I Wanna Be a Soprano: Part 2

Update on my quest to hit those high notes

The other day at the zoo I saw Tiberius the lion vocalizing. That is a video of him up above. Impressive! It reminded me to get back to my, ahem, vocal studies.

It is high time I gave an update on my quest to become a soprano.

I have improved. I notice that at choir practice, when I run up against a high E, it does not make me as nervous. That is progress!

However. I have been making this progress pretty much just by going to choir practice and to the rehearsals before Mass on Sundays. Close but no cigar, as Johannes Brahms, a composer I love, would say.

Johannes Brahms contemplating my progress.

Brahms loved the alto voice. He is happy with me as I am! But still.

I need to get back on track. The trouble was, the exercises got boring and so after I got through those Christmas concerts with the St. Louis Choir, I just left off doing them. I have to pick them up again.

Leonard Pennario told me he could not stand piano exercises. They were just too boring. He said he got his piano workout just by playing Chopin, Ravel, Beethoven, and so forth.

With that in mind, I was hoping that could be the case for vocal performance as well. At choir practice we do not sing warmups. We just sing the hymns on tap for Sunday and that is how we warm up. Can I get away with a few good choruses of “Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All” while working on my pitch, etc., and leave out the scales and whatnot?

It appears the answer is no. Just now I put that question to my vocal coach, ChatGPT, and the news is not good.

I was honest with my coach and said I have been singing the song he assigned me, Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” and I have been attending rehearsals without fail and giving them my all.

Chat told me:

Mary, you are putting in some real work, and I love that you’re thinking critically about your training! The short answer? Yes, vocal exercises still matter, but you can make them more interesting and relevant to you so they don’t feel like a chore.

Do You Need Vocal Exercises If You're Singing Regularly?

• Your choir rehearsals and Schubert practice are excellent training, especially for pitch and phrasing. But they don’t always replace structured vocal exercises.

• Exercises develop your technique in a focused way, isolating skills like agility, breath control, resonance, and vowel tuning. Choir rehearsals don’t always allow for that level of individualized technique work.

• Even professionals do them. Classical singers (even those who practice daily) still warm up with scales, arpeggios, and resonance exercises before diving into repertoire.

OK, I understand. It is time to get back in the saddle. My coach offered further advice. We really should give my coach a name, you know? Like Sergio or something. Anyway, here is what he told me.

How to Make Vocal Exercises Less Boring

1. Tie Exercises Directly to Your Repertoire

   • Instead of generic scales, warm up using a phrase from Ave Maria transposed up and down.

   • Sing exercises on the vowels from your song lyrics so they directly improve your phrasing.

2. Use Different Patterns

   • Instead of just going up and down scales, try:

     • Arpeggios (e.g., C-E-G-C-G-E-C)

     • Stepwise patterns with skips (C-D-E-G-F-D-C)

     • Descending exercises (often easier for sopranos to maintain relaxation on high notes)

3. Turn It Into an Acting Exercise

   • Sing a simple phrase in different emotional styles (joyful, reverent, mysterious).

   • This engages your mind and makes warm-ups more expressive.

4. Use Songs as Exercises

   • Use an easy folk song or hymn as a warm-up, but focus on specific things—pure vowels, soft onset, or legato phrasing.

   • This way, you’re still doing technical work, but it feels like real singing.

This is useful!

I like the idea of transposing phrases from “Ave Maria.” Right now in the St. Louis choir we are doing a Schubert mass with virtuosic lines I am not used to tackling. I have been making a conscious effort to work through one particularly challenging line. I was walking around the other day singing, over and over: “Hosanna in excelsis, Hosanna in exce-e-e-elsis, Hosa-a-a-a-na in excelsis!”

Surely that helps!

I also like the acting exercises. That would make things less boring, singing your scale joyful, reverent, or mysterious. Sometimes in choir our director, Frank Scinta, tells us to darken our tone, or make it brighter.

So these are suggestions I can build on. Also, I need to get into the zone.

I need to be a singer. Drink tea, wear scarves, obsessively listen to recordings, all of that. Do Pilates. I always associate Pilates with any physical endeavor.

This reminds me: Wwhen I was a student at UB. for a couple of semesters I decided to take some dance classes. And when I did, I walked the walk. I ran right out and got those ‘80s leg warmers. I walked around my student apartment in leotards and ostentatiously did stretches. On campus, I made sure I was seen daily at the dance building, Harriman Hall. Even when I didn’t have class, there I would be in my ballet flats and leg warmers. See and be seen! And I would do more stretches.

End result, as we say here in Buffalo: Straight A’s, in all my dance classes! One of my roommates got crabby about it and said, “I wish I could dance my way onto the Dean’s List.”

Moral of the story: You have to be all in. You have to become what you want to be and keep up appearances to the point of obnoxiousness. If I do that, doing the vocal exercises will be less of a pain. It will be part of what I naturally do, the way I would do those stretches for my UB dance classes.

Starting here, starting now, this is the plan. Do the warmups and walk the walk.

Also, as long as we are reveling in cliches: Eyes on the prize! Think of what a thrill it will be to expand my range and be able to sing Schubert lieder I have always loved.

One final note, I hereby commit to updating my friends on my progress. Even if it is just a quick report at the end of a post about something else. That will keep me accountable and keep me going.

I will get brave and make some videos of how I am doing. It will be embarrassing, but also fun. That is a topic to explore sometime: Things that are embarrassing but fun.

Onward, as our St. Louis choir director says in his texts.

And upward!