For the first time since I began this song-capade, I was mildly dreading pulling out my recorder and trying to come up with something to sing.
Part of me knows I’m still “cooling down” from the concert (and the workshops and my call with my classmates) last weekend. And that this week was full of a lot of extra stuff — temping, singing with the MCTC choir, etc. But still …
…
What if I couldn’t find something to sing? What if I opened my mouth and nothing came out?
Recording my voice every day for this project is allowing me to notice the more subtle changes in my voice from day to day. Less flexible in the morning. More responsive when I’m rested. Clearer and more in tune when I let my ear lead and my voice follow.
…
In this day of videos and CDs, it is easy to think of our voices mechanically, able to reproduce the same sounds in the same way on any given day. And, it is easy to be hard on ourselves when something we could do yesterday just doesn’t work today.
We must remember that the vocal instrument is housed in an organic (and attractive!) traveling case and that changes to our bodies influence our voices. Our tiny larynges (the plural of larynx — who knew?) are affected by so many things –- from illness and emotional state to hydration, hormones and fatigue – that the capacity of our voices changes minutely (and sometimes not so minutely *smile*) from day to day.
These changes can be positive, too. I wish each of you the perfect joy of a good singing day — when singing is simple and what the ear wishes, the voice produces effortlessly, naturally and gracefully. *smile*
