Hi people,

I have started my singing classes recently. Don't know which grade I fit into but my teacher started with Grade - I songs.

She gave me "Lady Bird" of Brahms as first lesson. I practised it and sang before her. She told me I was singing the correct notes but my pronunication of words and the feeling that I put is not what is expected by the composer.

English is not mother-tongue, may be that's why it's making a difference. I asked her to show how to pronounce and sing the whole song for me. She says the song is not in her pitch and so she cannot sing it for me! I know she plays excellenet piano, she must have been good singer too....may be she just lost practise!

I am very much confident that I can practise and pronounce any langauge, if I can hear someone singing it. I am very good at catching up the pronunciation and expression (feeling). I am a mimicry artiste too.

Are there any cassettes/CDs which have the songs in the book "The Art of Song (Grades 1-5)" sung by a good singer with/without accompaniment so that I can listen and learn?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Hi Sandesh, me again

Sadly Edition-Peters, who publish the Art of Song books don't do CD's to go with them.

I've had a quick look for a recording of Marienwuermchen (which is the name of the work in its original language - German). I can only find one, which is on a website rather than a recording you can order. Also it's in German, it's by a children's choir rather than a solo and it's only the start of it. But it will give you a rough idea on which you can build your own interpretation.

Here it is

To be honest, I'm not surprised there aren't any CD's or tapes of this song. Commercial recordings don't tend to be of the more straightforward songs, even though these songs can be quite lovely. On the other hand, I'd rather learn and sing a song my own way than copy what someone else did.


Cheers

Katyjay

Thanks a million, katyjay. I will check this out. Yeah, when I sing I do my own interpretation and sing in my style. If my teacher wants me to express it differently, she should show me, otherwise how would I know?

Thanks for taking time to search this one and help me

BTW, I see you are doing so many things, Violin, singing, piano, concert-arranging, recorder besides being a CA! I wonder how you manage all these things - I am finding it a little tough to carry on my theory with singing besides my job....lol.....

And I am 24, and I still dont call myself an adult learner....I dont know if I should...

Errr...the accountancy's not happening at the moment. I am between jobs. That's why it says (sometimes).

By my definition 24's an adult, and you're definitely learning singing - so I think that counts.

Cheers

Katyjay

Anyway, the list doesnt seem to get shorter by removing accountancy



OK, I shall change my signature then

Just a suggestion, from a non-singer so it may be completely misguided, but could your teacher not say rather than sing the words that she thinks you're pronouncing wrongly to help you with the pronounciation? Or even maybe transpose the song (or certain parts) into a range (s)he can sing it at to demonstrate certain parts?

P.S. I'm 23 and still haven't got over being an adult either .

Good point AP, but even so......

Brahms' Marienwuermchen only has a compass of an octave. I'm staggered that Sandesh's teacher says it's not in her range. Any singer earning money for doing it (and by that I include teaching) should have a good two octaves at their disposal - so it should be within their range somewhere. I'd be really wary of going to a teacher who didn't have enough singing voice to do something like this.

I gave Sandesh some suggestions on the GMF version of this thread for how to deliver the meaning of the song. The pronunciation is a bit of a red herring, really.

Cheers

Katyjay

Thanks for clearing that up . To what extent is range something that one can extend through training? I was under the impresssion that one was pretty much stuck with what one has plus a couple of extra notes either side; or is it just the case that anyone with a naturally small range will not make it to be a singing teacher/singer anyway?

There's no hard-and-fast answer to how much more range one obtains from training - in my case I added about an octave to my voice - a third at the bottom and a sixth at the top.

But a working range of less than two octaves is never going to be enough for a professional, and with that small a range I would wonder about the technique this "teacher" had, or how they are teaching technique to others.

Wow, I never realised that one could gain so much. Is it generally more common to add more at the top too than the bottom? I feel there should be some physical reason for this; but don't have the knowledge to work out if this is true.