- 8ish till 9:30: Get ready and go do the first 45 minute practice session of the day. Ideally, I'll squeeze yoga in here someday as well, but to do that requires getting to sleep much earlier Monday nights. Sleep still takes precedence over yoga for vocal health for me...
- 9:30-11:30: 19th century opera singers seminar. A grand discussion with doctoral candidates about the role of the singer, the diva, the composer, and the ornaments (little extra notes) in 19th century opera. Very interesting and fun.
- 11:30-12:30: Music Bibliography. Basically a tour of how to use the library effectively as well as the Insider's Guide to the Music Volumes Vocabulary. Today, for instance, we discussed a prime reason why publishers continue to release new editions: to milk more moola out of libraries and the common folk who want the "newest and greatest" Bach cantatas. The professor called this "the cynics' reason". Is it bad that this is the logic that sprang to my mind first? (For all you business folks who say, "that's the only reason", other possibilities include the find of new manuscripts or composer letters that may "update" the scholarly interpretations in the score.)
- 12:30-2:30: Scarf lunch, make some copies for class, cram in a few errands for my departmental assistantship, and do the second 45 minute practice session for the day.
- 2:30-3:30: Studio class. This is where all the students in my voice teacher's studio perform for each other and get a public voice lesson. She critiques and fixes things with us in front of the others. Purpose? 1) To give us more experience performing in front of an audience. (This dynamic also highlights flaws that may not be there when we're feeling calmer.) 2) To provide information and insights for the benefit of all. Half the students perform each week. Today was my day. I sang a fun high piece called "So anch'io la virtu magica". Lots of flashy coloratura (all the little notes) and comical character bits.
- 3:30-5:30: Opera Workshop. We meet and work on characters, discuss energy flow, learn acting technique, perform for each other, and more. The class is held in a black box theatre.
- 5:30-7ish: Run home and make a solid dinner to regain some energy before the final push of the night.
- 7ish-7:30: Head over to choir rehearsal.
- 7:30-9:45: Choir rehearsal in a nearby church with a couple hundred other people, including both students and community folks. We sit on hard metal chairs (the folding kind) in a large fellowship hall and try to hear the conductor as he instructs us to "sing the melody on ta."
- 10 pm: Home at last. Drink oodles of tea to soothe voice.
Despite the packed schedule, Tuesdays are still pretty fun. I have tons of performing classes, and I get to learn interesting tidbits about opera history or useful facts that help me be more efficient in finding music at the library. The most challenging part of the day for me is that choir rehearsal. Not only does it come at the energy low point for me; it also presents a unique challenge and potential risk to my voice.
Singers are only supposed to vocalize (physically sing) for 2 hours max a day. Any more and you risk straining your instrument. Now, this is all fine and dandy except on days like today. Generally, I manage this limit by doing two 45 minute practice sessions and then figuring the time I spend performing in class makes up the rest. But on Tuesdays, I have my practice sessions, about 15 minutes of hard singing in studio class, the potential for more in opera workshop, and - the killer - 2 hours of choir rehearsal. Choir is pretty much continuous singing, and the soprano parts are all in the passagio - D, E, F right above middle C. Singing constantly in that arena can rapidly fatigue a soprano voice. Plus, I'm already fighting low energy at that time, which means my breath support isn't what it should be. (Lack of proper breath support means you work too hard in your throat, again fatiguing the muscles and leading to potential strain.)
So how to fix? One solution is to do less practicing on Tuesdays. This is probably the tack I'll take, but it is a toughy. Those 90 minutes are dear to me because that's the time I get to spend training the muscles in my throat to respond to new technical points. You can learn music by just hitting the notes on the piano and speaking the text, but to really refine technique and get something "into your voice" so that you're singing it well and correctly, I think you actually need to sing it and see how it feels. Maybe that's just me not being advanced enough yet to really not need to sing it, but for now, that's my need. Skipping a day of that and - worse - doing singing that sometimes runs counter to the technique you need, is a tricky bit to grapple with.
All that to say that I'm sucking down tea as though I've been in a desert, and I'm marking my notes to ask my voice teacher for potential solutions that will ease the vocal fatigue on Tuesdays. Wish me luck in finding a fix!
~Hope
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