Revelation

April 8, 2004

I can’t believe it’s this simple. The secret to singing louder, it turns out, is to think about your stomach. It took me this long to figure that out? Christ. Tomorrow I begin a regimen of situps as voice training.

8 Comments

  • You singing, me painting—what is this world coming to?

    My friends all get a kick out of your vocal line in “the Man Song”, though, so bravo.

  • Liina says:

    Hahahahahaha….you crack me up Mart. Perhaps you should replace the word ‘stomach’ with ‘diaphragm’ and begin a regimen of breathing exercises rather than situps and you’ll get somewhere….

    On that note (pardon the pun), if you’re up for it, I’m singing at Symphony Hall Monday, April 26th at 8pm with BU’s Symphonic Chorus. We’re singing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The orchestra will also be performing Schoenberg’s “Five Pieces for Orhcestra, op. 16.”

  • Mart says:

    Liina, I stand by what I said. For me, concentrating on my stomach while singing involves tightening my abs and such, which end up pushing my diaphragm up into my lungs. I assume that’s what you mean, and I honestly applaud you for insisting on higher precision in what I refer to, but the point I was making was that concentrating on my stomach while I sing makes me sing louder. You can’t deny that. When I sing, I sing louder if I’m thinking about my stomach. No two ways about it. Also, (and I should have made this clear from the beginning) I’ll be practicing breathing and singing as well as doing situps.

    If you must know, right now I’m the most qualified person in the world to complain about my singing, as I’m the only person who’s heard it since I’ve made a major change to it. And believe me, I have a lot of complaints to make. I’ve finally managed to reach the peak volume levels I’ve wanted to, but now I’ve found I need a shitload of practice in sustaining volume, among other things. Look, I’ve just realized that I need better abs (read: any abdominal muscles) if I want to sing worth a damn, so I feel like developing them.

    Is that a bad thing? I’ve learned guitar based on my own musings and the advice of people better than myself, and to a certain extent I’ve done the same with drumming (although I quite obviously need a fuckload more practice). I have an idea about where I’d like to improve my singing, and I am perfectly willing to undertake the practice required to improve, and I like to think I’m capable of telling the difference between my current level of performance in that area and an improved level of performance. Obviously I’m not a professional voice coach but I think I can improve my singing on my own, at least a little. No doubt breathing exercises will help, but since, from what I’ve learned, ‘good’ breathing comes from the diaphragm, I’d like to improve my abs to improve my singing. Is that acceptable? :)

    Also, Symphony Hall? I imagine there must be at least a thousand places in the USA called ‘Symphony Hall’. I’d love to see you perform, but I’d have to know just where you’re performing first.

  • Damn, that stung, Mart. Couldn’t you’ve been a little easier on Liina? I mean she’s only a senior in college…

  • Mart says:

    Does “I was drunk at the time” qualify as an excuse?

  • Absolutely.

    Your sins are forgiven, and you will now sit at the right hand of God. Congratulations.

  • Marika says:

    LOL, Liina, when I read Mart’s post, I thought the exact same thing (“Um, it’s the diaphragm…”), but then I got to the comments and saw that you two already discussed that. :-P

  • Liina says:

    You know, I hardly ever comment on these things (other than Aili’s ’cause she forces me to), and the one time I do, it causes such a stir!! Oh well. But Aili, I’ll have to say that I didn’t appreciate your comment… And Mart, as for which Symphony Hall it is, it’s the one in Boston of course! http://www.bso.org

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