"Learn To Sing" Intermediate
Level 1 Class v. 1.1
Instructor: Izolda Trakhtenberg
301-441-3005, izolda@izolda.info www.folknouveau.com/class3.htm
Izolda Trakhtenberg © 2001
Warm-ups
(to be done before every time you sing)
1. March in place (2 minutes) (Singing uses muscles that
must be warmed up in order to function at their peak)
2. Deep breathing (three-part breath) preparing lungs and
maintaining a column of air
3. Yawning
4. Stretching:
a. Shoulder roll (five on each side)
b. Half neck roll (left side to front to right side and
back)
c. Half neck roll to the back
d. Neck stretch (turn neck to the side and stretch and then
for a deeper stretch turn chin down to the shoulder)
e. Arms above head stretch (lift both arms and stretch the
right arm up lengthening your ribs and then follow with the left arm)
f. "C" stretch (lift arms above head clasp
right hand with left and curl your back while extending your arms. For an added stretch, turn in the direction
of the arm clasping.)
g. Shake out hands
h. Face scrunch
i. Face big
j. Yawn
k. Horse noise
l. Yawn with "Ah"
m. Yawn with "Ah" bent over
5. Posture (preferable to stand when singing so you can
keep an uninterrupted column of air)
a. Practice standing to sing. Stand with both feet shoulder width apart, your knees
slightly bent and your spine straight.
Pretend someone has grabbed the hair at the very top of your head and is
tugging it upward slightly. Jaw is
loose and breathing is relaxed.
b. Sit comfortably upright with your torso resting on your
sit bones. Sit in an uplifted way
with your feet flat on the floor and your gaze at a comfortable level with your
eyes and jaw relaxed.
Week 1 (Breath review and next
steps)
1. Deep breathing correctly. Stomach is relaxed and flowing out on inhalation. Ribs are relaxed and expanding and
shoulders are relaxed and down. Objective: increase breath control & length
of tones.
a.
Exercises
(Use pulsing breath to make the S sounds and hold the last Sssss as long as you
have breath to support it easily.
(non-voiced)
S - S - S - S - Sssssssssssssssssssss
(voiced)
Z - Z - Z - Z - Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
(non-voiced)
F - F - F - F - Ffffffffffffffffffffffffff
(voiced)
V - V - V - V - Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
b. Alphabet. Say the alphabet moderately quickly on one breath and keep repeating the alphabet on that same breath as long as you can. Try to get to at least 5 times through on one breath. Practice this one any time you have a free minute. (Exercise 5)
c. Tongue twisters This week: Preshrunk silk shirts. Concentrate on elongation of the
vowels so that consonants are interruptions to the flow of air/sound especially
on this one because you are using closed mouth consonants as well as the back
of your tongue.
2. Posture. The larynx is constructed mainly of muscles
and cartilage that automatically adjust themselves to the action of the vocal
cords. The larynx is held in
position by muscles from above and below.
The lower muscles are connected to the chest. So, if the posture is bad the larynx will not be able to
adjust properly and the tone will suffer.1
a. Review of posture. Stand with your back against the wall. The backs of the heels, hips, shoulders and head should touch the wall firmly. Hold the head so that the eyes comfortably look straight ahead. Keep the chest out, shoulders down and relaxed, and stomach in. Step away from the wall while keeping correct posture.
3. Vocal exercises
a. Ma ah ah. On do re
do going up the scale and then down the scale, sing Ma - Ah - Ah. Keep the lower jaw relaxed and the tongue forward. Sing it also on Na - Ah - Ah.
b. On do re do re do go up the scale and then down the scale. Sing it on La ah ah ah ah.
c. Na-ah Na-ah Na. On So Mi So Mi Do go up the scale. While keeping a flowing, legato tone,
don't slide to the next note. Keep
each note its own crisp sound with making it staccato.
4. Introduction to the Silver
Swan and Madrigals.
5. Choosing solos
Week 2 (Introduction to reading music)
1. Definitions
Once you are given a starting note, the other notes
are simply a relative distance away from that note (and each subsequent note is
a relative distance away from the note before it). You read each note based on its relationship to the notes
around it and then you sing each note.
2. Note
names
3. Rhythm
The notes are subdivided
mathematically into the length of time they are held. Based on how long (how many beats per minute will this note
get) a base or foundation note is held (usually the quarter note) the other
notes in a piece are held twice as long, half as long, one quarter time as long
or as short, etc. as that foundation note.
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4. Mystery
song:
5. Tongue twister: Tie twine to three tree twigs.
6. Silver Swan
Week 3: Vocalizing
1.
Da - ah (going up scale
and down the scale. Keep the tone focused, pure & well-supported.)
2.
Do re mi fa so fa mi re
do. On Nah ah ah ah ah ah ah
ah ah. Think and imagine the
high note before you reach it. Do not slide up the notes. Make each note a separate unit while
maintaining continuous tone and singing legato.
3.
So fa mi re do. On La
ah, Ma ah, Nah. Ascending scale.
Practice good posture, and open secondary resonators (mouth, sinuses,
etc.). Imagine the note first and then sing the
high note to begin the exercise.
4.
Tongue twister: "Peggy
Babcock"
5.
Silver Swan
6.
Solo
work
Week 4: The resonating system and registers
1. The difference between sound-producing
mechanism (The Phonating System) and the resonating system.
Vocal folds: produce tone, give tone a particular pitch, & produce
tones in different registers (they are like the mouthpiece of a wind instrument
such as an oboe). The primary resonating system is comprised
of the pharynx, the trachea and the bronchia (the mouth, nose, and sinuses
as well as the head and the chest are secondary resonators). They are like the barrel of the oboe or
the clarinet and they are what help give the tone quality. Hard material makes a better sound conductor.
The only pliable materials are the walls of the pharynx and the soft
palate of the mouth.
a.
Exercise
to get the feel of the open throat and soft palate (the yawning in previous
classes was the introduction to this.)
Keep mouth open and relaxed and inhale through the nose. Keep soft palate raised and think that
your tone is going into your open nose and sinuses. Make sure that there is no tightness in the throat and sing
an Ah.
2. Registers
b. Head, medium and chest
registers.
c. Exercise to find them.
d. Smoothing the vocal quality between
head and chest registers. (Head chest, head chest, head mixed head)
3. Tongue twister: Celibate celebrant
4. Silver Swan
5. Solo work
Week 5: Vocal Facility, steady tone, and Reading music
1.
Vocal
facility exercises
a.
Limit the amount of difference that can be detected
between registers. Minimize the
transition. (The lowest tones
of a higher register [e.g. head voice] are not as powerful as the upper tones
of the register just beneath it [e.g. medium range].) To achieve a blend: when singing up scale
to the note marking the division between your registers, sing more gently
with your mouth not quite so open as normally and with full support of your
breath. When singing down to
that note sing more firmly with the mouth slight more open than normally and
with full tone in order to equalize the strength of tone throughout your range.
1. High do to low do and then do
re do going down and then up the scale. Sing La-ah La-ah-ah.
b. Octave arpeggio. Sing on Ma-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ahhh.
2. Steady tone on a single note.
Practice keeping a consistent tone on various syllables.
Notes are: A and then B and then C and then G on the following syllables:
Dee, Po, Se, Ra, Keh, La, Mee, Noo.
3. See Rest notation page
4. Tongue twister: Eleven benevolent
elephants
5. Silver Swan
6. Solo work
Week 6: Breath control, clean vocal attack
1. Short breaths. Take a short breath and sing five tones
on one breath. Hold the last
note as long as you can. On G,
sing Mah, mah, mah, mah, maaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.
Try to figure out how much breath you needed for the previous vocalization.
Take the same amount of breath and sing seven notes as you just sang
five. On G, sing Mah, mah, mah, mah, mah, mah, maaaaaaaahhhhh holding
the last one as long as you can. Now
do the same and sing nine notes holding the last for as long as you can.
And last, sing eleven notes.
"If you have been able to sing the eleven notes with the same
quantity of breath with which you sang the five than, you took too much breath
for the first five. Only take the amount of breath that you
need to sing the phrases you are singing."2
2. Using head/chest/medium registers,
sing the following on one breath between rests. Sing on La-la-la-la-la-la-lahhh.
3. Attack the notes cleanly. Do not scoop or slur to the high octave.
Imagine that you are already at the high note before you sing it. Sing on one Ma Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah Ahhhh.
4. Tongue twister: rudder valve
reversals
5. Silver Swan
6. Solo work
Week 7:
1. Messa di Voce. Start a tone soft, swell it to loud and
then diminish it back to soft. Start
medium soft and swell to medium loud.
2. Start a tone medium loud and
diminish it to medium soft.
3. Start a tone medium soft, swell
it to medium loud and diminish it back to medium soft.
4. Tongue twister: Coy knows noisy
codes
5. Silver Swan
6. Solo work
Week 8:
Practice solos, Silver Swan.
1. The Estelle Liebling Vocal Course, edited by Bernard
Whitefield © 1956, by Chappell & Co., Inc.
2. Ibid.
Sources:
The Estelle Liebling Vocal Course, edited by Bernard
Whitefield © 1956 by Chappell & Co., Inc.
The A Cappella Singer, edited by H. Clough - Leighter,
© 1936, by E. C. Schirmer Music Co. (renewed © 1964)
Richard Miller, The Structure of Singing, 1996
Madeline Bruser, The Art of Practicing, 1997