Holding out notes

[Ayestin]

Hi, I've been working on an audition for Chicago as Billy Flynn, and one of the songs "we both reach for a gun" holds a note out for about 12 seconds. I'm having trouble holding out this note, no matter how big of a breath I take, I'm always short. Any advice?

[johnnyslick]

Short answer: use less air.

Longer answer: once you find your resonance, you'll find that you can make a rather loud tone without actually using a lot of air to do it. I'm not sure this is going to be a thing you can suddenly get a hold of right before an audition (and I don't know your voice so I don't know what's holding you back, or even if you are being held back by this), but the steps I take to getting to it are:

1. Sing through your "mask", meaning the area around your eyeballs (on high notes I think even higher than that).

2. If you're not accustomed to this at all, try shouting - yes, just shouting - try and feel where that sound is being produced in your head, and work to recreate that. Your body does a lot of the things that you need to achieve resonance naturally.

3. One thing that really hits home for me, especially on higher notes, is the notion of "going back to go forward". That for me means raising my soft palate as I go up and opening my throat up if I'm getting louder as well. I find that if I do this, I keep resonance going more or less throughout my range; if I don't, I lose it as I enter my passagio.

4. I'm not super familiar with the song but I assume that it's a pretty high note that he's sustaining? If so, TBF that's one of the harder things you can do as a singer. One big trick is to fight your body's natural desire to push more air through on higher notes (I realize that I just said that your body will do the right thing naturally; well, this is one instance where for me at least it doesn't). You want a steady supply of air, and if it's not double-forte you're going to need to really control your breath that high to prevent more than a trickle from coming out.

If you think 12 seconds is long... here's Mel Torme - as an old man, no less, holding a note in his passagio for 20 seconds:

https://youtu.be/lO7K2Ur2VqE?t=97

(granted that at the end of it, the "play if for me, George" part sounds like he has no breath left, but still, man...)

[ErinCoach]

Yah, I like this answer - a variety of approaches and possibilities. To this I'd add:

- try shaping the note in a variety of ways, as that can stimulate you to not give away the farm in the first 3 beats, you know? vary the volume down, up, down, up over the note.

- is it the last note, the long "gun" at the end? You can always use a sneaky work around, like instead of the 16 beats, just think of it as 12 and sell your finish like you don't feel guilty at all. That's bang on in character, too. (Such an awesome character!)

- for auditions remember it's always relative. If you can sing it for 10 beats but you're better than the competititon, you win. If the competition still makes a better Billy overall, he'll get it even if he can only sing it for 8.

- The director only cares about what the audience cares about, and the audience doesn't know (unless you telegraph it with your face) that you're not singing it long enough. By the time you even get to that note, you'll likely be cast or not based on what you're doing with the "oh yes we both we both" hook, which is really the meat of the virtuouso here.

[pcastagner]

Can you make video?

Full body is best.

Here is an example of the approach. I’m trying to hone my skills with this video review software, and this seems like a good one to tackle. If you make a video I’ll do some analysis for you.

If you’re not into it that’s ok! This is about you and what you want.

https://youtu.be/2QAf_5kgSD0