Art - Music - Voice Year 1-10

1. Overview
2. Equipment
3. Year 1 (2012)
4. Year 2 (2013)
- 4.1. 15 months (October 2013)
5. Year 6 (2017)
6. References

1. Overview

I'm the guy who couldn't even sing Happy Birthday. I never participated in a choir. When everyone was singing Christmas carols, I was lip syncing. When people sat around the campfire and sang Home on the Range, I stepped back and listened.

After my 60th birthday (and 5 yrs of self-taught trumpet), I decided to try to learn to sing.

I didn't know how to teach myself, so asked for an instructor at my local music store. They hooked me up with Dorothy Harwood. By chance we had gone to school in the same "alternative" college environment, so we were kindred spirits.

The difference of course was that I was clueless about singing, and she had years of performing and teaching. So she was (and is) able to detect my problems, diagnose the cause, explain the objective, illustrate the transition from "bad" to "good", lead me along that path, and provide ever-more-nuanced feedback as I progress.

This page records my progress in learning voice (singing).

2. Equipment

Music stand, metronome, tuner (see Music)
Books
- Clippinger
- (others as noted)

3. Year 1 (2012)

3.1. 0 months (July 2012)

The first session was: Can you match a pitch? Dorothy said she could teach me to sing if I could match the pitches as she played a scale on the piano. I could, approximately, so she took me on as a student.

She had me get Clippinger, kodaly41 and althouse75.

We worked up through warmups, tone generation, and breathing. The first major hurdle was Clippinger: Lesson 5 (breath-control). Had to stay there for several weeks until I could do it at all.

3.2. 1 month (August 2012)

Established a warmup pattern:

Loosen up physically (from Tai Chi)
20 deep breaths
Humming up and down scales
Scales up and down: "May, Me, My, Moe, Moo"

Next struggle was Clippinger: Lesson 7 (vowels). The first problem was: how to sing in pitch? I practiced every day trying to get exercises 2, 3, 10, and 11 in tune. They are still part of my warmup.

I play on C trumpet, and then try to sing. I watch my tuner as I go. Gradually got within a note, then within a semitone, and then closer to the pitch. That has taken months. Gradually, I've been able to "pre hear" the tones and thus hit them directly (instead of trying to bend them into place.

3.3. 2 months (September 2012)

Dorothy tried me on schirmer48 and althouse75. I still didn't have adequate control so we had to fall back to Clippinger.

I purchased a few other books on my own and we used those to get me past the hurdle. I wanted to learn folksongs. Dorothy picked "Down in the Valley" and "Old Stewball" from appleby91. We worked on those for weeks, doing diction, flow, resonance, keeping throat open, etc.

3.4. 3 months (October 2012)

Dorothy finally said "Ok, good enough. These are folks songs, sung around a campfire or with friends. They are not arias." So we set them aside.

To a professional singer this was just a detour, but to me it was a specific objective: At that point I could sing folk songs on my own. If I played them on the C trumpet first, and then sang with tuner in hand, I could do them. My wife said it still sounded like I was trying to strangle the notes, and had little sense for the phrasing, but it was improving. "If you knew what they were supposed to sound like, you could do them".

3.5. 4 months (November 2012)

Dorothy had a recital for all her students. I skipped it. She then suggested we (all the students) do a Holiday singalong at an assisted living home. So we picked songs for me to lead, and began focusing on those songs:

Deck the Halls
O Christmas Tree
Here We Come a-Wassailing
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Silent Night

Once again, this was new territory for me. I didn't know the words or the tunes. I had to play them over and over on the C trumpet to get close, and my wife had to coach me on the phrasing.

Over weeks, I got closer on the tuner, and more solid on phrasing. Dorothy then began teaching the nuances: Where to place the "vanishing notes", where to breathe, pace, keeping an open throat while projecting out to the room, etc.

I found I could not do the high notes for Silent Night, so she wrote me a lower harmony part. Again, a new experience. I had never done harmony with anyone.

After weeks of practicing just the few songs, I tried dozens from ucfb. Still needed C trumpet to hear the music, and tuner to get my voice there, but quite do-able. Not ready to go caroling or join a choir, but suddenly a whole new world has opened.

3.6. 7 months (February 2013)

Survived the holiday sing-along, which was more like a solo than a sing-along. Struggled with the harmony.

Then turned back to Clippinger for exercises, and to "Folk Songs" and "Musical Theatre" for pieces. Working on

Open throat, open sinuses ("inner smile"), sing beyond the teeth
Control the air flow
Keep the vowel going. No wasted rush of air.
Relax, relax, relax, relax. I'm so concerned about pitch and timing and remembering the words that I tighten up, and strangle the sound. Whenever I do manage to relax and let a song happen, I can tell it works. But I can't do it on demand.

Part of going back to basics is more Kodaly. I skipped it at first, not understanding it at all. Now (after holidays) I'm working 5 exercises a day, three times through each. The idea is to use them for "sight reading" and to get the pitch intervals. Just doing D, E, G, A. Seems pretty simple, but easy to lose the pitch.

The new adventure is singing to piano accompaniment. "Folk Songs" has a CD, and Dorothy played some of the "Musical Theatre" tunes for me to record. I get totally lost, trying to count measures, hear pickup notes, and find the pitch. I'll try listening to the accompaniment while reading the music silently, so that I hear them as one, and then try the singing.

Practice Regimen

Sing in car to and from work, and again at home. So getting about 1-2 hrs/day.

Warmups (car or home)
- 10 explosive out breaths, pushed by diaphragm
- Humming: down scale, then Clippinger Lesson 7 ex 2,3,10,11
- Clippinger Lesson 6 ex 1,2,3,4.
- "May, Me, Mi, Moh, Moo" up and down scale
- Clippinger Lesson 7 ex 2,3,10,11
- "Down in the Valley". First song I learned, and comfortable for getting into song mode.
- Falsetto-down-to-head-voice with oo, oh, ah, ay , ee. Working on transition, so better high range.
- Low-down with ee,ee,ee,ah, then back up ah, ah, ee. Working on low range.
Skills (at home)
- Day-of-week piece from Clippinger Lesson 10.
- Kodaly. Next 5 exercises. Play start note on C trumpet. At first I had to write the "so, la, doh, ray" as s,l,d,r on the music. Now I can do that on sight. Takes 2 times to hear an exercise, and one more to more or less get it right.
- Assorted scales and intervals from public domain voice lesson books. Do these with electronic keyboard, so I can focus on sound.
Pieces (car or home). Currently doing
- "Folk Songs": Shenendoah. Smooth and workable.
- "Folk Songs": Cindy. Bouncy and satisfying. Tricky key changes.
- "Musical Theatre": Try to Remember. Legato and phrasing
- "Musical Theatre": When I was a lad. Diction.
- "Musical Theatre": Oh What a Beautiful Morning. Sustained clear notes. I do this every morning in the car, rain or shine.
- "Musical Theatre": They call the Wind Maria. I don't have it memorized yet, so just at home.
- "Musical Theatre": Ol' Man River. I need to slow down, and provide gravitas.
Stretch Goals
- "Folk Songs": All through the Night. Very hard piece for me
- "Musical Theatre": The Impossible Dream. Beginning to get the melody.

Obviously not everything in a given day.

4. Year 2 (2013)

In April, shifted focus to a few songs, to learn the nuances of those. Chose "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" and "Shenandoah". Worked on the words, tune, timing, and phrasing. Then worked with piano accompaniment. That is very hard for me. It is essentially a duet, which means I have to work with someone else to make a joint experience -- and I haven't done that before.

Practice Regimen

Sing in car to and from work, and again at home. So getting about 1-2 hrs/day.

Warmups (car or home)
- 5 deep out breaths, pushed by diaphragm
- Humming: down scale, then Clippinger Lesson 7 ex 2,3,10,11
- Clippinger Lesson 6 ex 1,2,3,4.
- "May, Me, Mi, Moh, Moo" up and down scale
- Clippinger Lesson 7 ex 2,3,10,11
- "Down in the Valley". First song I learned, and comfortable for getting into song mode.
- Falsetto-down-to-head-voice with oo, oh, ah, ay , ee. Working on transition, so better high range.
- Low-down with ee,ee,ee,ah, then back up ah, ah, ee. Working on low range.
Sight reading Completed Kodaly and now redo last 7 pages per day-of-week. Getting better at hitting the pitches. do-re-me definitely helps.
Practice pieces
Listen to recorded piano accompaniment and sing along. Try to hear pickup notes and the musicality of the combined effort.
Working on getting open sinus resonance but not nasal voicing. Diaphragm support. Breath control. It gradually gets better (month by month, not day by day).

4.1. 15 months (October 2013)

Same practice regimen, except using "Caro mio ben" instead of "Down in the valley" as warmup. Also added Vaccai. Worked through the intervals, then runs, now working mordants.

In July (after 1 year of lessons) I shifted gears to explore several worlds.

4.1.1. Broadway

Using Hal Leonard "The Singers Musical Theatre Anthology" vol 1.

Worked:

"Try to remember"
"When I was a lad"
"The imossible dream"
"Oh what a beautiful morning" (already worked for recital)
"They call the wind Mariah"
"Ol' Man River"
"Some enchanted evening"

The process is:

Determine key and mark for do-re-mi, and for count
Practice with do-re-mi. Use piano for tone check at first, then tuner.
Write out the lyrics and make up a visual story to provide the verse order. Gradually memorize.
Then work with Dorothy to clean up tone, phrasing, etc. And to get me in sync with piano accompaniment (that's the hardest part).

4.1.2. Arias

Using Schirmer's Library "Twenty-Four Italian Songs and Arias of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries".

Worked up

Giuseppe Giordani: "Caro mio ben"
Alessandro Scarlatti: "Gia il sole dal Gange"

It took me quite a while to "get it". I found Renato Bruson doing them on youtube, and that really helped.

4.1.3. Art Songs

Using Schirmer "First Book of Bass/Baritone Solos"

Working on:

Robert Shumann: "Hor ich das Leidchen klingen"
Felix Mendelssohn: "Jagdlied"
Gabriel Faure: "Le Secret"

Singing to printed lyrics. Youtube helps get tempo and phrasing. Just starting to work with piano accompaniment. Starting to memorize lyrics.

4.1.4. Opera

Using Schirmer "Arias for Bass" and "Arias for Baritone"

Working on:

Mozart (Le Nozze di Figaro): "Non pui andrai"
Giacomo Pucci (Edgar): "Questo amor, veergogna mia"

Just in the do-re-me phase. Found several renditions on youtube. Also rented DVDs for a lot of operas, and got a feel for the culture.

5. Year 6 (2017)

Now have raw range C2-E5 and singing range E2-C5. Have gone through all of Abt, both the tenor and the bass books, including the vocalaises. Using arpaggios and swells for warmups, and vocalaises for flexibility.

Over the past couple of years we have worked through Gregorian Chants, madrigals, pre-1700 arias, art songs, international folks songs, Gilbert & Sullivan, Broadway, jazz, and some opera arias. Had a good recital recently with "Se voul ballare" from Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro.

Currently working pieces from Mozart's "Magic Flute" (bass, basritone and tenor pieces). As usual, Mozart is so musical it hurts.

Also the "Largo al Factorum" aria from Rossini's "Barber of Seville" -- that one is just plain fun for a singer; really flamboyant.

In chorus class, preparing for performances with mix of Broadway, folk songs, and arias.