Over Lockdown, I tore my vocal technique apart. I questioned everything. Changed a lot. Kept a lot. Fortunately, I was taught well and, even though I didn’t grasp everything at the time, my past teachers’ words are in my ears. Now, I am putting the pieces together to form a whole.
How do I know I am putting the pieces together correctly?
One way to know is to ask myself “does my singing sound like my speech?” One should sing as one speaks. I am not talking about my Kiwi accent! I am talking about the tone quality. Do I sound like me? Or am I trying to be someone else?
Here are some examples I recorded from today’s practice:
Baroque – Porpora – speech to singingRomantic singing – Donizetti – speech to song20th Century singing – Puccini – speech to song
The principle “sing as you speak” is also true for today’s popular song. Here are a couple of examples…
Folk/pop singing – Sting – speech to songJazz/pop singing – Norah Jones – speech to song
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 