Expert: Peter Messaline - 3/17/2010

Question
1. I have a bad habit of sing with a covered voice sometimes - how do I sing through the mask of my face instead of singing towards the back of my face (if that makes any sense). Because of this, it's hard to stay in tune because it causes me to sing under pitch at times.

2. I tend to use my throat to create vibrato, and this is another bad habit of mine. How can I develop a more natural sounding vibrato by using airflow?

3. I have a vocal audition coming up. How can I improve my sight reading and my tonal memory (these are two components involved in the audition).

I am alright at sight reading (done with solfege), but I still want to improve, and as for my tonal memory, that could use some work - especially for the 4-bar phrases involved in the tonal memory component of the audition.

The audition is this Friday, so I need any help I can get.

Thanks!

Answer
Let me start by saying that you are way ahead of most singers by being able to analyse your voice in this way.

I think that your main problem with the audition is that you have an audition coming up.  By which I mean that the tension is driving you to downgrade your abilities. This can sometimes be a technique of one's unconscious, to reduce your expectations so that any result better than being shot is a relief. There is nothing, of course, that you can do to significantly improve your singing by the end of the week. All you can do is let the good stuff out -- don't let your analysis make you forget that you obviously have a useful voice, or you wouldn't have been given the audition.

Some advice built on my experience in preparing for audition speeches:  in practice, try singing your pieces in ridiculous ways: faster, slower, transposed wildly up or down, as if you were drunk or had a terrible lisp or stammer. Play the song's emotion truthfully, tell the story, and deal with the external problem you set yourself. You're allowed to sing them straight in the actual audition, of course.
And don't analyse yourself during the audition! Concentrate on playing the part of a talented and confident singer doing a light runthrough of her favourite pieces, just to hear what the hall sounds like.
If you can, get to the hall in time to be able to take look and perhaps to listen to how it sounds. At least leave lots of time to find the building and the room and where you will wait and where the loo is. Don't chat with friends beforehand, don't listen to earlier auditions.

And enjoy yourself!
(Don't you hate it when people say that!)

Peter M