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From: greg@olivej.UUCP (Greg Paley)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: how to practice?
Message-ID: <248@olivej.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Nov-84 13:51:02 EST
Article-I.D.: olivej.248
Posted: Tue Nov 13 13:51:02 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Nov-84 01:45:28 EST
References: <4094@decwrl.UUCP> <192@ut-sally.UUCP>
Organization: Olivetti ATC, Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 49

Since I'm a singer (tenor - recently "moved up" from lyric baritone),
there are some aspects of practicing that are quite different from
an instrumentalist.

The primary difference is the mastering of a specific text with
almost all vocal music (except, of course, things like Rachmaninov's
"Vocalise") and, in the case of opera, stage movements that have
to be integrated with the singing into a single physical act.

I find that the worst thing I can do is listen to a recording, no
matter how good, while I'm learning a work.  It's tempting,
particularly with a difficult, musically complex work.  It not
only makes it difficult to bring the freshness and clarity to
the musical approach that you need, it also makes it very 
difficult not to imitate the technical solutions other singers
have found for difficult spots.  My own feeling is that I need
to use my own training and instincts to work out these problems.

I try to do a surface scan of the work, taking in as much as
possible of the text and musical notations.  Words and music
have to be conceived as a single entity, since good vocal music
is not just a poetry reading, or play, "set to" music but
rather a work of art which uses the original play or poem as
a starting point and evolves beyond that.  Sometimes you have
to choose between the two, when the metric and pitch patterns
of the music conflict with those of the poem.  This happens
with Brahms, sometimes with Schumann, never with Wolf.  In
that case, I go with the music.

That first scan should give a sense of the overall shape
and contour of the work, and the structure of the individual
phrases.  It's amazing how often technically difficult 
passages take care of themselves when you concentrate on
the overall shape of the phrase containing them rather than
getting stuck on the individual hard spot.

Finally comes the nuts-and-bolts work of applying your
technique to the vocally difficult sections and finding
out how to grade yourself dynamically so as to be able to
preserve the correct proportions.  Every singer has his
own difficulties that have to be worked out individually.
The aim is to have this mastered to the point that when
you perform you can be as relaxed as possible and allow
your own feelings and your communication with the audience
to be spontaneous.  

	- Greg Paley