With a smile and a song
First, good singing is essentially proper breathing. Good breath support allows for long, sustained, full notes, and having the right breathing technique automatically improves tone quality and vocal resonance.
Second, never underestimate what a smile can do.
I’ve been part of our school choir in intermediate elementary school for about two to three years, then in our church choir for only a few months in high school. One of the choirmasters I’ve worked with used to tell us to smile when there’s a really high note we struggle to reach. I never understood the wisdom behind my choirmaster’s words until I got into adulthood.
I thought the effect is more emotional than physical in nature: Most trained musicians and singers, such as THE Lea Salonga, would say the goal when performing is to not show the audience any strain during difficult phrases and passages. Yet it seems like there’s logic behind the advice. Smiling raises the cheeks and corners of the lips, allowing for a bigger space within the mouth and a brighter tone.
^ Candid shot by Nigel
(You can actually see my reflection on the phone screen.)
Last weekend, I revisited the 1937 Disney classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, a film that I may have seen hundreds of times as a little girl. It’s my first time watching it with a more mature lens as a grown-up.
It was nostalgic, at least at first. Some scenes were exactly as how I remembered them: the dove transporting a kiss from the shy Snow White to the charming prince in their first meeting, the birds echoing the princess’s lovely trills, and so on.
Then, it was enlightening. The soundtrack was written with rich imagery that my untrained ear attributes to symphonies from the romantic period. Snow White’s singing, recorded by soprano Adriana Caselotti, was light and operatic.
Remembering how, as a young child, I’ve always adored the character of Snow White warms my heart. Snow was genuinely sweet and kind, so much so that even animals in the wild trust her so easily. Her high notes were colorful that even birds chirp along with her melodies. I remember thinking how I wanted to be like her. Two decades or so later, I still think the same.
And there can’t be a more opportune time to remember these things from my childhood than now, as I embark on a personal musical journey as a student in the University of the Philippines College of Music Extension Program.
As I walked through the hallway of the Abelardo annex building this morning amid a throng of children and their parents, who I assume are taking advantage of the enrollment deadline extension, I couldn’t be any more certain that I want to learn to sing classically.
My voice teacher, Abet Guande, is gracious enough to accommodate my ambitious request. In the first of our nine weekly sessions, I started learning the Italian arietta Caro Mio Ben by Signor Giovani (Tommaso, presumably) as a lyric soprano.
It excites me to finally be living the words I only used to listen to as a child:
When you smile and you sing
Everything is in tune and it’s spring
And life flows along
With a smile and a song
P.S. TwoSet Apparel, TwoSet Violin’s official merchandise, shared my post about getting ready for my first class on their Instagram Stories!
Alas, some music-related things I find worth-sharing:
The Menuhin Competition recently posted on their Instagram account the 2018 performance of prodigy Chloe Chua. How, at 11, Chloe commandeered a group of adult musicians for a riveting interpretation of Vivaldi’s Winter is amazing. Her musicianship can’t simply strip her off her innocence though. Her sheepish, giddy smile every time the audience claps between movements betrays her age. This is now among my favorite performances!
In one video, “God’s Fiddler” Jascha Heifetz said it is most important for an artist to have these attributes: self-respect, integrity, and enthusiasm.
There are rare gems on YouTube, among which is this 1913 recording of Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy himself.
Music is meditation. My belief in this probably stemmed from TwoSet Violin’s analysis of Philip Glass’s piano piece Opening, which is one of my favorites among hundreds of their content. I play it on repeat whenever I am feeling reflective.
A more recent favorite is the Violin Concerto Battle. While I had watched it before, I only learned to appreciate how they arranged it as I got more familiar with classical violin pieces.
Benjamin Zander’s TED Talk is a good start for people who may think classical music is too intimidating. One doesn’t need to know much about classical music to be able to enjoy it. A good analogy I heard somewhere: Not listening to classical music because you don’t know much about it is akin to not going to a forest because you don’t study botany.
The maestro also has masterclasses available on YouTube, and his commentary on the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto further cemented my love for the Russian composer. Also: I am growing more and more enamored with the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Every movement is a delight to hear. •