We never really know what's coming, do we? This morning, I awoke, planning to practice for my upcoming audition, only to get an e-mail later in the day saying the auditions had been cancelled. At least I have a free Saturday coming up.
I still need to practice, though. My voice teacher advised me to sing every day, even if it's only for ten minutes. This will help me keep my technique in place. It's so easy for old habits to creep back in unnoticed. I have the most trouble keeping my speaking voice supported. Too often, I find myself wondering, "Why is my voice so tired? I've only been talking to my mom for 20 minutes!" Then I realize, it's because my speaking voice, before I began taking voice lessons, was very low and, too often, forced, and those old habits are very deeply ingrained. In a word, my "old" speaking voice could have been described as "inefficient." I've spent the past three years working week after week to replace bad habits with good ones, but I must still remind myself daily how to talk and how to sing. There really is a "best" way to do these things, in terms of efficiency, but the wonderful thing about the human voice is that there are no two exactly alike. Even after peeling away all the "bad" layers: poor posture, poor breath support, tension, etc., you will still end up with a uniquely beautiful voice in the end, and that's comforting to me. There was a time when I thought all classically trained singers' voices sounded alike, and that untrained voices could carry emotion much better because they were so raw - so human. I was wrong, both about the classically trained singers and about the voices I viewed as untrained. In my experience, it is actually quite difficult to sing pop music well, so either these "untrained" singers actually do work hard to perfect their technique, or there is some major editing going on.
