…it’s official, i can sing. No Idols or Britain’s Got Talent for me. Across the board from Bessie Smith to Mozart’s Lieder. Today is a great day to be me. Give me the notes I can read it, follow it, and apply it. Well beginner style that is.
It started over tea and a cigarette with my singing teacher. I queried about the necessity of drama when singing a song. He replied with a sing-songey,
“yeeeeees”, coz he’s norwegian, “a song needs four things to be done right:
Mathematics
Beauty
Drama…
and what was that Fourth thing again,
Philosophy. yes that’s right philosophy.”
And then the lesson started. His violin accompanied me through voice-activating warm-ups and scales then into ‘das lied der trennung” for the bits i was having trouble with.
We worked out Mozart’s little bag o tricks for about 30 mins or so. Then another 30 via 2 new songs we fumbled through until the natural end to the lesson.
”Do you want to do another song?” he sing-songily asked. I rushed to my bag for the sheet music of ‘Caro mio ben’. It’d been a while and in my hands the day before.
Before you start thinking i better be good. Let me explain where i am with singing. I started in January 2009 with lessons not know nothing. Suddenly i’m piled into Italian and German lyrics from my nine language speaking teacher. Following him ekeing out the notes meant for a piano on a violin. Realising I’m supposed to be louder than him.
“An die Freude” was my first foray into Lieder. Obviously you find out later these are good old fashioned standards and singing students all over the world are learning them, at least in classical circles. The principles of singing though are across the board.
When its high approach from above, when low from below. Breathe when necessary and if necessary breathe. Piano, mezzo-forte, and forte must be observed, as must pauses and rests and hangs. The measure and lengths of note are integral. When singing high think low, low high, dark and light the same principle.
Each lesson has spurred me on to look for other songs. And change my way of singing along to my i-pod. I don’t want to sound like whoever influenced the song the most in the past. I want to sing my song with my voice and goddamn if it doesn’t take a long time to hear results.
So with all this enthusiasm I launched into Caro mio ben. A song we’d worked on and left to ferment a couple of months ago. My teacher is a fan of gentle begininngs, not immediately in-your-face vocalisation.
When the first note hit, i knew i was on it. He too, with an encouraging “that’s it” before the next phrase. I made it to the end of the song and held my cheshire cat grin until he’d finished playing. Then i said, “Expletive brilliant. I felt that.”
Now I know it doesn’t mean i’m Pavarotti already but it now officially for me anyways, works. I’ve been so energised the whole evening singing every song i’ve got sheet music or lyrics for. It works.
Now join with me and Vickie Winans and a bunch of jesus-loving roller-skating kids:
‘If you’re happy and you know it’ Listen to all these song links if you like good vocal music.
ADDENDUM March 21st 2010:
Did my first recital for an audience at an open podium in Cantina Vocaal. You can see and hear the results of William singing Mozart’s ‘An Chloe’ and ‘Dans un bois solitaire’