when I was experimenting with the digital macro & mono-pod on my camera...
I didn't intend to use these pictures for this post...
but when I learned, early this morning, of a former teacher's passing...
their clarity & attention to detail just seemed to fit in here...
Ms Redheaded Songbird was a soprano and a voice teacher...
she began teaching at VOPU the year I was born...
and in 1966, began attempting to teach me to sing, "properly"...
a task at which, over the next 4 years, she seemed to fail...
she could never understand why a trumpet player...
'...with your tremendous breath support...'
was NOT able to translate it into breathing for singing...
tending to sound as if I was being strangled...
and then, there was my "lack of range"[actually, way too low for an 'alto']
[I sang,"tenor" in choirs, in a chesty, faked falsetto...]
and inability to "place" my voice, forward, "in the mask"...
[since my voice was low, I spoke very far back in my throat...]
since all women's literature was,"too high"...
and MsRS was very stubborn about "proper" literature...
I always sounded like I was straining to reach even medium range notes...
and since I know, now, that I was singing in my throat/chest, then...
I was doing just that, even though she would tell me, over & over...
"put it in the mask"... and, "to shape the inhalation with the exhalation"...
she would become very frustrated when I couldn't do it...
I could get it out of my chest, into my throat, but no more forward...
she'd say,"I know that there's a voice in there...
we need to find a way to release it..."
but try as I might, I just couldn't do it...
so I sang tenor & low alto in choirs...
and resigned myself to being a trumpet player...
and not the singer I SO wanted to be...
eventually, I moved on...
to other places & other teachers that I would equally frustrate...
but when I truly learned how to relax while playing the trumpet...
releasing my true sound on that instrument...
I began to see the correctness of MsRs's advice on breathing...
AND forward placement, because they applied to the trumpet too...
years later, after having returned to Mudville...
being a much better trumpet player...
and by then, also an improved singer with an "OK" solo voice...
a bit more range & better forward placement & breathing...
I eventually found a job at a large Catholic Church as a cantor...
the choir[30-40] was in the balcony in the rear...
so cantors HAD to use microphones so the words were understandable...
I had started studying voice again with a different teacher...
who had achieved some success in developing my breath support...
more forward placement & expanding my range to above high C...
even at "almost 40", an age at which the voice is almost always "set"...
he had dubbed me a "dramatic soprano" & had "operatic" hopes for me...
so he had me take a jury for "upper division status in voice performance"...
with intentions of pursuing a Master's in voice performance...
along with Met auditions & a career in opera...
my jury at VOPU was attended by MsRS, who was quite pleased...
to see me,'finally, achieving my potential after all...'
and was not at all upset that it was under the tutelage of a colleague...
she was happy that I was able to sing now...
and that "Brünhilda",[my LARGE, Wagnerian voice] had finally been,"released"......
I passed the jury with loud, flying colors...
and then God did something no one could have ever expected...
one day, while I was rehearsing a solo from the balcony of the church...
& trying to hold the mic far enough away from me so that it wouldn't feedback...
I intentionally backed-off a bit from the volume, going for a high note...
accidentally flipping my voice more forward, into my "head"...
[the elusive "mask" of Ms RS's constant reminders...]
all of a sudden, my voice had a totally different sound!
it was still strong, but "lighter", more flexible...
and with a MUCH more pleasant sound...
the choir director looked at me, eyes wide-open in amazement...
mouth hanging open... & when she could speak, she said...
"where did that come from ?"
referring to the "high F" I had just, so uncharacteristically "floated"...
I was stunned too...
NEVER expecting that sweet a sound to ever come out of my mouth...
"I have NO idea", I said, also wide-eyed...
so I tried it again... and again...
then the entire song[VWms,"The Call"]
and I could keep that focus all the way...
even more amazingly, it felt,"easy"..."relaxed"..."natural"...
singing stopped being something that I had to work hard at...
and became "easy"... I became a "crooner"...
there was still breath support, diction, etc...
but it was SO much easier and I could now accurately hear myself...
when I'd listen to myself before, I was always surprised & a bit disappointed...
now, I could really hear myself...
and there were no more surprises or disappointments...
at my next lesson, I shared my new voice with my teacher...
who liked it very much & encouraged me to stay with it...
so we abandoned the operatic "bellowing" for "crooning"...
and I've never looked back...
what a gift from God!
I had always wanted to be a singer...
and then, at age 40, He had given me the gift of a "solo voice"...
the voice was His gift, but the groundwork was prepared by all my teachers...
especially MsRS, whose words of wisdom finally proved to be correct...
I just had to get to a place where I could "practice" them...
the last time I saw MsRS, she came to a concert at the church...
and heard me sing with my "gift" voice...
she came up to me after the concert...
and told me just how pleased she was...
that I was finally "singing from my heart"...
and that she "always knew it was in there..."
so, rest in peace, Ms Redheaded Soprano...
so many of us have filled this world with song, thanks to you...
and I'm sure that we're already filling Heaven too...
thanks so much for everything...
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