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Ian Sidden

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Singing Checklist?

"Neck elongated... check... mouth open... check... smell the rose... check..."

November 24, 2017 By Ian Sidden

If we could design a checklist of actions to take before singing a tone, what would that look like? After all, pilots use checklists because they improve safety. No matter how smart you are, you can miss something:

As we all know, flying has opportunities aplenty for distraction from inside or outside the cockpit. These often lead to overlooked items at a critical portion of a flight. As a painful and expensive example, distraction has caused countless gear-up landings. No human is perfect, but using the flow/checklist method is guaranteed to trap more errors than using just one of each.

Obviously, a singer can’t carry around a physical piece of paper with them that they fill out every time they start a new phrase. Yet it might be useful to design such a checklist anyway. I’ve often had the experience where a vocal problem was eventually solved by something I already knew and had practiced but had neglected. Having a checklist might have saved time.

So I’m not going to write out a checklist today, but this is a to-do.

Filed Under: Craft Tagged With: checklist

Thanksgiving

November 23, 2017 By Ian Sidden

Happy Thanksgiving to any American readers, whoever and wherever you are.

Filed Under: The Rest of Life Tagged With: Thanksgiving

Dmitri Hvorostovsky

November 22, 2017 By Ian Sidden

Has passed away.

He’s one of the idols of my generation of singers, and of baritones in particular. Such a beautiful voice. A commanding onstage presence. A great looking guy. He had a universal appeal that was very special.

RIP. And thank you.

Filed Under: About the Music, The Rest of Life

The Breakthrough

November 21, 2017 By Ian Sidden

It feels like a mix of giddiness and fear. There’s a sense of “duh” and “d’oh” as you realize the thing you’ve been looking for has been in front of you the whole time.

And then there’s the work to integrate it, so that it feels like nothing at all.

Filed Under: Craft Tagged With: breakthrough

Risk Management

November 20, 2017 By Ian Sidden

In finance, the concept of risk management has to do with choosing strategies that balance return with the risks associated with that return.

In your singing, you’ll face similar choices. There are techniques you can use for short term power or effect, but they might not get you through a longer performance. In reverse, there may be techniques that sound odd in the short term, but they preserve the voice for long and heavy performances. There are some vocal effects that you might not be able to 100% every time reproduce but are reliable enough to risk given the artistic reward.

Determining what’s worth the risk vocally should be determined early in the process of a new piece, well before unnecessarily risky behavior becomes ingrained. That’s especially true if you sing wildly different repertoire where defaults for one rep are not at all appropriate for the other.

Filed Under: Craft Tagged With: risk

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About Ian

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

Latest Posts

Premiere: Madama Butterfly

Tonight is our premiere of Madama Butterfly in Opernhaus Dortmund. I’m playing Cio-Cio-San’s Uncle Yakusidé, and I’m very excited to be a part of this production. Heute Abend findet unsere Premiere Madama Butterfly im Opernhaus Dortmund statt. Ich spiele den Onkel Yakusidé, und ich freue mich sehr auf die Vorstellung. More Information/Mehr Details: https://mobile.theaterdo.de/detail/event/20593/

Premiere: Wo die Wilden Kerle Wohnen

Today is the premiere of Where the Wild Things Are.

Premiere: Akhnaten

English Tonight is the premiere of Akhnaten by Philip Glass. This is a massive work for the chorus, and I’m really looking forward to getting this in front of people. Deutsch Heute Abend findet die Premiere Echnaton von Philip Glass statt. Es ist ein sehr großes Stück für den Chor, und ich freue mich sehr […]

Reader Question: How Loud am I with Earplugs?

A reader asks about judging your own volume while singing with earplugs.

Premiere: Romeo und Zeliha

English This afternoon we’re opening the premiere of Romeo und Zeliha. This is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo und Juliet in Junge Oper Dortmund from composer Fons Merkies. I play Zeliha’s father (like Lord Capulet) and her cousin (like Tybalt). I’m really looking forward to it! Auf Deutsch Heute Nachmittag findet die Premiere Romeo […]

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