Persistance means progress

I'm a week late in writing this because I have been busy preparing for auditions and my wedding.  I currently am dealing with being frustrated with my singing, which is always a great place to be in a month before auditions.  I realized however after comparing clips from practice sessions a month ago to more current sessions that I have indeed made considerable progress in the last month.  In discussing this with JRL when I last saw him, he made mention that I probably get frustrated because I get to a plateau of sorts after about a month of work on my own.  Upon my comparison I can say that this is unequivocally the case.  It is not that I cease to improve, but that the work becomes more difficult as I reach a higher level in my singing.  I feel well-prepared going into this audition season and am very excited about the prospect of finally get out and singing again!

I have been doing well with my German as of late as well.  I have progressed well into the active wave of Assimil and am making better progress in LingQ as time goes on.  I still have a lot of work to do to reach my goal in LingQ of knowing at least 7,000 words by the end of December, but if I can continue on the trajectory I am currently on, I think I will make it.  I have found a challenge in the active wave of Assimil that I also ran into with French.  As the lessons progress I seem to get more and more things incorrect.  I figure that this is not a big deal, since for me the more important thing is the input and output, not the exactness of my answers.  I'm learning even in making corrections to what I originally write.  I see now the value some people find in going back and doing the active wave multiple times, although I would worry that at some point it becomes a thoughtless exercise rather than an active process.  Perhaps with ample time in between repetitions this can be avoided.

The Busy Season is Arriving

Now that the tumult of my Schicchi preparation has died down I am back to the normal grind.  I am now looking towards audition season, my first as a tenor.  Currently my first audition looks as though it is going to be in late October.  I am both excited and nervous about this first year of auditions.  I do not feel that I am completely ready vocally to be putting myself out there yet, but I am trusting in the guidance of JRL.  He thinks I am ready, and experience tells me that outside ears know my actual level better than I do.  I still have approximately two months until my first audition with which I hope to really solidify some pesky spots both in my voice and in my repertoire.  For those with inquiring minds, my planned audition repertoire this year is as follows:

De' miei bollenti spiriti from La Traviata by Verdi

Firenze com'é un albero fiorito from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini

Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön from Die Zauberflöte by Mozart

Ah! fuyez, douce image from Manon by Massenett

It's about the way people is made from Susannah by Floyd

The next two months entail a lot of work for me, specifically with Rinuccio and Des Grieux.  I really need to make sure that I have all of the Bb4's in those two pieces solid.  In addition to musical preparations, I am also about to begin working with an acting coach to help build my, admittedly undertrained acting skills.  I am hoping that these things will aid me in getting into a program my first year out and give me some tangible validation that I can bring back for all of my long time doubters in my home area.

My German studies have been a little hit or miss as of late.  Erring mostly on the side of miss.  I have done a better job of picking up the work this week and have begun to do more listening and attempting to speak and write a little bit more in German.  This week I joined a meetup group for German in Rochester.  I am going to go to my first meetup this Sunday with the goal of speaking in German the entire time I am there.

In other news I am getting married in the beginning of October which ultimately means my langauge studies will probably take another hit then.  Hopefully, I can find away to keep plugging away and achieve my goal of having a larger vocabulary in German than I do in French.  At this point my French vocabulary is about 56% larger than my German vocabulary.

First roles!

Tonight I sang through my first two roles as a tenor.  Overall I did fairly well, I had some issues in Rinuccio but I made it through, survived as it were.  I discovered some challenges that I was already vaugely aware of, and I found some things to be very pleased with.  I did record my Rinuccio and I may try to take out some of the more encouraging clips to post for your listening, ahem, pleasure.  Next I have to begin looking at some programs to audition for and also start learning two more roles, in case I get asked to sing them in the next year:  Il Duca and Tamino.  These two roles are challenging in different ways and it will be interesting learning them both somewhat simultaneously.  Also, I have to learn one more aria for my audition package and work very hard to make everything considerably more comfortable before I actually get to auditions.

German is coming along well.  I am now coming into a more comfortable place and find myself able to think in German fairly aptly.  I am about a week away from beginning the active phase of Assimil and am slowly building my passive vocabulary the LingQ.  My next task is to start engaging in more German conversation and try to activate some of the passive vocabulary that I have gained.  I think that I now can focus a little bit more on German since these roles are over.

Things are beginning to click!

The last two weeks have been good weeks for me on both fronts.  I have gotten back into a pretty regular study schedule with German and have noticed a lot of progress as of late.  I am now picking up small chunks of passages when I listen to Radio Horeb or watch Extr@.  I find that I am beginning to be able to express myself with a little more ease in daily conversation and am feeling more and more comfortable with the language every day.

Speaking of Extr@, I discovered this program while looking through my subscriptions on youtube the other day.  One of the channels I had subscribed to had liked one of the videos of Extr@.  Upon some research I discovered that the program is designed for language learners and is available in English, French, Spanish, and German.  The storyline is silly and the production value and acting leaves a bit to be desired, but I do find the program easy to watch and I can catch a lot of the dialogue.  Overall, German is progressing nicely now that I am back into the regular swing of things.

I have also been having similar experiences vocally.  My first roles as a tenor are coming up in about two weeks and I am starting to become comfortable singing them straight through in succession.  I was worried a few days ago because I felt like it was a struggle to get through the second, more demanding role of Rinuccio, however I eventually reminded myself that I will have some time to rest in between my sung parts in the role as compared to in the practice room where I sing through them in succession.  I recently discovered the vocal posture that I like to maintain while singing and this has made my life considerably more easy.  I have to verify that this is the correct posture when I meet with JRL in a couple of weeks, but I believe that this finding is a huge step forward for me.  


As this upcoming performance is nearly past, I am beginning to look forward to auditions for some summer young artist programs and putting together my package for this.  I am still lacking one aria in my package, but I hope to be able to rectify this problem also when I meet with JRL.  Singing has become really exciting again and I find that I fall more and more in love with the art form as I continue to progress, both vocally and linguistically.  Ultimately my language goals are designed to further my artistry and the more I delve into languages the more I see the beauty of the way composers set words to music; and the more I grow vocally the more I am able to enjoy telling the stories of these operas and songs.


In a quick look ahead, after this performance I am going to be focusing on securing my audition repertoire for the upcoming season.  After I have those pieces in a good place I intend to start to work on a recital program to be performed before I leave Rochester in about a year.  I am still trying to iron out a potential program, but I am leaning heavily towards performing "La bonne chanson" by Gabriel Faure and "Dichterliebe" by Robert Schumann.  It is said that Faure's work is considered by some to be his Dichterliebe, so I think this will be a nicely tied in program.  My plan is to sing both works in their original keys, which I personally believe is the best way to perform art song.  This way the audience hears the music exactly as the composer envisioned it.  As I begin to prepare this program I will reflect on it here and provide details of any upcoming performances of both the recital and any opportunities I receive through auditions.

Vocal Epiphany!

The last two weeks I have focused almost completely on the music side of my life.  With Rinuccio approaching in a month I have been working feverishly in preparing the role.  As I am beginning sing through the role in one sitting, I noticed at first that my endurance was an issue.  Luckily as with most muscular actions, the brain adapts quickly and I am having less and less issue with consistency getting through the role. In coaching the role for the first time this past week I had a bit of an epiphany.

At a coaching a month or so ago I was told to be careful of my pitch on descending lines as I tended to go out of tune.  I found this to be odd, because I generally don't suffer from pitch problems anymore.  Nevertheless, I have since been paying extra attention to my descending lines to make sure they are in tune.  At my coaching last week, with a different coach who knows me and my voice better, I was told again to be careful of descending lines.  The catch and epiphany however, was that this coach told me that I was coming out of my resonance.  Ah ha!  Upon hearing this I was easily able to address the problem and found things to click much quicker.  I learned that if I come out of my resonance that I sound as though I am out of tune, but it is more that I become flat in tone rather than pitch.  I also learned at this most recent coaching the need for pacing myself.  Admittedly I do not really know how to do this, so I am experimenting on my own and doing the best I can to save my big vocalizing for my most "dramatic" parts of this role.

In addition to Rinuccio, I learned last week that I also need to prepare Tinca from Il Tabarro for the same read through.  This doesn't bother me much, although I am now stuck waiting for a score before I can learn the role.  The estimated delivery time is 10 July, which will give me about three weeks to learn the role.  Luckily, the role is even smaller than Rinuccio.

Since my focus has been so much on this upcoming event my language studies have faltered a bit.  I still listen to radio horeb and speak with my German speaking friend rather regularly and feel that I am in a good place with German still.