Singing with a sniffle

I seem to always get what's coming to me. It was only Sunday afternoon that I was reminded that flu season is coming up and that I need to get my H1N1 vaccination shot. I was thinking "I never get sick during flu season," and then a mere five hours later, my throat is dry and scratchy. I had to sing a song at an evening meeting in church on the dry, scratchy throat. Amazingly, it didn't turn out too bad. I started off too breathy, but that's normal for me anytime I sing in front of people. It's all the nerves. Even when I feel calm mentally, my body reacts in a sort of nervous frenzy that causes my breathing to become irregular and labored. Only when I get to the middle of a song or aria does my breathing brecome more regular. My voice teacher and I are working on that.

Anyways, Sunday night my throat was dry and scratchy. Monday morning I wake up completely congested but still with a scratchy throat. Today I'm even worse. I just hope this bug moves though me rapidly instead of drawing out the symptoms for a couple weeks like usual.

How did this effect my singing today? Oddly enough, it wasn't as effected as I thought it would be. I could still sing my G5's and A3's without trouble. Any difficulty I seemed to have, other than my throat being slightly raw/tender, turned out to be psycological. If I think a cold is going to get in the way of my attempts to phonate, then it will.

What it all boils do to is air. If my throat is not hurting at rest or even when speaking normally, then I should be able to sing normally, too. If I use my air properly then the sound will sail on top of it like it always does (or should). We'll see if I can apply this to my personal rehearsal time this week as I learn "Die Lotosblume" and whatever that other one was. :oP

Welcome!

Good afternoon reader. I am a voice major at a junior college and I am preparing to start auditioning to 4-yr music schools across the country in the first few moths of 2010. I would consider myself to be an average vocalist. I have never had an "amazing" voice. Someone with an amazing voice can sing their worst in front of anyone and their voice would make ametuers and professionals alike say: "Wow. She's got something there."

For me, and for most vocalists, I sing in church or at some school concerts. Usually after a performance, people I know and people I don't will tell me they loved my voice, even though when I looked around during the performance, I noticed their heads bobbing up and down, suspiciously against the rhythm of the song I was singing. Ok, well maybe that's not quite how it works out, but the compliments are normal, as long as they are from non-musicians. I can't seem to get an honest-to-goodness "You go girl!" from my music professors (excluding voice lessons). That's not to say I don't like getting those compliments from family members, friends, and strangers... it's because of their faith in me as well as my engrained love for music that I am pursuing my optimum vocal beauty today. I yearn to make others happy through my instrument, I crave the praise I can get when a song is well sung, I desire the ultimate freedom that comes from producing my best and healthiest sound on stage. What makes me and others like me "average" or "normal" is not these feelings and desires, but that we have to scrape and struggle so much more to achieve those feelings than the soprano who always gets all of the leads and solos without ever setting foot in a practice room.

Throughout this blog, I will be posting about my vocal progress inside and outside of vocal lessons, as well as any feelings, cogitations, etc. I may feel the need to purge. You are welcome to share in my journey and I invite you to share your insights as well.

Until then...Sing Free!