[musictlk] struggling with high notes

[Kaiti Shelton]

Kelsey,

To clarify the jumping exercise, it does go up partially by thirds,
but more correctly it just follows the standard pattern of an
arpeggio.  If you want to think of it in scale degrees, it starts on
one, then goes three, five, 1/8, 3/10, (compound or simple intervals
depending on how you wish to think about them), and then it comes back
down.  All it requires you to do is sing up and down on pitches do,
mi, and sol.  Hope either of these explanations helps.

I would really encourage you to try different warm ups on your own
time to find ones which can help you.  While being mindful of not
damaging your voice is a good thing, being too timid about expanding
the range keeps so many people from using what they have.  Just in
choir today a girl behind me (we were just placed into our final spots
in soprano and alto sections for the semester), was freaking out
because she said it was "impossible" for her to sing over a B4.  When
she complained to the director, he said, "Yes you can, you just don't
think you can."  I had this same problem a few years ago.  Other
members of the choir were scoffing at the fact that they were in alto
land, because they were sopranos.  The director's response is
something I have mentioned earlier; you are not an alto, and you are
not a soprano.  These things exist for solo singing as soprano, mezzo,
and contralto, but in choir, everyone is a female voice.  Unless
you're singing some really difficult piece with crazy jumps and
whistle tones, everyone in the women's section of the choir should be
able to handle both parts relatively well.  Too many people box
themselves into singing in a particular range and style, and that is
why so many self-proclaimed sopranos can't harmonize when given
anything other than a melody to sing, and so many self-proclaimed
"altos" don't realize they can get almost an octave or more out of
their voices if they change their mindset and work a little bit on
proper technique.  Fun fact, I've always been placed in the alto
section because I was capable of hitting the lower notes and have a
good ear.  My director told me today that, while I could be in either
section and blend with both groups, I definitely have a lighter voice
and can also hold my own on a soprano section's part.  He also backed
up what several other professionals have had to tell me in order to
change my mindset about my own voice; that I am not a contralto, but
am a mezzo soprano with probably still more range I haven't really
played with yet up top.  2 years ago, I would have never thought this
guy knew what he was talking about.  It really is proof that a lot of
the time we don't really know what the quality of our voice is because
some well-intentioned but lazy choir director put everyone into little
groups and over-established the alto verses soprano thing.

Hope this helps,



On 9/16/14, Kelsey Nicolay via musictlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Ok.  I'll try that.
>
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-- 
Kaiti