Tuesday, January 24, 2012

After much anticipation, I finally had my first lesson with a new voice teacher, David Jones. Ever since I officially crossed over into the new chemical landscape of my “older body” my voice has felt like a stranger. It started last spring, around the time I was working on a French Baroque concert for RCP. My mom was in and out of the hospital with a heart attack and angioplasty, working back into the fussy ornaments and less vibrato style of the Monteclair cantatas was challenging, and I guess I figured I was dealing with a lot of different things. I had a fun time at the concert and everyone seemed to like it, but when I listened to the recording – I know, I should have waited at least a year- I could tell that something was not right. By later in the summer I realized my voice was not behaving the way it had for the past 25 years and really felt completely different. I needed some help. In Nashville, Christine Isle-Farmer was kind enough to share her own difficulties with this transition and recommended I contact David in NYC. I read his article on vocalizing through menopause on his web site and emailed him. He responded right away, but the first time he could see me was not until several months later, in January.
So after waiting and waiting, and hoping and hoping that this would be what I needed, I climbed the stairs to his studio and tried to keep a relaxed and open mind. I liked the situation immediately. It wasn’t high powered or intimidating, and David put me at ease right away. I recited the speech I had been rehearsing for weeks, explaining my situation. David had me sing two short exercises and then proclaimed with a smile “I know exactly what is going on, don’t worry, it is easy to fix!” He wanted me to sing with much more space in the back of my throat, and a much wider, more “east/west” feeling, like the sound was coming out of my ears.

This was very different from the tall, forward, narrow, approach I had been using and teaching for years. Yet, after an hour of lots of great vocalizes, my voice felt great, and a huge weight of uncertainty was lifted off my shoulders. I went right from his studio over to Lenore’s apartment and rehearsed our French program. It was like magic! My voice felt wonderful and the Debussy and Faure songs felt easy and flowing.

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