Do I Shoot the Soprano?
Ask the Tenor #3, Wide Vibrato and keeping singing
Today's blog features a story about an embarassing moment, a soprano with a wide vibrato, and ways to stay active singing in the community
Dear Tenor,
What causes a person to have a vibrato that kind of sounds like a tremolo? I have a new student who has obvious potential, can buzz up to some Queen of the Night high-F’s with ease, but the vibrato is so wide. Is that natural?
This sounds like an issue with air, and consistent air-pressure through the vocal folds. I really need more information on repertoire, age, voice type, etc. I can give it a bit of a stab though! A bleat in the voice, or very wide vibrato, can come from over-blowing the folds. If you jam too much air through the folds they will over vibrate, thus giving you a very wide fast vibrato. Under support can cause you to have a tremolo effect, or wavering of the voice. It is hard to discern from your question. Give me some more specifics, because this is a great topic, but I need help understanding the voice and the issue. Hope that this is fair. I don’t want to give you the wrong answer!
Dear Tenor,
What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you while onstage during a show?
Wow, I can't think of embarrassing onstage moments for me personally, in performance, though I have had my very fair share of them in rehearsal, like the time I fell off of a ladder in a staging rehearsal and knocked down the entire set, which was a series of flats. They went down like giant 5ft x10 ft dominos. I ended up with a concussion. My first question after I fell was if the set was ok, not was I ok.
There was a concert that I was in recently, where the children’s chorus was supposed to come in as an angel choir (Famous chorus Lift thine eyes), a capella, right after one of my recitatives in Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. The piece was not rehearsed in concert order at the dress rehearsal, so that the kids could go home with their parents without having to wait around for 21/2 hours. The children were used to getting their pitches from the female choral director and octave higher than me. So, in the performance was the first time they had heard a male voice give them their pitches. They had to start and stop the chorus 3 times before they were able to go forward and finish it. The next night, she refused to rehearse the kids with me. Instead she stopped the performance dead in its tracks and slowly gave pitches and made the kids hum the pitches back and then sing their chorus. They sang great, but it killed the drama of the piece. I felt badly for the kids. Not embarrassment, just badly that it was not their fault they messed up.
Dear Tenor,
I just graduated and I have a very strong love of musical arts, except I’m going into massage school. Do you have any pointers for staying musically active in a school where we don’t do music at all?
I would try to find things to do in your community to keep yourself singing. Here are three options worth exploring:
1. You could sing with a community chorus (most towns have one of these that does a couple of concerts a year)
2. You could sing at church or temple
3. You could audition for community theater productions in the area!
Hope this helps!
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Do you want some answers? Don’t forget to email me your questions. I look forward to hearing from you!
