opera progress

Thought it'd be fun to post some of my progress so far. This is over the last couple of years. If I'm honest the last video is a bit old now as I fell off the opera practise wheel for a while but I'm back on now and making good gains so I hope to post new material soon. Sorry for ultra-grainy quality, dingy low-light and informal attire (yes, I'm singing in my PJs in video 3): these are literally just my own personal video diaries to track my progress and were not made with public broadcast in mind.
Also I've realised that the gain changes a lot between clips so sorry for that. I'm only just starting to use video editing software so still getting to grips with the basics! I'll go back and sort that out when I have a moment but, for now, clip1 and 4 are louder than clips 2 and 3. However, until then and if you're watching this before I've sorted it out, you can still tell which vocal examples have more natural loudness because of the quality of the resonance (the depth and amount of natural buzz).
Notice in the first video I've got the right idea but it's quite squeezed and you can hear a loud grunt at the end of the scale phrase. This lessens over the next videos and you will hear my voice get deeper, rounder and louder. This is what the technique does.

[@MunthApollo]

It sounds like your voice got more round and less harsh, fantastic job! I'm not as advanced in singing as you but I can hear the difference.

[@thomasmartin369]

Thanks! Yes, it starts off very pressed, like the sound has got to squeeze through a bottleneck. As it gets stronger it also feels and sounds more open. Also - and this isn't illustrated by anything I've posted here - opportunities open up for greater dynamic variation and more sensitive singing. The pianissimo becomes more readily available and you are able to take a full - but delicate - voice higher without cracking to falsetto.

[@ryanvalen2774]

Sounding really good dude! Are you self taught or what methods are you training with?

[@thomasmartin369]

Thanks! I studied the Tom Lomonaco material with Craig Sirianni and more recently Shawn Uplaznik. I’ve studied with A LOT of teachers but the sounds I make here come from those ideas, as best I can interpret them. Also worth a mention is Daniel Formica with whom I had a few lessons which were influential on me. He’s a rock coach but he’s a grand student of Arrigo Pola so it’s basically an opera technique he uses, only less deep and heavy.

[@calebajao8180]

GLORIOUS sound and progress! I've been in a rabbit hole watching your videos, you rock man. You do a great job on lifting the voice out of the neck into this lifted place that in my head is started behind the nose, but it doesn't sound nasal nor does it sound squeezed. How do you get that glorious voice out of your neck and stay in the right place!

[@thomasmartin369]

Funnily enough it’s absolutely from the neck or, more specifically, from a low and strongly engaged larynx. But the training feels super-intense at first. It feels like your head will explode, there’s so much pressure. You feel it everywhere, in your whole body and it’s completely exhausting. If you push it too far you strain and hurt yourself even. But if you do it with great moderation and rest a lot between vocal workouts something magic happens: the tiredness concerts to a sense of strength and security and what previously felt like lifting up the sky starts to feel easy and velvety.

[@calebajao8180]

so beautifully put wow, i got chills even! i've sent you an email as well :) @@thomasmartin369

[@awe-ctaves7304]

No pressure, of course, but you came up in conversation again. I hope you're doing well and have been busy with lots of music stuff 😀