• Bio
  • Contact Ian

Ian Sidden

Subscribe

  • Email
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Craft
  • My News
  • About the Music
  • The Rest of Life

Vocalise: [z] on Arpeggio

June 7, 2009 By Ian Sidden

z-on-arpeggio

This is a vocalise that I like to torture my students with. I say “torture” because they groan when I ask them to do it. But I ask them to do it because it works. I have never seen an exercise that so quickly changes the coordination of someone’s voice for the better as this exercise does.

The main thing to remember is that the notes are marked staccato. Therefore, there should be no sound between the notes. This includes wasted air, which will become very clear when your articulators are in the shape of [z] (or [s], since they are the same shape). Control your air with your big breathing muscles in your belly and ribs and not in  your throat.

After you’ve worked this for awhile, try it on [a].

[sibembed score=”https://iansidden.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/z-on-arpeggio.sib” height=”896″ width=”604″ align=”bottom”/]

Here’s a .png if you don’t have Scorch installed.
[Click on the picture to get something more legible]

Have fun singing!

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailVocalise: Two Octave Tonic Arpeggio Up, Dominant Seventh Arpeggio Down Default ThumbnailVocalise: Ascending Major Arpeggio, Descending Dominant Seventh Arpeggio Default ThumbnailVocalise: Scale Arpeggio combo Default ThumbnailVocalise: “Gathering” Arpeggio

Filed Under: Craft Tagged With: Vocalises

« Some Recent Successes
Kraus Masterclass Transcript »

About Ian

Ian Sidden is currently a bass member of the Theater Dortmund Opera chorus. Read More…

Latest Posts

Training Singing, Practicing Strength

In the past few years, I’ve begun viewing my singing work in a similar manner to my weight training. And vice versa. The two share obvious similarities. We use time and effort to get better: We want more power. We want more endurance. We want more agility. We want to be more durable. We want […]

Premiere: Fernand Cortez

Tonight we premiere our production of Gaspare Spontini’s Fernand Cortez, ou La conquête du Mexique at Opernhaus Dortmund. This is after a two year delay; originally we were to have premiered this in 2020, but history intervened. There are many versions of this opera floating around, and we are doing a version that has – […]

Premiere: Frédégonde

Here’s one I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. Tonight at Opernhaus Dortmund, we’re premiering Frédegonde for the first time in Germany. It’s a work inspired from the early history of the Merovingians in what is now France and the ongoing feud between two of the queens, Brunhild and Frédegonde. The work was composed by […]

“Ständchen” by Schubert, Guitar and Voice Arrangement

Here is a performance of my self accompanied guitar arrangement of Franz Schubert’s “Ständchen”.

PREMIERE: Tosca

Tonight at Opernhaus Dortmund, we’re premiering our “Tosca”, which is the first premiere including the chorus since March 13, 2020.

Copyright © 2023 · WordPress