How to Sing With More Resonance — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hey everyone. Today we talk a little bit
2. 0:02about resonance. I was today in
3. 0:04rehearsal and I had to sing this really
4. 0:06difficult line which goes all the way up
5. 0:09to I see and uh it stays up there all
6. 0:12the time. And I noticed that if I think
7. 0:16on stage, oh this is the moment I have
8. 0:18to deliver and I have to find this
9. 0:21resonance, then it won't really come. I
10. 0:24will then get out of my body and I will
11. 0:27try to push the sound forward. And
12. 0:30that's what we don't want. We want a
13. 0:32very clear sound. But we do not want to
14. 0:34over put forward sounds. This makes the
15. 0:38sounds uh more shallow, more wide, less
16. 0:42warm and uh less resonance. Because what
17. 0:46is resonance really? Resonance is like
18. 0:48if you press a piano, a normal piano, if
19. 0:52you press on the tone, there comes a
20. 0:54beautiful sound. But if you press on the
21. 0:56same grand piano, the same tone, it has
22. 0:59a warmer sound. It has more resonance.
23. 1:02The same is of course with a violin or a
24. 1:05cello. It has a different resonance. So
25. 1:08it sounds different. Now we are all
26. 1:11different and we have to find our
27. 1:14resonance. is you cannot change the
28. 1:18resonance that you have. Either you're
29. 1:20using it or you're not using it. And
30. 1:22this is what singers sometimes do not
31. 1:24understand. You do not influence that
32. 1:28resonance. Once you are optimizing it,
33. 1:30that's all you can do. You have the
34. 1:32voice that you have and sing with the
35. 1:34voice that you have. So for example are
36. 1:37the teners that have on top a very chest
37. 1:41sounding resonance and then there are
38. 1:44tenants that don't and it is on one hand
39. 1:48for the tenants that don't a very
40. 1:51difficult thing to not have this massive
41. 1:54sound but on the other hand for the ones
42. 1:56that do have that massive sound it's
43. 1:58more difficult for example to phrase
44. 2:01better or to sing piano softer on
45. 2:05sing with the voice that you have. So
46. 2:08when I for example practice my
47. 2:10repertoire and I have to practice now a
48. 2:12different uh role it's
49. 2:16from
50. 2:18I'm singing this in Leon actually and I
51. 2:22think of the recordings that I hear wow
52. 2:24these teners they have all massive
53. 2:26sounds I have my sound so I sing with
54. 2:28that so I'll go a little bit through
55. 2:30that role and show you a couple places
56. 2:34that for example for me should be my
57. 2:39version, not the version of a huge
58. 2:42dramatic tener.
59. 3:27Great. So, I have a score with me and
60. 3:29I'm going through some bits and pieces
61. 3:32to show you what I mean. Yes. The first
62. 3:36one, the PR. Um, the story about the PR
63. 3:39is that he is very sad and he never
64. 3:43laughs and he is a very melancholic
65. 3:45person. And at some point in the castle
66. 3:50or the palace, there comes a party and
67. 3:53he's laughing at Fata Morgana. And it's
68. 3:57the first time he laughs and she curses
69. 4:00him because of that. And so this
70. 4:04situation where I'm singing here is when
71. 4:06he's still very sad and it's very
72. 4:08melancholic. Yeah. So it goes like this.
73. 4:18Eager lot.
74. 4:41Now I do not want to show here a lot of
75. 4:45dramatic sound but I do want the sound
76. 4:47to be grounded. So that's why I choose
77. 4:50an open
78. 4:52and not
79. 4:55you see the difference the one is open
80. 4:57the other one is chosen closed.
81. 5:07Now I'm not using my resonance. So if I
82. 5:11want to use my resonance, I just have to
83. 5:13always think, especially with e vowels
84. 5:16and closed vowels, think a little bit
85. 5:18more.
86. 5:28And now comes the word lat.
87. 5:34I do not choose lat
88. 5:38the turn sound. I choose lat.
89. 5:45Now this is the resonant the resonance
90. 5:47that I have. Yes. If I wear a very
91. 5:50dramatic tenor I might have more chest
92. 5:52on that sound. Well, I cannot show you
93. 5:54that because I do not have that and I
94. 5:56also am not willing to go there and that
95. 5:58is an important lesson that you sing
96. 6:01with your sounds. You want to always
97. 6:04focus on the beauty of the sounds. A
98. 6:06tener to me once said, never sing louder
99. 6:10than beautiful. And I think that's just
100. 6:12put perfectly because you do not want to
101. 6:15sing louder than you can because there
102. 6:18is no louder than you can. Let's go to
103. 6:21the next bit and see if we can find
104. 6:23something that maybe goes a little bit
105. 6:25higher because I do have some beautiful
106. 6:29high notes in here. Let me see.
107. 6:33I think when he meets the princess
108. 6:35because of course there's always a
109. 6:36princess in the story. This is very
110. 6:38interesting. So he meets her and he has
111. 6:42been traveling to find his real love and
112. 6:46um the oranges they
113. 6:51die when they o are being opened. Yes.
114. 6:53So he's being cursed by father Morgana
115. 6:56and she she then curses him saying you
116. 6:58will fall in love with an orange blah
117. 7:00blah blah. He's going on a trip finds
118. 7:02the oranges. Um but then they die
119. 7:04because they open the oranges and there
120. 7:06comes a beautiful little princess out.
121. 7:09If they don't get water, they die. So
122. 7:12the third one that he opens,
123. 7:16um, he knows already, please take the
124. 7:19water because if you don't, you die and
125. 7:21I love you. Yes. So there's two
126. 7:23different ways to do that. I could sing,
127. 7:25please take the water, otherwise you
128. 7:28die. Or I could sing, please take the
129. 7:31water, otherwise you die. And there is a
130. 7:34difference in how I phrase that. And if
131. 7:36I would sing that,
132. 7:39he sings
133. 7:44name take the water and then he goes,
134. 7:54I could also choose to sing it a little
135. 7:56bit more maybe chess dominant, but I
136. 7:59don't think that sound better.
137. 8:06I could do that. I like the warm sound
138. 8:09more because he's speaking to his love.
139. 8:27Do you hear that? One has more of an
140. 8:31longer sound, a vertical sound, and the
141. 8:34other one is a little bit more
142. 8:35widespread. Now, one is using the
143. 8:39resonance more and using more head
144. 8:42resonance. Yeah.
145. 8:44The other one is a little wider. If you
146. 8:47sing a brighter or wider vowel, it is
147. 8:51most of the time more chest dominance.
148. 8:54So the more you sing an oval sound, the
149. 8:57more you have this head resonance and
150. 9:00the more you sing a wider sound like ah
151. 9:02it's more chest resonance, chest sounds.
152. 9:07Now this is a choice you make and uh
153. 9:10there is a risk in singing more chest
154. 9:12resonance u because what is the risk
155. 9:15there is that you fall off easier. Now
156. 9:17the other risk with singing too heavy is
157. 9:19that you lose the chest and that you
158. 9:21lose your cuts in the hall and so you
159. 9:23always have to balance balance these
160. 9:25things. I for example had today to sing
161. 9:28in rehearsal this crazy bit.
162. 9:40Okay, that's very high and it is enough
163. 9:45chest resonance but I choose not to GO
164. 9:50why because first of all it's more risky
165. 9:53on stage. I cannot hear what's going on
166. 9:56around me and the sound is not as
167. 10:00beautiful and although it's a character
168. 10:02moment I choose for a more beautiful
169. 10:05sound and a sound that I can easier
170. 10:07access. Now why do I choose in this
171. 10:10moment this particular voice because it
172. 10:13goes even higher.
173. 10:16So you start the end the second line
174. 10:24Yes. Then you go to high B. Now it
175. 10:26becomes the difficult part. If I would
176. 10:28have chosen an open vowel, I could never
177. 10:30have done that.
178. 10:42Now when I go lower,
179. 10:48more smile, a little bit more chest
180. 10:52resonance. Then I go up to the high C
181. 10:56long vowel.
182. 11:08If I would have chosen to go wider
183. 11:10there, then I would have most probably
184. 11:13tried to sound more like a dramatic
185. 11:15voice, but I would have maybe strained
186. 11:18more.
187. 11:25You see, the one sound does not vibrate
188. 11:28as well as the other voice. The other
189. 11:30sound is always vibrating. It's free and
190. 11:32I can keep singing, which is the main
191. 11:35goal of this whole lesson. I want you to
192. 11:38sing freely and I want you to choose the
193. 11:40sound that makes you sing easily. So,
194. 11:45always feel with yourself, am I actually
195. 11:48straining? Then think first about this.
196. 11:53What vowel am I choosing? Am I choosing
197. 11:55a too bright vowel? Am I choosing a too
198. 11:57dark vowel? Is my jaw relaxed? Is my
199. 12:00tongue forward and relaxed? Is my breath
200. 12:04calm? These things are very essential
201. 12:07for deciding what kind of sound you go
202. 12:10for. Now, these are extreme extreme
203. 12:12examples because it's a difficult
204. 12:14repertoire and it's very high. But this
205. 12:16goes also in things like
206. 12:20uh for example, Vagaluna, beautiful
207. 12:22area.
208. 12:32I always choose for this oh long wolf's
209. 12:37mouth feeling and this is giving me this
210. 12:40particular sound that people know me
211. 12:42for. Yeah, this sound that is Leonard.
212. 12:46And what you do want to do is have as
213. 12:49little resistance as possible. So that's
214. 12:51the lesson for today. Try to find this
215. 12:54oval sound. Oh. Oh. In the top notes, in
216. 12:58the middle notes, and in the lower
217. 12:59register, you always want to have this.
218. 13:03And you never want TO HAVE THIS AH
219. 13:05BECAUSE that is not really helping you.
220. 13:08Now, let me know if that helps and if
221. 13:10that actually brings you forward. And if
222. 13:12it does, great.