Final Reflection
Prior to this class I had virtually no knowledge about singing technique. My only real experience with singing came from sight-singing exercises in my music classes, or singing chorus back-up vocals with my mariachi band in high school. In both cases, the singing was very simple and only consisted of brief phrases, I had never sung an entire song before. Furthermore, I had never performed a solo before, even on an instrument.
The chapter that stood out to me the most was the one focused on breath. I grew up playing violin and later the keyboard, which are two instruments which require no breathing technique at all. So learning to control my breath in a musical context was a bit of a learning curve for me. I do, however, have experience with public speaking (I perform poetry and stand-up at open mics) and was able to apply some of those skills here. This included planning when I was going to breathe ahead of time, so that I am never caught off guard by running out of breath. The concept of “anchoring the breath” in the belly was totally foreign to me, though, and completely changed the way I approach breathing now. I had no idea that people could control our breath in that way, by simply being conscious of where it is being stored in our body. Like I mentioned in my practice journal, I have been able to use breath technique in other areas of my life as well. This includes when giving tours for the admissions office (going up the hills and speaking to a crowd at the same time is very difficult) but also when I perform at open mics. In this unit we also learned about the relationship between breath and body alignment. Here, my previous musical experience did pay off. Good posture is important to all instruments, but the violin in particular requires a very deliberate position to play properly.
The other chapter that was very interesting to me was chapter 6, on diction. The goal of this chapter was to improve our enunciation while singing by breaking down lyrics phonetically via the IPA vowel standards. We also learned to be conscious of our natural tendencies which might obscure certain sounds. For example, the difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants made me conscious of whether or not I was clearly singing “love” and not “lofe.” This chapter not only made me a better singer, but also stood out to me because I am very interested in the relationship between language and music. When I paid attention to vowel sounds in isolation, I realized how common it was for the notes I was singing to correspond with the shape my mouth formed to sing a lyric. For example, in “Over the Rainbow,” to sing “some” [U] my jaw lowers, which corresponds with the low-C I am singing. Then, to sing “where” [ɛ] my mouth raises, which corresponds with the high-c I am singing. I do not think this is something that composers do deliberately. Rather, I think it is something that subconsciously happens, and I have been able to find instances like this in my own music as well.
Overall, this class made me aware of my body in ways that I never had to think about before. Everything, from how much sleep I got the night before to what type of liquid I was drinking affected how I performed that day. In this way, sleeping is a sport just as much as it is an art form. This class also made me realize how much of a tactile learner I am when it comes to music. One of the things that scared me away from singing in the past was not being able to match pitch, and I still struggled with that in class this semester. However, whenever I practiced singing at a piano, it was like someone flipped a switch in my brain and I could suddenly match pitch. Being able to physically feel the notes (or more importantly, the distance between the notes) really helps me to connect with the sound. I think this may also be a consequence of violin playing, where feeling the right position is just as important as hearing the right notes.