This week I have been working on the French song "Mandoline". I think French is the hardest language I have had to sing because many of the vowel sounds have no parallel in the English language. I have been working on these mixed vowel sounds but sometimes I forget how they sound when I'm practicing on my own. I can usually imitate Dr. Hepworth pretty good in my lesson but then I don't understand what I wrote down for that vowel sometimes when I go to practice. I have noticed that one of the key successes to speaking or singing French is keeping your lips puckered for vowel sounds.

Other than French words, I have been working on other things like keeping things frontal and KEEPING MY MOUTH OPEN!!!!!! When my mouth is wide open, everything seems to come a lot easier and it seems to put less strain on my vocal folds. I have been putting a lot of strain on my vocal folds especially when I sing high. Dr. Hepworth's idea of "thinking skinny" along with keeping my mouth wide open helps me to put less strain on my voice.

Earlier today I was running through "Down in the Forest" since I'm singing it on recital in a couple days, and realized that either it's a lot harder of a song than I thought or there is something wrong with my voice. I think this is a tough song for me because it forces me to jump registers between my low voice, medium voice and high voice. As a result, I get funny little cracks in my voice or scoops every once and awhile. Also, my voice is sounding much more
"air-y" than it ever has. I wonder if I have been putting too much strain on it? Oh it is so frustrating having an air-y singing voice! Then to try to fix that, I tried bringing the sounds even more forward than I had been and I just sounded annoying. Anyhow, if anyone can help me I would appreciate it!

this one's for the birds - audacity.mp3

dear box.net, please stop posting music tech to my voice blog!!! this is frustrating!!!

this one's for the birds - audacity.mp3

this one's for the birds - audacity.mp3

this one's for the birds - audacity.mp3

This week during my lesson we sang through on "Down in the Forest" and "Voi che sapete" because I am on student recital this week and needed to see which one to do. The past week I have been working on keeping my sound frontal and modifying vowels when I go for the high notes. Thanks to Dr. Hepworth I know that when I sing a high "ee" vowel sound it should be changed to "I" and "oh" should be changed to more of an "aw" sound. This helps me keep the vowel sound frontal and avoid swallowing the sound. I think my biggest challenge this week and semester is going to be singing in French since I have never sang in any language other than English and Italian. Not to mention the French language just has some very different vowel sounds to which English just has no comparison. For example: mixed vowel sounds: like puckering your lips for an "oo" and then shaping your tongue and the inside of the oral cavity for an "ee" sound. It feels so weird!! But sounds just like the people in French movies - lol!

Helllooo!!!

These past few weeks I have been working on "Voi Che Sapete" and "Down in the Forest" along with songs from the musical "Little Shop of Horrors". I have found that the toughest part for me so far is not the music itself, since it is probably not the hardest music, but the words and forming the correct vowel and consonant sounds. The toughest part of this is trying to totally eliminate the diphthongs we so often create in American English. Right now I am working on keeping the space in my mouth a consistent shape by not moving my jaw, lips and tongue in order to keep myself from creating diphthongs. I am also working on keeping my sound "in the front of my nose" in hopes of maintaining a bright sound while singing - especially the Italian - no swallowing those vowels!!

I am so lucky to be working with Dr. Hepworth and everyone else in our studio. Thank you for your instruction and advice!