The daily bump and grind.
7:12 p.m.
This recital, by the way, is becoming incredibly talked about around the university and town. It is controversial in a way because the Church Street Caf�, the concert venue set up by Janice and her man which stages a show the first Friday of every month from October to June, has also brought in a blues man for the same night. I know of several people who are torn between wanting to attend both concerts. I don�t think Janice needs to worry about our concert depleting their audience, however, as everytime I�ve been to the coffeehouse-like church hall, I�ve known approximately two people in the audience. It is a completely different crowd. Janice, however, is one of those people thus torn. I reassured her that Hubby and I would like to do a show for them, just us with maybe a bass player, since they have an acoustic policy, and we would also like to do a set or two at the Java. Today L�ville, tomorrow the world!
I altered the gown I bought at �just by taking up the shoulders 5/8" only. This is sufficient for me to go braless plus, with the high heels I bought, it doesn�t need further shortening. It looks great. My bosom is exposed to advantage, and I have to admit that I have never revealed this much d�colletage before in my life. I hope, and my husband hopes, that the boys in the band are not overly distracted with what Dave Barry labels �breast-induced brain freeze�. The audience is another story altogether. Hopefully there will be pictures to post and you can judge for yourselves.
I did a very stupid thing today, something I have always feared doing but not actually heretofore done. I got home from the office and could not find my house key in my purse. I had used my office key to get into the office, which meant that my keys were probably on the desk next to where I had set my purse. I phoned the office and Fannie confirmed that they were in fact there, so I hopped back in the car and got them. Luckily it�s only a 5-minute trip. This was following an hour of spider solitaire on the office computer, which followed an hour and-a-half lesson with my baritone learning Larg0 al fact0tum, in which I sang along in his register. This led to an interesting observation, something I had already known but got to verbalize to him today.
I have heard other teachers of singing say that you can tell a voice type (SAT or B) by where the register change lies. Do not believe them. This is bullshit. Every single one of our voices breaks at approximately the same places, whether we are male or female. What differentiates a soprano from an alto, or a tenor from a baritone, is where the strength of the voice lies. Sopranos find it easier to sing high and fade away to nothingness as they approach their bottom. Altos do not produce as good a sound in their head voice, but have a richness in their middle and chest which we higher voices lack. Basses and baritones can usually sing in full voice up to an F above middle-C before breaking into falsetto. No matter how much they try, they will rarely develop a smooth passagio, which is what the tenor seems to be able to do rather well, so that his �head voice� is indistinguishable from his upper middle register. It�s not so much that he doesn�t also change registers, but he can blend the qualities of both. The countertenor is a man, usually a low voice, who develops his falsetto and sings in the treble clef. His problem is that his range is extremely small (by professional standards) since his height is limited by the size of his adam�s apple, and if he ventures too low, he finds himself yodelling into chest voice.
Now I am a high soprano. I sing Queen-0f-the-Night notes. Over the years I have developed my technique so that I can also sing a passable mezzo-soprano. But, because it is not �natural� for me, I tire easily if I stay in that register too long. This is why we�ve had to transpose many of the blues songs into a key where I�m neither growling a B-flat and below, and hopefully not singing over an E (top space on staff).
Anyway, my observation to my baritone today, as I was singing �Figaro, Figaro, Figaro� with him was that I tire on those notes when I sing them in chest, and he tires on the same notes because they are so close to his upper end. This is why it is easy for me to find solutions to his technical problems. What works for me works for him; and they do work. I know there�s a book in there somewhere. Maybe later.
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