note to self...

Don't sing coloratura like I'm playing scales on the piano!

I've been working on Rossini lately, trying to gain some freedom in the runs. In a coaching the other day, BK stopped in the middle of "Non piu mesta" and said, "This is great. But, you know, you don't have to accent every 4th note of every scale! It sounds like a piano exercise." And I flashed back to the 15-year old me, who used to spend 30 minutes every day playing every major and minor scale in succession, 4 octaves in 16th notes, parallel and contrary motion, and accenting every 4th note! Of course, I didn't always play this way in actual pieces of music, but somewhere in me, I feel like that's the way scales are done. I've been thinking about my coloratura for months now, working on it with my teacher, talking to people about it, and everything helped a little, but nothing was really the answer. I guess I just had to hear it from a fellow pianist!

The result? I tried the run again, thinking all the way to the end in one long line, and ta-da!!!! Smooth, exciting, easy, long scale! Well, until I dissolved in to giggles at the end. :)