Me and My New Voice

I have a new hobby, classical singing. I try to get in some practice every day in addition to the piano.

Before we get any further: That is not me in the video! I just lifted this video off YouTube. I will get to that in a minute. First I have to start with what happened. What happened was, I have been singing in choir at church for some time, and two or three weeks ago, I asked Howard for some coaching. Howard is evolving into quite the fine tenor thanks to lessons he took with the great Andy Anselmo.

To be honest I did not expect anything to come of this coaching. I had always sort of assumed in my life that I was a pianist and not a singer, that I could not sing. My sisters sang. I would beg my sister Katie to learn Schubert songs so I could accompany her. She was not as motivated as I was but she did learn a few songs. We did "Der Musensohn" -- that is fun to play on the piano! -- as well as "Lachen und Weinen"; "Wohin?", a bunch of others. A few times I tried to sing them along with myself. But I always had this problem, I had this small range. Even in the alto book, the song would go up to an E above middle C, and I would be stuck, I just couldn't sing that. 

Speaking of which I think that is the case with most women. I am thinking that few people have much of a range. Howard sings on the app Smule, and I am unimpressed with most of the people he sings with. The women, especially, they sing songs that are good and low, with a range of only about five notes. If I were smart I would just do that. 

But now it is too late. To my astonishment Howard's coaching took exactly five minutes to work this magic on me. All of a sudden I could hit all these notes comfortably that I had ever hit in my life. That elusive E came into play, and E is for easy. The F above it is there too. And the G above that. It was something about the way I had held my mouth all these years. I had not been going at the note right. Suddenly singing these notes -- and the ones leading up to them -- is as easy as striking a note on the piano. You order them up and they are there.

What in the world, you know?

Anyway, it is like this new toy. I just have never sung these notes and now I just want to sing them! I went to choir practice and sailed up and down the warmup arpeggios. I sang this chant I could never sing before and I got tears in my eyes. I actually texted Howard from the choir loft before Mass and I told him that. I told him thank you. It has honestly changed my life.

So now I have this new voice and I have to work on it. I started singing a few songs. I do Schubert's "An Die Musik" and Schumann's "Widmung." Those are kind of my two. I know hundreds of songs by heart so I often try others as well.

Times have sure changed since I was singing these songs with my sister!

Number one, you can look on Youtube and find accompaniments. You have your choice of keys. It's not as easy as playing the accompaniment for yourself because you have to adjust to the pianist's tempo which can be strange, but you can stand and concentrate on your singing.

Another thing, you can find master classes! I looked for "Master Class Widmung" and immediately found two great ones, one featuring Sir Thomas Allen -- that is it at the top of this post -- and the other one the pianist Graham Johnson. I have listened to Graham Johnson's Schubert recordings millions of times. 

It was like heaven! This really good singer taking the stage, singing "Widmung," and right next to her you've got Thomas Allen, ready to give his insights. Howard came in to talk to me right as the singer was finishing the song, and I had to pause the video. It was torture, having to do that!

Anyway. I thought it would be fun to write about some of these online master classes. I certainly am coming at them from a unique angle. And this music I have been listening to all my life, I am learning it in a new way. So look for more of this in the future.

So much fun!