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#1
02-10-2020, 10:20 PM
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Singing -- Use it, don't lose it!!
So I took a year off from my regular singing routine when life got in the way, and then when I picked it up again, I'd lost the knack of the medium notes, let alone the high notes. Dang! *That* was an unpleasant surprise!!
It took a few months of regular singing again before I could regain the medium part of my range, and another few months more to get my highest bits back again. Yikes! There's a soprano in my choir who's got to be eighty, but she's got the singing voice of a college girl. It's because she sings all the time. Moral of the story: *Keep singing!*
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A. Riley rebeginning after a long, long hiatus Ibanez Artwood Vintage grand concert acoustic La Patrie Motif parlor-size classical Cordoba Mini M travel-size classical Cordoba Guilele even smaller classical (so cute!) and Ohana SK20-S soprano ukelele 
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#2
02-11-2020, 04:01 AM
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Very true! My Radio and Chemo therapy in Spring 2017 has had a lasting effect on my voice.
By the end of the treatment when they insist that you tell them your name and DOB for every treatment it as so painful that I started carrying a piece of card to show them. They gave me a voice therapist for a while but it was a waste of time, and I decided I just had to force it. it still hurts to speak and sing, but I've got a voice back, to me it doesn't sound like my voice - it's thinner, more shrill/nasal and with a reduced range. It's best for me not to talk before lunchtime. You just don't realise the assets you have in your body until things start malfunctioning! Use it or lose it!
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom!
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#3
02-12-2020, 12:14 PM
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As I have gotten older, I've realized that the first thing that "goes away" when I haven't been singing much is BREATH CONTROL; being sure to get enough air to support the notes I'm singing, breathing deep down in my lower belly...
This is even more important because the balance of my singing (both at home and performing) is from a sitting position... playing acoustic guitar while standing as always felt "weird" to me, and I'm unwilling to do it! There have been times when I've had to stand and play/sing, and, of course, it's far easier to sing while standing, but the trade-off of the awkwardness of playing while standing negates that aspect. Slightly off-topic; I recently watched the documentary on Linda Ronstadt, and one of the things I came away with from that viewing was how incredibly appreciative I am to BE ABLE TO SING and sing well, even at 68 years... when I'm sitting around at home and playing "for the fun of it", I rarely sing... after all, I KNOW these songs and am leery of getting bored with them... But singing is such a wonderful, amazing gift...
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"Home is where I hang my hat, but home is so much more than that. Home is where the ones and the things I hold dear are near... And I always find my way back home." "Home" (working title) J.S, Sherman
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#4
02-12-2020, 12:29 PM
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I don't think people over all really appreciate that "voices" are the hardest "instruments" we'll ever try to master. so much goes in to doing it right.
If you got a good one, thank the lord above, and don't stop using it. Muscle memory works for vocals just as much as it does for playing guitar or piano I envy people that really have it. I have to work at it.
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#5
02-12-2020, 12:36 PM
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Your voice is part of your vocal "instrument". Your entire body and it's muscles are part of "playing" that instrument. If you are tired, out of shape, sick, over worked, under exercised (singing) dehydrated...- your end product will suffer. The best vocalists don't "sing along", they work, and work, and work.... at singing better every day. Scales aren't just for instruments.
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#6
02-12-2020, 02:25 PM
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Agree with all the above! After concentrating on finger-style solo arrangements for the last ten years I've started to sing again and man oh man, it is work! And I should know better, I was a voice major in college!
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#9
02-12-2020, 09:56 PM
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We had a gal with a lovely voice in our jam group. Then she took off a year to care for a dying husband. When she returned, her voice was gone, just gone. My voice coach said this was surprisingly common among women of that age. it happens to men as well, just less frequently - so she said. And she was worried what might happen to her own if she didn't use it frequently. She's in her upper 50's.
Then there was the early 90's man who sang Perry Como songs at an open mike I used to frequent (I am not making this up - Perry Como) - he sang like someone 30 years young, great pipes. His wife said he drove her nuts because he sang all day long. After a while his voice started breaking up and he died not long after. I thought losing his voice was the first sign of his decline - but I'm no doctor.
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The Bard Rocks Fay OM Sinker Redwood/Tiger Myrtle Sexauer L00 Adk/Magnolia For Sale Hatcher Jumbo Bearclaw/"Bacon" Padauk Goodall Jumbo POC/flamed Mahogany Appollonio 12 POC/Myrtle MJ Franks Resonator, all Australian Blackwood Goodman J45 Lutz/fiddleback Mahogany Blackbird "Lucky 13" - carbon fiber '31 National Duolian + many other stringed instruments. Last edited by The Bard Rocks; 02-16-2020 at 09:57 PM.
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#10
02-16-2020, 07:19 AM
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Quote:
I come from a ukulele background with lots of strumming and singing. Then I started concentrating on fingerstyle and chord melody. No singing was involved and after about one year when I started singing my voice was weak and could not support anything above a D note. I am working on voice, vocal exercises and singing everyday. At 62 years of age the road back is slow.
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#11
02-28-2020, 10:52 AM
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The conventional wisdom seems to be that you lose your highs as you get older. However, having sung all my life without interruption I find I have my highs but have sometimes encountered difficulty approaching notes at my transition point from chest to head voice. This seems to vary depending upon the vowel I am singing as well as the intensity with which I am singing at the moment.
This is not really a problem but serves to make singing not only fun but interesting. As the OP said, keep singing.
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Some Acoustic Videos
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#12
02-28-2020, 11:05 AM
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Quote:
My favourite Key is G (for obvious reasons) but I have to remind myself and my sideman Bob, that I'm now pushing it to get to that third octave (the one on the top E - often required for bluegrass style music). F is now a better key for me ...but who wants to play guitar in F??? Admittedly, my voice has been compromised by medical treatment and I now have a restricted throat diameter and no natural saliva - but, that I am an old man (72ish). Keeping your lungs as active as possible is good - and working to get out of breath every day (or in my case) every other day helps a lot. Avoid tobacco and aerosols! Keep well hydrated when you sing (well always).
__________________
Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom!
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#13
02-28-2020, 11:25 AM
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I've found that any song that ends a line with a note higher than others in that line are always a challenge. Mostly I think it's a breathing issue - by the end of a line I'm almost out of breath and hitting those higher notes is tough, especially if you tense up when you know they're coming! Finding a place to take a subtle breath in the middle of the line is one solution but overall breath control and relaxation are the key, I think.
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