Nancy Griswold moves up and down the scale as she warms up for her voice lesson with Elizabeth Kluegel-Niblock. Griswold practices the posture for breathing, the key to getting the correct sound. Photo by Shirley Ruhe.
"So let's warm up." Elizabeth Kluegel-Niblock says, "we always start with a neutral vowel." Nancy Griswold, a new voice student in January, concentrates as she moves up and down the scale. "I'm going to check your posture. Breathe against my hand." Kluegel-Niblock says that posture is key to breathing, the way a singer holds their chest so the rib cage can be really open. "One more time. That's your foundation. What do you notice?" Griswold says, "that's an A flat; I've never hit one before. Usually I stop at G."
Kluegel-Niblock says, "Bring your shoulder blades together in the back. Keep your body lifted. See how much better that bottom note is." Kluegel-Niblock sits at the piano, and her dog moves from his bed to curl up near the piano bench. "Kee kiddy kee kiddy kee." Griswold and Kluegel-Niblock move on to a new set of exercises to get the connection of support and breath going.
"OK. Let's turn to page 5 and do Salti di Quarta (intervals of fourths).” Griswold begins. "Let's have more of an o on lingano."
Kluegel-Niblock says you can't trust the sound in your own head. Nobody else hears it like you do. She explains, "The voice is a kinesic instrument that you can't see so you have to help the student find the right sound. Griswold agrees, "I know I'm not there yet. Sometimes I can sing a C really well but sometimes I'm off. Consistency takes a long time."
Kluegel-Niblock says she currently has about 30 students who she teaches in her home on Argyle Drive in Del Ray. They range from 15-year-old high school students to an 80-year old Japanese lady who came to her because she felt like her vocal breathing was not good and she was petering out at the end of her phrases. "You are never too old to improve your voice." Kluegel says her mother tells her she started singing before she could talk. She would toddle around the house singing TV jingles. Then her mother put her in children's choirs, and she had really good music teachers in elementary and high school. While at Indiana University majoring in music performance she heard her second opera. But the decision point came when she won a local Metropolitan Opera competition in 1995 and went to the finals in New York. "That was when I knew I wanted to go for it so I moved to New York and got an agent."
Griswold starts again. "Yah," Kluegel-Niblock says. "One more time on that phrase." Let's do one more; you choose.” Griswold sorts through the music and picks "A Long Time Ago" from Aaron Copeland's arrangement of old show tunes. "I've got to do this one."
"Shoulders back." Kluegel-Niblock interrupts, "Do that again; don't sink." She explains that we anticipate cutting out when we need a breath and our voice sinks. “This is such a gorgeous arpeggio. Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission not to do too much." The question is when to take a breath. "See how rich and creamy that sounds. No one will be concerned about the breath if it is your intention. But if you apologize ...."
Now comes the crescendo. "Dynamically is that where you wanted to be? " Kluegel-Niblock asks.
Griswold says, "I'd like to sing softer but I know that's harder."
"Yes, it takes more energy and people tighten up when they anticipate softer." Griswold ventures into the next phrase. "Take your time on that; music is poetry."
Griswold says they are working on making each of the five verses a little different "so it's not like when you sing the verses of a hymn and they all sound the same way." Griswold turns the page. "Nancy, that vowel was gorgeous — just what I wanted." Get ready and .... Griswold looks at the music and sings uninterrupted. "Now, " Kluegel-Niblock says, "that's the kind of thing where nobody can move at the end. Really beautiful."