Lessons with Arturo Melocchi - Part 2
In this second part of the lesson, Melocchi continues with his work on the upper register, focusing on the I vowel, the descending sensation, the opening of the throat, and the gradual development of depth in the voice.
When you went down, you did “OOOA”—you let go of the palate. Never let go of the palate. Keep the palate high.
Sing open; don't tighten.
Don't move the throat. Keep it still.
On the lower notes, the mouth almost closes. Do you feel those movements when you go down? You have to make those same movements when you go up.
You don't have to think about whether you should cover the F or F-sharp. You'll see that nature will take care of it.
Exaggerate the yawning position.
When the throat is open, the passaggio comes naturally. Bad schooling teaches manipulation, seeking to cover artificially. No! Just open the throat.
Now you can open the E and F-sharp. Just think about opening. Don't move the throat; don't strangle it.
If you continue like this for two or three months, working through all the vowels, in three or four months you will surpass Del Monaco.
Just open the throat and don't let it move anymore.
And the vowel—you have to feel it here.
Look, when you first begin experiencing these very intense resonances, your head buzzes. When the throat is narrow, all those vibrations that go up are stopped; they get stuck. Once you open the throat, they go up. It is necessary for a singer to understand this.
Yawn!
You see that they go up?
Little by little, as you approach the D, E-flat, and E, pronounce the I with the throat and open the mouth. Move the jaw! Feel the movements that the throat makes.
Say a pure I with the throat. If you don't keep the vowel pure, the sound comes out wrong. Open your mouth and pronounce the I in the back of the throat. Don't be afraid to say a pure I; just pronounce all of them.
Later, you will see how this will help you, because I is a palatal vowel and will train you to go higher. Afterward, you can introduce E, O, and the other vowels. It becomes the easiest vowel.
Open your mouth and keep lowering the jaw. Don't think anymore about what note it is. Just send it down.
You see how you are no longer hoarse? The voice changes, even the speaking voice.
Look, open your mouth this way on the high notes. This is the only thing that your crazy colleague does well.
It would be better if you could open the corners of your mouth a little, make it wider. Everything opens.
I was looking inside your mouth to see if the palate was up. Everything goes down and the throat fully opens.
The real reason for any hoarseness—do you know what it is? It’s because you are aiming the vowel toward a depth that is not yet stable. If you go deeper, even for a moment, the hoarseness disappears.
The scratchiness that you once had in the high notes now happens in the middle. The high notes don't need any more depth.
When you think you have reached your limit, say “U, U, U.” Pronounce it as you would when speaking, two or three times, and then place the note in the same position. If you don't push, it will remain there.
You must find it there. Concentrate the sound there: U-U-U.
This deal of sinking. You must find the depth gradually; otherwise, by the time you are fifty, you will find your voice at the pavement.
Now pronounce it down. Pushed down in this way, day by day it will deepen, but you must not try to arrive there quickly.
Now you can support more, because you have already found the depth.