Welcome to 2016!

Welcome to 2016!

I hope that your 2015 went well and that your 2016 will be even better. For me, this website is still in its early stages, starting just a little over a month ago in November of 2015. I look forward to seeing what developments will come in 2016 for myself and this blog. Now that I am back from a busy, family filled break, I am ready to move forward!

2016 Goals

My goals are simple – prioritizing family, school, and work as I start my Master’s degree and focus on improving my musicianship. I am in several performing groups this year and it will be a great way to develop technique, balance, and continue to improve subharmonics. I also have sub-goals for subharmonics:

Improve transitions between modal and subharmonics

Maintain consistency of vocal subharmonic color

Clean up and smooth over subharmonics

Establish a lower “break” for transition/shift

Use it more extensively in choral and solo settings

Be able to sing more notes both in subharmonics and modal 😀

Alternating video posts

Since establishing this website, I have communicated through words and using examples. I would like to be able to incorporate video and audio to go along with each post (if not each post, at least on the posts that demands it). I have improved my setup in the past month (also settling into the house from the recent move) and hope to be able to provide you with this service.

Weekly Choral Update

Being in different choral ensembles, I will journal my experience, thoughts, questions, and answers that will arise each week. The voice is a flexible instrument that depends on the experience as well as the condition of the singer. There are days where my voice just does not provide me with the sound I am searching for; there are also days where I feel as if I can sing anything, anywhere… anytime. A lifelong goal of mine (as with any singer) is to be able to notice those small things and harness it through practicing, attempts, failures, and successes; being able to survive and pull through different vocal “weather” conditions is a constant goal. Technique can always be refined and improved as well as discarded and changed – the most important thing is to be able to sing in a healthy manner and continue singing well into my old age (Oh voice, do not reject me in my old age…)

There are others out there that are doing a great job at introducing people to subharmonics and finding ways to get it to work. Though I may touch up on that once in a while, my focus will be primarily on using it in performance and giving you specific warm-ups and tips that isn’t too far removed from what you are doing normally in your voice/choir class.

Research

In starting my Master’s degree, I have been focused on the developing voice, specifically the bass/baritone. Working with grades 7-12 during my teaching and singing with college friends during my undergraduate days, I enjoyed analyzing every singer’s voice, many times subconsciously. I would always make a note in my mind of their voices – how the voice has changed, circumstances and conditions that may have influenced it, and how daily variables have an overall effect on it. This may have stemmed from my Apple II days when I was younger, trying to figure out what this peculiar device called a computer was doing in our classroom, what it can do, and what I can do to improve my math and vocabulary as I explore Number Munchers and Word Muchers.

I enjoyed working with numbers, graphs, and enjoying the mesmerizing waves produced from spectrum analyzers and would always work the 5-band EQ section on our old tape player. Math and computers led me to music; it just made sense.

Finally…

Now that things are going back to normal (besides the cold weather), I will try to document any research that I come across that may be useful in my studies. There will also be a lot of questions… questions such as – why is it that vocal music, specifically Western-influenced music, focus on higher voices or the development of higher voices? What standard is there on developing lower voices? Of course, I will have my usual updates on subharmonics and eventually start making videos to show it in action.

Thank you for visiting,

Thou