” Delighted!

Presuming that, over the last three plus years you may have visited and possibly revisited my explanations on my Flexible Breath Pressure on Demand, concept … you should be very familiar with the fact the voice is a Wind Instrument and requires that air flow evenly and consistently between the cords to give a steady and reliable core to your tone. “ … core to your tone!” Center, pure ringing, pinging vowel! That means you enter the center of the pure vowel knowing where you are going. And pray tell me, “Where exactly is that place you are visualizing?” Well, if you are on board with my concepts, you are thinking of entering that last tone, with a small kick-in of your Belly Button to give an extra shot of “impulse air” to re-energize the flow of air, the volume of which has probably significantly diminished since the moment you started the phrase, i.e. maybe five or fifteen seconds, earlier. YOU MAY BE FEELING THE EFFECTS OF RUNNING OUT OF OXYGEN … but, if you have been lifting and growing on every high note, as I teach, you will still have enough air available to finish with aplomb … or maybe a pear! Now, just how do you do that?

Well, if you slightly lessen the inward flexible tension with your BB—the voice doesn’t quit if your mind is willing it “over there,” and then you  “give a small kick inward to renew the support for the last note of the phrase, lifting and growing.” With practice, you will always have more than enough air to finish. Besides, if you stop the tone at the end, as my technique dictates, i.e. pop your Belly out and let it go—within the framework of standing tall … your lungs fill instantaneously as you are resting—nature abhors a vacuum--purging the body of tension and you are ready to sing the next phrase.

It is a magical way to get through an evening of song without all of that “stopping the tone with a closed throat, then partially opening the throat to pull in air--so that you know you have breathed—and wasted two seconds of rest … while doing some work you didn’t need to do.

Those are the mechanics. But, what is your brain doing during this time? “Mind Dictates, Body Implements!” is one of my first axioms. What do you want the tone to do? When I do a diminuendo, I know what the volume of the tone will be at its softest … at the instant I pop and rest! To sing softer, there is a minimal reduction of pressure. YOU MUST ANTICIPATE THAT REDUCTION! What holds the vowel ringing in place … the arch of the tongue! What holds the tongue up … breath pressure, so the balancing act begins: as you diminish, you concentrate on the tongue moving up and forward. IF YOU DON’T CONSCIOUSLY THINK OF MOVING UP AND FORWARD … IT WILL FALL BACK and you will suddenly go from a fully supported, focused tone, to a breathy one with no core … that falls into the orchestra pit! Not good at the Met!

Yes, this all takes work and time, in front of a mirror with a tape recorder … and a lot a practice to do it the right way. But … it’s worth it. Aaaahhh … go to my to my Audio/Video page … and listed to me do exactly what I just described, on the stage of the State Theater, New York City Opera production of “Manon!” Why didn’t I think of that before?