Lilli Lehmann reminds us to never stop learning singing technique and new repertoire!!!
Overall, the purpose of this website is to document three years (2020 – 2023) of my studies to become a singing teacher. My rationale is that if I can’t sing to an acceptable standard then I should not become a singing teacher.
This post is a series of videos that demonstrate how I warmed the voice up yesterday from a F below middle C to a F above top C and then ran through the cadenza from Lucia Mad Scene.
This post follows up my last post about adapting Denes Striny’s exercises for myself. I have found his books to be groundbreaking because he explained how to achieve the head voice in a really fun way. In addition, I found his exercises provided me with a “basecamp”. This “basecamp” has given meconfidence because it provides me with a point of reference.
High notes are in everyone’s voice. These videos below are proof of that because I have never bothered with high notes about top C before and I am old – a young person should have no trouble!
Below are videos, recorded on my iPhone, of how I used the exercises in the Denes Striny book to warm up yesterday. Please read his books because I change things a bit. Also, these demos of mine are not perfect! There are a lot of mistakes. However, they head in the right direction and encourage the high notes out without any manipulation.
How I start the day practice at the moment
Gradually I bring the voice upwards and have fun with the exercise
When I stop it is because the a vowel fell out of line and didn’t sound the same colour as the others. There is no right or wrong a vowel but this one was just too difficult. The vowels down low begin to lose their correct sound. There is room for improvement.
This exercise gradually extends the voice upwards. The next video will take the voice up to a top F.
As I do this exercise I am learning to recorgnise the sensations and how to feed the right amount of air through.
After doing the above, I then sang this. Not every note is correct but overall it is heading in the right direction. I think the guitar was tuned to 440HZ in this video. Normally I tune it to 432HZ.
I am a classical singer and guitarist.
I have created a project called 'The Lilli Lehmann Project'. The project, lasting from 2020 until 2023, aims to refresh my voice and prepare me to be a singing teacher.
The scope of the project is that I am studying Lilli Lehmann's singing book, bibliography, recordings and her reviews, as well as other historical vocal pedagogy.
I have chosen this platform in order to blog about my discoveries, demonstrate techniques and exercises, and perform pieces of music. I have done so because I wish to be transparent. I think that if a student is prepared to learn from me then I should stand up to public scrutiny.
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Deborah Wai Kapohe 