Preparing for a short week

It’s been a really busy week so far! I’ve been preparing for the need to take a couple of days off starting tomorrow (got my second COVID shot today), so I’ve been catching up all of the work and personal things that needed to happen so that I can take time to be sick if I need it, and to relax if I don’t!

That said, this is going to be a very short blog post - just long enough to share my to-do’s for the rest of the week!

Here goes:

• Finish getting the music room cleaned up (I’ve made a good start, but I’m not done yet!

• Finish learning O mio Fernando so I can coach it next week before my next audition!

What are you working on this week?

Spring Cleaning

I have never made the claim that I am a neat creative person.

Organized? Yes. Neat? Not so much. I get multiple projects going and music gets pulled out. A question comes up during a lesson and more music gets pulled out. Next thing you know, the piano, bench, and music stand are drowning, my desk is littered in papers, books, and sketches, and there’s an avalanche warning specific to the music room.

The current (and sadly, normal) state of my desk - papers piled on top of books piled on top of whatever else finds its way onto that surface

Oops.

Since it’s the end of the school year (today is the last day of teaching for me until the fall!), and because avalanches are known to be deadly, I figure it’s time to do my quarterly-ish cleaning in my workspace. It’s due for a full-treatment cleaning - including an emptying and full cleaning of my gown closet (yes, I have one of those…they have to live somewhere). I pulled something out of the back corner of it the other day and was pretty horrified by the shocking number of dead spiders back there. Yuck.

So this week, I’ll be working on getting the mess cleaned up so I can start over again. At least it’ll be clean for a few days? Maybe?

Aside from a deep cleaning of the music room, it’s audition week! I’m headed up to Indy tomorrow for my audition on Thursday. Realistically, the majority of my energy will be focused on that until I make it back home, so here is my very short to-do list for the week:

• Rock my first in-person audition since last February!

• Get through those jury evaluations (everything is being done via video this semester, so I can do this while I’m killing time in my hotel room)

• Deep clean the music room

• Choose between Cenerentola and La Favorita arias to tackle for my next audition

Do you keep your workspace neat and tidy? If so, please tell me how you do it!!

Choosing my (preferably self-made) armor

Alright, I’m late again…

This has been one of those weeks where the personal stuff overtakes the work stuff, but in a good way! My neighbors and I celebrated the impending arrival of a new baby to our little neighborhood community, and it was happy and lovely. I’ve been working on a quilt for the little one, so that took quite a bit of my time last week! Because of that, I can’t say that I got in my three hours per day, or checked off my whole to-do list. Some weeks are just like that, and it’s fine. I am not a machine.

I’m catching up on some practicing this week. Working on improving my audition rep. My first audition in over a year is next week!! I’m also working on memorizing music for my front yard concert, and figuring out what the heck I’m going to wear for this audition next week.

Audition wear is such a funny thing. Some singers follow a strict set of rules regarding their audition wear. I call them the jewel-toned, jersey wrap dress set. There are a set of people who preach audition wear rules.

Don’t show your knees. Don’t show your upper arms. Wear tan shoes to make your legs look longer. Jewel tones are most flattering. Your hair should be down, but not in your face, so make sure to pin back the front.

To be clear, if this is how you like to dress, and what makes you feel most comfortable, go for it. I think it’s probably easy for you to guess that I do not ascribe to these rules.

I want to look like ME. After all, our clothes should make us feel like the most authentic version of ourselves, right?

The past few years, I’ve taken up sewing as a hobby. I find it useful to have a creative outlet that my paycheck isn’t attached to, and it has the added advantage of producing garments that I can wear to, say, AN AUDITION.

Let me tell you, walking into an audition - a situation that is inherently judgmental - in clothing you’ve made is like walking in wearing ARMOR.

One of my more recent pieces of self-made armor

Since I can’t haul my entire closet of self-made armor with me to Indianapolis, I figure I’d better narrow it down before I go.

So on my to-do list this week:

• Go back and watch videos from my coachings over the past few weeks to refresh my memory on a few details

• Keep practicing what I’ve worked on in my coachings the past few weeks and work on applying those concepts to arias we haven’t covered

• Figure out what I’m wearing for my audition next week

• Work on rep for my front yard concert!

• Read chapter 3 of The Naked Voice

• Choose a bel canto aria to sing for my SECOND audition in over a year (guess I’ll be eating my singing vegetables in coming weeks)

• Get back into those Duolingo Italian lessons

Practicing with the windows open

Springtime is in full swing here in Nashville, complete with yellow cars, itchy eyes, and glorious weather. Despite the temptations of the outdoors, I’ve managed to stay the course, though I will admit to possibly terrorizing my neighbors by practicing with all of the windows and doors open. Hilariously, I actually got a text from one of my neighbors a few weeks ago on such a practice day. These particular neighbors live the next street over, but apparently could hear me just fine (oops), and they sent me a text saying one of their daughters (who happen to be a fine budding violinist) had observed that my octaves were very in tune, and thanking me for being a good practicing example. It made me laugh, and also gave me all the warm and fuzzies.

I think this might be the first time ever I’ve been able to say I have checked every item off my to-do list from the previous week. I’ve set a date for my front yard concert (May 22…put it on your calendars!) and chosen the rep I will sing. I’ve booked my hotel for my audition at the end of the month. I’ve read the first chapter of The Naked Voice. I’ve practiced (and will continue to practice) the things that I’ve been talking about in my coachings.

Speaking of coachings, I’ve been delighted by the ones I’ve had the past couple of weeks. It’s wonderful to go work with a new coach who has completely different things to say than what I’ve heard before, and it’s helping me give new life to audition repertoire that I’ve sung a TON. We may not get through all of my arias before my audition in a couple of weeks, but I’m taking the concepts and working on applying them to the arias we haven’t looked at!

This week’s to-do list is pretty short:

• Keep practicing what I’ve worked on in my coachings the past couple of weeks, and work on applying concepts to the arias we haven’t covered.

• Start work on the rep for my front yard concert, and apply the concepts from my coachings to those pieces too!

• Read chapter 2 of The Naked Voice

• Get back on the Duolingo Italian train - I’ve been neglecting my lessons!

What’s on your list this week?

Finding Focus

Lots of good things going in the later part of last week! Once I was able to implement the time blocking concept, I was able to actually get some things done. Apparently when I tell myself that I am ONLY focusing on the task I am trying to accomplish, it gives my brain permission to ignore all the other things that pull focus. Also, instituting a “don’t bother me when my music room door is closed” rule has also helped.

Last week was Holy Week, which meant lots of extra church services to sing. Normally, I sing two services per week (on Sunday morning) at my church job, but last week, it was SIX services over two different churches Thursday-Sunday. Easter morning started at 7:30am for the final three services (that made for nearly 300 “hallelujahs” to sing!). After all that, I sure hope Jesus had risen, because I was ready for a nap!

Between all of the church services, I had a fantastic coaching on Saturday. As much time as I’ve spent working on my audition repertoire, there’s always something to improve. With my first audition in over a year coming in a little less than four weeks, I’m starting in on preparation for that.

Also, I’m going to do another concert in my front yard! I did one of these back in August last year, mostly for my neighbors, but put it up on a live-stream as well. The turn-out was incredible, and people seemed to really enjoy it, so I’m planning to do another one in May! I’m planning programming and finalizing a date this week.

I FINALLY finished Audition Success last week. Honestly, there was some great information in this book, but I didn’t really like the way it was formatted (basically transcriptions of consultations conducted over the phone). I felt like the information could have been more clearly presented in a different format, but I don’t regret reading it. Next up: The Naked Voice by W. Stephen Smith!

On my to-do list this week:

• Firm up date and repertoire for front yard concert

• Make my hotel reservation for my audition at the end of the month

• Take the concepts I worked on in my coaching over the weekend and apply them to the rest of my audition rep

• Read the first chapter of The Naked Voice

What are you up to this week??

Distraction City

I am a full two days late this week! Oops…I’ll try to not make this a habit.

This week has been full of distractions. I did manage to get in my 3-hours per day most days, but for all that time, I don’t feel like I accomplished a whole lot! Most of what I DID accomplish was related to teaching, which is good. It needed to happen, but I felt a little like I was/am spinning my wheels.

I spent a good chunk of time this morning journaling and brainstorming ways that I can feel less distracted. I think this feeling is actually coming from the fact that there are days where I am constantly switching gears. For illustration sake, this is a very general idea of my day yesterday:

1. Muggle job work/meetings

2. Doctors appoi

3. Muggle job meeting

4. Student (who was sick, so I practiced instead)

5. Muggle job meeting

6. Student

7. Deal with a house issue

8. Attempt to practice more

9. Hang out with Husband

10. Muggle job meeting

11. Hang out with Husband

12. Sleep like the dead

Notice how many times I switched gears? And this doesn’t include small interruptions like Husband having a question for me, or the dogs wanting to play. NO WONDER I FEEL CRAZY.

To a degree, these brain-switches are unavoidable. I have to do all of my various jobs. I have to deal with the (small….don’t worry) wasp infestation in my house. But there’s got to be a way to do all of the things that need doing and also feel less crazy, right?

This week (well, the remainder of this week), I am going to attempt some time-blocking. I thought I was doing this already, but I haven’t been very good about sticking to the boundaries I set, which makes said boundaries useless. I’m also going to work to establish a boundary with my husband so that I have fewer interruptions while I’m working. Like if the door to my workspace is closed, it means I don’t want to be distracted. Wish me luck with that one!

Lots of seemingly non-musical talk this week, but this sort of work is important for anyone working for themselves. I know establishing a schedule that I can stick to - even if that schedule changes every day - will allow me to be a more effective human and a better musician.

Do you use time-blocking? How do you manage the distractions of life, work, etc.?

The vocal equivalent of eating your vegetables

I’m going to be honest - I haven’t done much practicing this week!

I had big plans for picking new rep to learn and starting work on that. I had big plans for practicing cello every day. I had big plans for finishing Audition Success….

Wanna guess how much of that happened?

NONE OF IT.

I didn’t realize how tired I was. Stuffing Carmen into my brain in two and a half weeks followed by eight straight days of coachings where I was singing out, plus recording. I was mentally and physically EXHAUSTED!

Thinking about it now, of course I was. I have a bad habit of going and going and going until I drop (or simply start forgetting stupid stuff). I am (slowly) learning. Slowing down is hard.

Want to know what did happen last week? A lot of rest. Some reading. A lot of administrative work (hello, tax season). A little bit of maintenance practice, because I don’t want to deal with the frustration of an out-of-shape voice right now. Also, a lot of listening as I’ve looked for new rep to learn.

It’s probably sacrilege for me to admit this, but I’m realizing that I don’t find bel canto opera thrilling. Like AT ALL. What’s funny is that I always enjoy hearing other peoples’ performances of this rep, but I don’t really enjoy singing it myself. I feel like it’s the vocal equivalent of eating your veggies (funny, because I really like to eat my veggies!)…not necessarily fun, but something you’re supposed to do. Oh well.

My solution to make it feel less un-fun is that I’m going to find a way to MAKE it fun. I think I’m going to pair it with learning a piece that I DO enjoy, but I’m also trying to find a way of turning this into a game somehow. Anyone have an idea?

How do you make something you don’t inherently enjoy feel fun?!

What's next?

After eight straight days of coaching - sometimes with multiple coachings in the same day - all my Carmen coaching is at an end (for now). I don’t know about the rest of you, but I always feel a little blue when I finish up a big project like this. After going 1,000 miles a minute for several weeks, it’s HARD to slow down! I’m left with my brain whirring and asking myself “What’s next?”

It’s not like I won’t be looking at Carmen at all in the near future (I’m planning to incorporate the Habanera into my regular audition set). There is still PLENTY to be done with that role, but after several weeks of thinking about it nonstop, I’m feeling the need to look at something else for a while so I can digest all the information I’ve recently consumed around that role.

I got all of my Jensen recordings done last week. The are all edited, posted to YouTube, and my application for the competition has been submitted. I won’t hear anything from them until mid-April, so I’m setting that out of my brain for now as well!

So what’s next? I have a couple of hard deadlines:

• April 2 is when I have to have my cello piece ready to go.

• April 29 will be my first live audition in over a year. Huzzah!

Obviously anything with a deadline takes precedence, so I’ll be working on my cello chops for the next few weeks, and also keeping my audition rep ready to go. Problem is, neither of these take much time. I’ll be maintaining (and making slight improvements to) my audition rep, but there’s no new music to learn for that. As far as cello, my hands don’t have the endurance to play for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time right now. I’ll be working to increase that over the coming weeks, but that still leaves me miserably short of my 3 hours per day.

Never fear! I have some ideas:

• Actually finish reading Audition Success. I know…I’ve been sitting on this one for a while. It’s time to move it off the docket!

• I got to sing for a manager in Spain (!!!) as part of the Carmen workshop. He had some really positive things to say, and he recommended I work on some bel canto rep. Outside of Rossini, my knowledge of mezzo rep in this category is sorely lacking, so I’ll be doing some research and asking around for ideas on this.

• I’m going to spend some time watching some interviews and workshops online.

• I could finish learning Donna Elvira!

• I’ll be brainstorming other rep to learn as well.

In the not-so-fun category this week, I need to get all of my tax documents and records together to send to my accountant. Real talk: doing your taxes as a musician is not fun at all. I’m really anal about keeping good records, and have a good general idea of what I can and cannot do, but my taxes are complicated. I don’t have time to read the tax code every year, so I’m HAPPY to spend some dollars to have a professional do them RIGHT.

Carmen, Carmen, Carmen...and Recording?

Once again, I am a day late - I’ve really got to start writing these posts on Sunday so they’re ready to go!

WOW has it been a busy week! And in the best possible way. I’ve had coachings on Carmen every day since Wednesday last week (and will until Wednesday this week) with some truly wonderful coaches that have given me tons to think about in the coming weeks and months. Thankfully, I have videos of everything to reference as I continue working, because there is no way I could possibly remember all of the information they’ve fed me over the past week. I have to say - this role prep workshop (put together by Atelier d’Excellence) has been incredibly well organized, and I’ve had quite a bit of agency as far as deciding what to work on from one day to the next. It’s been a very beneficial experience!

Because I can never do just one thing, I got my videos recorded yesterday! It made for a very physically demanding day, and I had to be really careful about how I used my energy. Double coachings on Carmen (on Act IV - because I guess I’m a masochist) in the middle of the day. Then recording five arias in the evening. You better bet I did as little as possible in between, and I slept like the dead once it was done!

BUT….it makes me incredibly grateful that my body has the stamina to get through a day like that. I’m tired today, but my voice isn’t shot. However, I think I’m going to declare Thursday (and maybe Friday and Saturday) a no-singing day, so I can give my body some well-deserved R&R!

So what’s on my to-do list this week if I’m not singing for at least one of those days??

• First thing, I have two more days (today and tomorrow) of Carmen. Score study and coachings will continue through! Wednesday!

• Edit the videos I took last night and get them uploaded to YouTube

• Submit my application to the Jensen Competition

• Practice cello!

• Work on reading Audition Success

• I also might watch some videos of masterclasses that I missed getting to watch live this week

I’d say that’s plenty to keep me busy through the rest of the week, don’t you?

Open brain...insert music

I’m a day late! Better late than never, right?

It’s been a busy week! Here’s what I’ve been up to:

I’ve finished learning Carmen, and am solidifying some spots before I start coaching it TOMORROW. I’m really excited about this role! Now that I’ve learned the music, I’m looking forward to being able to slow down, fine tune, and really absorb it all. I’m also looking forward to not feeling like a complete space cadet all the time! The price I pay for shoving that much information into my brain that fast is that I’m exhausted all the time, and bandwidth is reduced. As a result, I always feel like I’m not able to run on all cylinders in other parts of my life - my poor husband has been very patient with me the last couple of weeks!

I’ve been working on my rep for the Jensen Competition, and had an excellent coaching last week on those pieces. I’ve got a recording date in the works (I’m just waiting to hear when the space is available). This rep really feels like it’s coming together. I’ve got some odds and ends to work out, but it’s all feeling really good!

I also got to sit in on a “Practiclass” with Gregg Goodhart last weekend. He was talking quite a bit about the idea of “deliberate practice” (a central theme in Talent is Overrated, which I read earlier this year) and what that actually looks like when you - well - PRACTICE.

OH! and I have a two-day window for my first audition in OVER A YEAR!! It’s not till the end of April, but I’m pretty excited to get back to singing.

What didn’t happen from last week’s to-do?

• I didn’t read a single page of Audition Success.

• I didn’t practice cello

Oh well…I was trying to do too much!

So here’s my list for this week:

• Get the final kinks worked out of my Jensen rep, get a final plan together for recording, and figure out what the heck I’m going to wear!

• Lots of Carmen score study to stay on top of daily coaching starting tomorrow and going through Wednesday next week!

• I’ve also got some catch up work to do with my students (grading, moderating online discussions, etc.).

I’m going to ignore the rest of my musical to-do’s until I’m done with my role study!

Superpower Activated

I have a pretty awesome superpower…

Wanna know what it is??

My superpower is the ability to learn music really. really. REALLY. FAST!

This past week, I learned Acts I and II of Carmen - that’s half the opera!

Honestly, it’s just a skill I’ve developed over time. When I was doing my undergrad at Berklee, it was expected that when you were assigned a piece of music, that you come back to your next class/lesson with it learned. Musicians who work in commercial music develop an astounding ability to pick up music on the fly, and I didn’t realize this was unusual for classical musicians until I got to graduate school and started noticing I was singing a LOT more rep than my classmates.

To be clear: I am NOT throwing shade on my colleagues, and the rate at which I learn music isn’t always a good thing. I had a friend in graduate school who would tear every piece she learned into its separate components, learn each component separately, and then reassemble the pieces. It took her FOREVER to learn her music, but once she did, it was always there, and her performance was incredibly consistent. By contrast, I could learn music very quickly, but I didn’t have a system, and as a result, my performances were sometimes inconsistent. I had a teacher for a while who used to get after me because I would learn my music so fast, I consistently failed to learn it with good technique (oops).

Thankfully, I have figured out how to develop this skill in such a way that I am now able to learn music with more intention. I have a process, and it means I’ve been able to speed up the process if needed, and also to now learn my music with good technique and so that I can access the information to sing said music in a consistent way.

There is no secret sauce. I simply schedule my practicing in a very detailed way.

With a big project like Carmen, I make a list of every section I need to learn. For shorter pieces, I divide them into sections,

My schedule for learning Carmen

Then, I sit down with my calendar and decide exactly what I’m going to learn and when I’m going to learn it. You can see my schedule above! Depending on how much time I have, I’ll break down the learning into text and music. For Carmen, I’m squishing all of it together for now so I can refine it later. Do I have to do it this way? No, but I find it useful to exercise this skill so that when I DO need to learn something really fast (such as when I’ve had to step into a production on short notice), that skill isn’t rusty. So I’ve spent my three hours per day this past week learning the first two acts of Carmen.

Checking in on last week’s to-do list…

• Continue finesse work on competition rep (done!)

• Set a recording date for said competition rep (not done…I really need to get on this!)

• Map out a plan for learning Carmen, and start learning (check, and double check!)

• Read at least two chapters of Audition Success (I read one chapter, so progress, but I wouldn’t call this done)

So this week, here is my list:

• Set a dang recording date!!!

• Stick to my Carmen plan - everything will be learned by this time next week, and I’ll be reviewing!

• Read at least two chapters of Audition Success (for real this time)

• Remember that cello piece I need to play? I should probably practice that too….

Ok, I want to know….what’s your superpower??

Week 5: Carmen what?

I have formerly-small-voice syndrome.

What? Sorry…maybe that takes some explanation. The progression of my voice has been a journey. I started my singing career in commercial music. When I first moved to Nashville, I sang and played cello (and occasionally bass guitar) in rock and country bands. When I started the switch to singing classical music in my mid-20’s, the teacher I was working with thought I was a soprano - like a live-above-the-staff, coloratura-rep-singing soprano.

I got to grad school and my new teacher said “You might be a soprano…and you might be a mezzo. I can’t tel!” And so we worked on lyric mezzo rep, and other repertoire that could go either way.

I finished graduate school and started auditioning as a lyric mezzo, but CONSTANTLY was asked “Do you think you might be a soprano?” I get it…a light-voiced mezzo with easy high notes is confusing.

I finally stopped getting the “do you think you might be a soprano” question about the time I turned 30. My voice warmed up, but I still didn’t have anything that could be called a “big” voice. So I sang lighter roles - lots of Mozart - and assumed that I was singing the rep I would sing for the rest of my life.

We all know the trope about assuming, right? There’s been a fair amount of growth over the past year or two, but I didn’t realize how much. It’s not like the rep I was already singing wasn’t working any more.

Fast forward to my voice lesson this past weekend when my teacher says “Yeah, you need to learn Carmen.” and I nearly fall over.

I’m going to be honest - Carmen scares the hell out of me. Not because of the music, or even the massiveness of the role. Nope, Carmen is an incredibly vulnerable role. Vulnerable isn’t something that I do very well. Comedy? Yes. Gender-bending? All day long. Sexy seductress? You’ve passed my comfort zone.

Am I going to jump in and learn this role anyway? YES.

I’m working on mapping out my learning for this. Stay tuned! I’ll share my process/progress next week.

So what did I accomplish LAST week? Lots of good things (I got in my three hours/day!), but not everything that was on my list. Here’s a reminder for you:

• Finish picking my rep for the Jensen Competition. I’ve got four of the five pieces picked, and I need to nail down the last one! (Done!)

• Finesse work on the five pieces I end up with. I’ll be checking languages, phrasing, intonation, acting….you know….all the things. (I did this, but I still have work to do!)

• Set a recording date for (all of) said Jensen rep - recordings are due March 14, so I need to get on this! (Not done, but in the works)

• Decide on fingerings for Nicodemus. I’ve already started this, but I need to finish! (Done!)

• Finish reading Audition Success. I’m about halfway through this, and it’s been a great read so far. (Womp, womp…this isn’t done at all)

So this week, my list looks like this:

• Continue finesse work on competition rep

• Set a recording date for said competition rep

• Map out a plan for learning Carmen, and start learning!

• Read at least two chapters of Audition Success

What are you tackling this week? Care to join me in working on something outside of your comfort zone?

Week 4: One month down!

Happy Monday Everyone! I can’t believe I’ve been at this little project for a month now. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve done 25 days of my full three hours of work, and five more partial days (these are usually 1.5-2 hours). That’s over 80 hours!

So what am I getting from all this work? So far, I've learned three new pieces that were completely new to me, and have re-worked three that I had learned, but hadn’t practiced in a while. I’ve also been rehabbing my voice post-COVID, and it’s going really well. I’ve got a voice lesson this coming weekend to give me a little boost. Sometimes you just need an extra set of ears, ya know?

Wanna know what else I’ve been doing? This week, I started practicing cello again for the first time in about five years. Yikes. Backstory: I’ve been playing cello since I was 10, but the past few years, I’ve been so busy singing that I haven’t had enough hours in the day (or a reason to make the hours in the day) to keep up with practicing. As a result, I haven’t played much since I finished grad school. BUT I’ve been asked to play a special piece at my church job for Good Friday…

Several years ago, a dear friend of mine (who also happens to be a composer) wrote me a cello piece titled “Nicodemus brings myrrh and oils for the burial of Christ.” It is a very moving piece, but I’ve only gotten to play it once. Well, Nicodemus is going to get a second showing, because I’ve been asked to play it on Good Friday this year! I began the arduous process of getting my cello chops back this week (my fingers are real sore!), and man am I getting my butt kicked! I used to play for hours in orchestra rehearsals, and now I’m doing well to play for 20 minutes at a stretch. This, too, will get better. It’s like riding a bike, right? A very stiff bike in need of WD-40…

In the voice arena, things are going really well, and I have to say, my commitment of three hours a day is paying off. I’ve got my competition repertoire almost decided (that’s waiting on my voice lesson on Saturday!), and those long phrases that have been eluding me since I got sick are ALMOST back to where I want them. This is the area where I’m seeing the biggest payoff, and I’m excited to see where I’m at in another month!

This coming week, I’m setting myself some to-do’s, and I’m telling you all so I have some accountability! Here’s what I’ve got:

• Finish picking my rep for the Jensen Competition. I’ve got four of the five pieces picked, and I need to nail down the last one!

• Finesse work on the five pieces I end up with. I’ll be checking languages, phrasing, intonation, acting….you know….all the things.

• Set a recording date for (all of) said Jensen rep - recordings are due March 14, so I need to get on this!

• Decide on fingerings for Nicodemus. I’ve already started this, but I need to finish!

• Finish reading Audition Success. I’m about halfway through this, and it’s been a great read so far.

Week 3: Seeing Improvement

Happy Monday Everyone!

This week wasn’t a perfect streak, but it was a VAST improvement over the week before. I completed my three hours of work four days last week. The fifth day wasn’t a total loss - I did about an hour of work, but had to grab some groceries for a friend who is shut in right now. At the end of the day, I felt like being a good human was more important than completing my three hours of music work. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that no one will give me a hard time about this.

Nearly all of my work time last week was spent practicing. I’m working on picking rep for a competition, and so I’ve been trying out new things, digging out old things, and generally seeing what works. I took my two new arias from a couple of weeks ago to a coaching on Friday, and they’re coming along really nicely. I’m letting those two settle in before I try to record them in a few weeks!

Something great happened this week though. For a mezzo, I have a pretty solid upper extension (I got the “Do you think you might be a soprano?” question for YEARS, but that is a topic for another day). However, I’ve always struggled to keep the tone completely even all the way to the top. It wants to thin out and either get squeaky or airy. It lacks the power of my middle and upper middle voice. Granted, I’m talking about notes almost two octaves above middle C that mezzos don’t have to use all that often, but they still have to be there when I need them. And they need to sound GOOD.

Why am I rambling about high notes, you ask? BECAUSE I BROKE THE CODE!!!

I could give a long lecture on what it feels like and the technical aspects of this, but I realize that it’s probably not all that interesting to most of you reading this. The short version is that it feels like the sound is traveling the path of a shepherd’s hook through my head if said shepherd’s hook were ending between my eyebrows (the sound has to go back before it goes forward, if that makes sense?). Suffice it to say, that my coach heard the difference immediately, and we celebrated.

Have you had a breakthrough in your work lately? I want to hear about it!

Week 2: A Big Ole Flop

After a stellar first week of consistently getting in my three hours per day of music work, week two was a comparative flop. This post will be relatively short - my adventure more or less came to a standstill this week!

Call it the second week slump. Life got in the way. Friends and spouses needed help, social plans had been made weeks ago, and general life distractions meant that I did my full three hours Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday, I got some work in, but not the full three hours. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? Nothing got done. Not even a little bit. I am only human, after all.

But ONWARD! I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bath water. I’m picking up where I left off and making plans for the coming week. I’ve got to finish picking rep for a competition. I’ve got more practicing to do, and reading to get done - I’m tackling Audition Success by Don Greene for my next read, and I’m really looking forward to it!

Oh! And I’ve got another coaching on Friday to prepare for. Self-imposed deadlines for the win!

For lack of a better image to share, I’m simply including one that makes me happy. Photo credit goes to Lindsay Goats, and it was a happy accident when one of my rescue pups decided to join in on the fun during a photo shoot a couple of years ago.

What do you do to pick yourself back up when your plans fall apart?

Week 1-ish: Getting it all together

This three-hours-per-day experiment actually started a few days BEFORE New Years, which is a terrible time to start anything you intend to do consistently. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the combination of New Years and the first week of the year made concentrating and consistency nearly impossible in ANY aspect of my life. I am only human. The good news is that I’ve now got an eight day streak going, so I’ll celebrate that and move along.

So how am I spending my three hours a day? So far, about half of that is practicing. Most of that remaining half has been reading this week (spoiler: it was REALLY good), and the rest of that time has been spent working on languages (hooray for DuoLingo!) and doing administrative tasks like emails, bookkeeping, etc. I also have some ideas for other things I can do like listening through old lessons/coachings, listening to music or watching an opera, and score study. This can help give some variety to my three hours, and can provide an alternative to singing on those inevitable days when I’m sick or simply can’t sing for whatever reason. Anyone have some other ideas for me?

I will admit that practicing this week wasn’t much fun - especially early in the week. I was released from my covid quarantine Oct. 31, but my symptoms (particularly the fatigue) continued for about another month and a half. Right on top of that was the pinched nerve in my back, so I basically haven’t sung with any consistency since mid-October. I expected that the first couple of days (at least) would be a real struggle, and were they ever! I’ve had to constantly remind myself how to breathe properly. How to move my air instead of locking up my body. How to lift my freaking soft palate!

I decided before I even started practicing that I would start out by working on music that isn’t in my regular repertoire so I didn’t work bad habits into the music I perform regularly. So what did I start with? I briefly worked on a couple things in the 24 Italian, and then I settled on “Deh vieni non trader” because Mozart ALWAYS makes me sing with steady air, balanced tone, and beautiful phrasing. That aria also forced me to deal immediately with my upper passaggio where I invariably want to stop my air. I’ve been singing this aria every day - not because I’ll ever be hired to sing Susanna, but because using it as an etude is making me deal with my current technical weaknesses.

I also added two new pieces to my rep this week that I’ve been procrastinating on: Composer’s aria from Ariadne auk Naxos and also “My grandmother said” from Jeremy Howard Beck’s The Long Walk.

Let me just say - Strauss is hard. There’s a lot going on. I have good musical skills. I find Strauss almost impossible to count. Not because it can’t be done, but because it feels like the downbeat is constantly shifting. But I think I’ve got it figured out! The REAL struggle was with the Beck piece. The Long Walk is about an Iraq War veteran and his family as they deal with the aftermath of his deployment, and this aria is his wife coming to terms with the ways in which being at war has effected her husband. MY husband is an Afghanistan vet, and hear me when I say, I have lived this. I’ve been sitting on this piece for two years now because I hadn’t been able to sing it without absolutely losing it. I think I’ve got it figured out now, but I will admit, this is an emotionally exhausting piece for me to sing.

On a happier note, I finished a fantastic book last week! Last spring when the world suddenly shifted to the virtual realm, I had each of my voice students pick a (voice-related) book to read. I’ve kept this up each semester since, and my students voted to read Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin this semester. Now that I’ve finished it, I think everyone should read this book. The author talks about how amazing performers ACTUALLY develop their skills (spoiler alert: they’re not born with it). He looks at great performers from many different fields such as Mozart, Jerry Rice, and Warren Buffet. Turns out, the secret sauce is…wait for it….PRACTICE! Specifically what he calls “deliberate practice” (something Colvin outlines in the book, but every professional musician knows this process). Colvin also looks at why some people choose to choose to put themselves through the ordeal of deliberate practice while others simply…don’t. If you’re looking for an informative and well-written read on how to become a great performer (in any field), you should read this book!

Well, I think I’ve been your ear (your eyes?) long enough for this week. What have you been reading lately? I want to know!

An Adventurous Year

This has been an….interesting…year. Not all good. Not all bad. I believe the title says it all. In the interest of keeping things positive, we’ll call it “adventurous.”

Now, anyone who knows me knows I love a good adventure as much as anyone, but I believe this year qualifies as an epic.

On the face of it, it seems like not much has happened. Were I to make a list (which I will do momentarily), it wouldn’t be a long one. As it was for many, 2020 was just…..weird.

So what have I done with myself during the pandemic?

• I had contracts cancelled - 2020 was supposed to be a big year for me. I did a few big things in 2019 that should have moved things along for my singing career. Instead, all of my gigs got cancelled, and to top it off, there were no auditions to get new ones.

• My teaching has been significantly reduced - This year has seen enrollment drop at most universities. Lower enrollment means there are fewer students to teach, and TN state law says that full-time professors have to be teaching a full load before adjuncts can be used. My private studio students are staying home as well (and rightfully so). All of this makes for fewer students for me.

• I ran my first 5k - I didn’t run before the pandemic, but with gyms closed, I had to do SOMETHING. I was already reasonably fit, but I’ve been surprised at how much running has helped my singing.

• I met my neighbors - seriously, this seems like it would be inconsequential, but I’ve made some wonderful friends, and we’ve all kept each other going through this.

• I sang a concert in my front yard - something I never thought I would do, but I wanted a reason to practice, and my new found neighbor friends kept saying they wished they could hear me sing. I live-streamed it, and invited my neighbors to spread out and listen. My gift to them turned out to be an even bigger gift for myself because it dragged my out of my COVID-induced apathy and made me start singing again.

• I had the time and space to do some serious technical work - Back in February of 2020 (ah, the before times), I had an audition panel tell me that I was VERY close to being they type of mezzo they REALLY wanted to hire. That I had some technical issues to work out. The pandemic, awful as its been, has given me the time and space to work on technique without worrying about having rep ready for that next audition or gig.

• But I also learned about half of Donna Elvira - The last few roles I’ve learned, I’ve had to learn FAST. I wanted to take the time to learn this huge role slowly, and on my own terms. Thanks to a wonderful mentor who has sung this role many, many times, I’ve been able to learn this role in bite-sized chunks and take the time to be truly thoughtful about it.

• I started my first “Muggle job” since waiting tables during the summer when I was in graduate school. I had (and continue to have) some REAL feels about this, but I think this will be a good situation as things open back up - my job can be done remotely, so I won’t have to give up income when I travel!

• I recorded my entire audition package - opera and concert rep - so that I could be sending them to organizations while they have time to listen.

• I sang an outdoor concert - and got COVID from one of the other singers…womp, womp. Thankfully it was a mild case, and (more importantly) I managed to NOT get anyone else sick.

• I got to record a beautiful Lili Boulanger art song that will be released later this year!

• Almost as soon as I started feeling like myself, I rounded out the year with a pinched nerve in my back! Christmas was painful, but I’m thankful to be back on my feet and working on getting my voice back together.

So there you have it. My year in a nutshell. My plan for this blog is to share weekly whatever is happening. Some weeks will be exciting (one can only hope), and others will probably be more laid back, but one of the goals I set for myself this year was to spend at least three hours per day working on my own musical development. This can be practicing, reading, promotion….if it helps my singing career or makes me a better musician, it counts. This blog is partially to keep me accountable to this, but also to document the process and progress through this. Join me - we’ll have an adventure!

What were your bright spots last year? What goals have you set for yourself this year?