Christina Barrett: 07/10/12

I'm guessing most people who were in choir showcased their talent at home. I'm a little different. I was inhibited to do that. So, I sang softly. At one point, I sang loudly, but I think I was still inhibited to do it with my family.

What's best is to learn opera. It's not about robust ladies in fancy wigs. It's just an expressive, lyrical form of musical theater or without the dancing involved. You think it has to be tacky and corny, but it's not, and it's not as high as often as you think. It's just not. It's even that way for higher sopranos. It's more medium and it's more fun when it's a little high. It does't go as low as other songs and as high for the same voice, true, which I could do and would have fun doing, doubtless that others could, especially maybe in musical theater, judging from what I know in my experience. I'm not sure if classical high voices usually can sing very very low, like a bass, but I can, maybe some.. I just recently discovered that. I did take off school to get better. I started posting online, hoping nothing bad would happen. I think it's important to be careful in how you reveal yourself, which can cause for some obstacles. If you just let it all out, people will know too much of you. You can go back and stop being that way, though.

So, to think of singing in opera is like a treat because it's like a play except singing, not just a song for an art. It should be very expressive, as well as resounding. Obviously, it can be, if you've heard people in theater act ... You know people can be very expressive when combining talents.

I think taking voice is the best route. I know Renée Fleming is very expressive, in a way I've connected with. Other singers seem more crude. I also know Órla Fallon, who is a bit younger, an Irish singer. These 2 singers both have been singing the way they do since they could remember or before. Their singing is hardly crude. I honestly remember a lot of times I didn't sing, whereas it was a time when I should had been. I spent the early part of my life in gymnastics and art. I think my family were sensitive to singing, like it was embarrassing. I heard music at school in kindergarten, and that's when I got into it and tried to do it myself what I could remember.. So, since then, I've been big in music.

I find that, like other people who just did choir and whatever else singing on their own etc., it's not really something to be proud of.. People who take voice have a certain consciousness. I'm just wondering if I should sing myself more or get into voice lessons. I have some things I want to do 1st, like clean my room. I do want to start ballet now, though, so we'll see. That will be good exercise. I'm wondering if running and ballet go. I won't be doing a real ballet program but rather an easy one for adults. It's better to jut have ballet muscles. I might stop running, but I dunno I'm thinking not. I want to be a film actress, and I need to be on top of things. I'm doing ballet, too, because it's something I like. I know a lot of ballerinas can't be film actresses nor singers. I guess, if you actually took voice and sought out to be a film actress, that it would be possible.

So, I vie for vocal instruction and ballet class. It's not the be all and end all of everything. It's just something to consider. I suppose it'd be a shock to start ballet and then to stop, like it was for me. It's exercise, though, and should be good for you. Julie Andrews looks good, and she was a singer. Somehow, she got a very nice, lyrical voice. Renée Fleming doesn't sound like Julie Andrews but probably is just as good. It's just that my dad told me she was the #2 singer in the world and I liked her, her singing and personality. She sings in operas, and, also, there's just songs as art.

Kids tend not to know what to sing, and that's why vocal instruction is important. I did gain a more pure voice from hiding myself in choir and behind my piano playing, but I did lose it in college trying to be like everyone else. The least I could have done was save some recordings. I think, in voice lessons, they do command vibrato, the vibrating you hear in opera singers. Like, in folk songs, I guess things wouldn't be this way. I was able to produce a sound, in singing, that was good without vibrating, but taking voice lessons is probably the best thing. I learned to do vibrato finally, pretty consistently, from college choir. You like take a deep breath and push against your stomach until an even vibrating is produced. Most people can probably figure that out if they try, but I didn't for awhile and probably would have liked to have done it. I didn't sound like I was straining when I sang without vibrato, though, having done a few solos in choir, which embarrassed me in front of my family. I was always thought to be pretty good, spot-on. I guess you don't have to start at birth to be good. I started in choir when I was 8. Everyone, including me, sang loudly. The leader said I was getting to be one of his loudest singers. I was soft in choir after moving, twice, until I took voice in college. I don't know. I don't remember what the change was like, unfortunately. It shouldn't be that important. I wish there were other things I would be allowed to forget. People don't seem to mind if I forget anything.

I think more practice is important and that it should be possible to sing with a pure sound even if you study opera.

starting at age 16

1. English IV - Advanced Placement|Gifted
2. American History - Honors
3. French I
4. Health | Free Enterprise
5. Talented Music - Singing
6. Talented Theater
7. Art III

1. French II
2. Talented Music - Singing
3. Talented Theater
4. Art IV
5. Talented Art
6. Choir

College

at some point:
History of Dance - 3
Ballet - Independent Study - 1

Year 1

1. English 1 - Honors - 3
2. History - Honors - 3
3. Recital Hour - 0
4. Freshman Voice Lab - 0
5. Major Ensemble - 1
6. Voice Lessons - 2
7. Theory 1 - 4
8. Ballet - 3
Total - 16

1. English 2 - Honors
2. Math - Honors - 3
3. Recital Hour - 0
4. Italian Diction & Repertoire - 1
5. Major Ensemble - 1
6. Voice Lessons - 2
7. Theory 2 - 4
8. Ballet - 3
9. Intro. to Music History - 2
Total - 19

Year 2

1. Religion 1 - Honors - 3
2. Philosophy 1 - Honors - 3
3. Recital Hour - 0
4. French Diction & Repertoire 1 - 1
5. Major Ensemble - 1
6. Voice Lessons - 2
7. Theory 3 - 4
8. Ballet - 3
Total - 17

1. Religion 2 - Honors - 3
2. Philosophy 2 - Honors - 3
3. Recital Hour - 0
4. French Diction & Repertoire 2 - 1
5. Major Ensemble - 1
6. Voice Lessons - 2
7. Theory 4 - 4
8. Ballet - 3
Total - 17

Year 3

1. Religion 3 - Honors - 3
2. Philosophy 3 - Honors - 3
3. Recital Hour - 0
4. German Diction & Repertoire 1 - 1
5. Major Ensemble - 1
6. Voice Lessons - 3
7. Music History 1 - 3
8. Opera Workshop - 1
9. Ballet - 3
Total - 18

1. Science - Honors - 3
2. Humanities|Arts - Honors - 3
3. Recital Hour - 0
4. German Diction & Repertoire 2 - 1
5. Major Ensemble - 1
6. Voice Lessons - 3
7. Music History 2 - 3
8. Opera Workshop - 1
9. Junior Recital - 0
10. Ballet - 3
Total - 18

Year 4

1. Behavioral|Social Sciences - Honors - 3
2. Essentials of Conducting - 2
3. Recital Hour - 0
4. Major Ensemble - 1
5. Voice Lessons - 3
6. Opera Workshop - 1
7. Opera Literature - 2
8. Music Theory - 2
9. French 1 - 3
10. Ballet - 3
Total - 20

1. Essentials of Conducting - 2
2. Recital Hour - 0
3. Major Ensemble - 1
4. Voice Lessons - 3
5. Opera Workshop - 1
6. Opera Literature - 2
7. Music Theory - 2
8. French 2 - 3
9. Ballet - 3
Total - 20

End - Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Minor in Ballet

Christina Barrett

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

How Vocal Instruction Helps

What Happened

College

What I Should Have Done in High School and College