Author: Lucia Cossu

Voice teacher and breath expert. Italian bel canto technique, cossu method www.luciacossu.com

Irenea__

on By
  • @irenea__
  • @irenea__

@Irenea__ , getting professional in 2019.

Another happy ending from struggle. She arrived to me not being able to sing without strain and breaking the sounds. Younger she was a natural voice, then some voice lessons and her voice did not improve but collapsed (that is why training of young voices must be of the finest level of knowledge for functionality and voice development, so easy to slip down fast and put dysfunctionality just for too much pretension too soon). It developed in a dysfunctional voice with struggle and breaking the sounds, impossibility of singing more than half an hour every other day.  Logopedic treatments and other different voice teachers useless. She did not contact me immediately because skeptical of Skype lessons. Then we started, we made 11 months weekly lessons, a pause of one year due to her scholastic tasks. Another 11 months of weekly lessons and here she is preparing the first gigs, no need of my lessons now. She seems to develop in a talented professional, now it is her choice and path, but not anymore struggle for unknown reasons. Very very happy.
Enjoy her and her evolution 🙂

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/irenea__/



https://www.instagram.com/irenea___/

How I got back my voice 1

on By

Yes structure in the voice counts; and I am not away from this truth.

How I got back my voice 1

.

Look for Jason Fung and its team and structure.

Now it is plenty of datas and evidences on fasting in many forms. Ask always a doctor, consult with a doctor; as usual use wisely tools.

The following is anecdotal and it was correct to write and share it, not necessary for you to read or listen.

As I say often knowledge is transformative, important and as we know a tool for freedom.

Practically this means that we can change some conditions in a discontinuity way, as I preach for singing.

Some years ago a young student told me that if I applied cossumethod and its principle to me I would have back my voice. She was right but the starting point of mine was not into the parameters of cossumethod. I have a chronic condition diagnosed as a intermittent septicaemia not treatable. Medical malpractice made it worse since 2006, so you have to add to this intermittent montly activation its collateral effects, the effects of the many surgeries, the effects of malpractice: costant fever since 2006, disbyosis so severe that I could eat only liquid medical food with no fibers, malabsorption constant (I am also coeliac), chronic pain visceral and in the joints, reactive arthritis, the consequences of a useless surgical menopause (the surgeon convicted for this), heart with too high frequency the periods of activation (jumping to 180/190 per minute at rest), need of months of antibiotics every year. On voice you had the sensation of an old chronically low pitched voice, stiff and no light in it no more, no ring, and not trainable.

I write and publish that because I would have liked to know the evidences and datas and the existence of Buchinger clinics, or of Jason Fung.

Yes, I am stubborn and did manipulate getting better taking back natural food in the form of juicing and no fibers diet, inventing exercises to have back more functionality in the body, less acute periods with paleo diet and regular saunas, but was just a less pronounced getting worse all the time as expected by diagnostic.

.

This is a discontinuity thing, a jumping to something I had forgot. So can be useful for someone, I would have liked to know of this tool.

To me was necessary an extended fasting of more than two weeks and now an intermittent feeding pretty strict (fasting every day minimum 16/18 hours). Perhaps there will be the need of a second prolonged to see if has a sense to try to get rid of it definitively, we will see with doctors. But never ever dreamt that I could get back to this happy normal mundane.

.

So this is how it sounds after just a month of training, and just a week of classical training that was absolutely impossible. It is not correct, it has to get back in shape and stamina and far from the career I had, but it is a sharing of knowledge and datas not of musical or artistic level or meaning 😊✨. Those are just playing around to train and experiment.

My voice have back the ring, it is trainable. My career will not be back, but singing yes.

*yesterday the same (now grown and former student told me to publish that); and as I often use me and others to explain concepts and knowledge I think she is right. And yeah I have pretty amazing students.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

#voiceteacher #vocaltechnique #functionalvoice #functionalsinging #singing #vocalcoaching #luciacossu #cossumethod #vocaltechniqueforprofessionals #professionalsvoices #voixprofessionels #careofprofessionalvoices #techniquechanteurs #italianbelcantotechnique #vocalteacher #singingteacher #fasting #inflammation #chronicinflammation #jasonfung #buchinger #intermittentfasting

Limitations in extension: always to correct it?

on By

VOCAL TECHNIQUE

There is the case of very interesting timbres, generally very effective and a certain limitation in extension, better refer in tessitura in those cases.

Some would think as a limitation this lack of great extension and some would like to solve it.

In my experience when the timbre is obtained by a sustain that reach the positions of second register by mimicking the first and maintaining the larynx movement of pronunciation of the first register is something truly effective and musically precious and if they do not want to absolutely sing repertoire that requires complete development and use of the three registers I would discourage to change it.

If otherwise obtained by a lowering of positions in my experience it will not damage so much the musical effectiveness to correct it.

Strategies for singers, the absolutes in your tastes and choices

on By

VOCAL TECHNIQUE MADE SIMPLE

One of the frequent positions, of internal musical choice on voice that take some away from the development of their true voice is the refuse of something.

To make an example: those who totally refuse nose sound, in any way. They usually get to such a pure flat that takes away the sustain and as I said many times in my tutorials when you have not sustain you will have the sound of no sustain and in this case with correct positions they will sound truly nasal as they do not want. So avoiding the nasal resonances they are obtaining exactly to be stuck in the nasal sound any time they do not want to break the flat sound. So the correction is to put some exercises with correct nasalisation and develop sustain through that and yeah the nasal sound will go away.

Think about that anytime you are absolute in refusing a voice characteristic.

“We do not know what we do not know”

on By

We do not know what we do not know.

So we can know our goals but not precisely how to get there (quite clearly we are not yet there),

for that we need to learn. And to learn is easier if we get coachable.

Being coachable is a smart move, and can be crucial if you have some motor control failures, some dysfunctions.

Dysfunctions even if born from some physical event present a stubborn certitude in the order, an order that being coachable can smoothen enough to change into a functional one.

Being coachable means that you can learn from every thing useful crossing your life, and especially you can learn what you do not know you need to know (that is the centre of knowledge, to know what you do not know not to know).

Singing patterns or movements versus single functions.

on By

In the last two days I published three videos on Instagram about a fundamental concept I am talking about with a student. It is an important point that in rehabilitative and performing field has been well stated by Gray Cook, he defines it “the movement versus motion paradox” and says “Movement often denotes the act of a functioning body as it changes position under its own power. Motion might represent the available range of flexibility within a single body segment or group of segments”. [Gray Cook Movement Functional Movement Systems]

What this has to do with us and vocal technique? The well known experience some singers report me or see in others when in improving or correcting a voice of the nothing happens or the quality sound improves but not the singing or even some singers lose the effectiveness they had before yet tells us that something of this paradox is in voice too. Also those who do not have a natural voice and has never experimented what a singing gesture truly is and remain stuck in the training and giving command to single functions (sustain, copertura, pronunciation, turn of the larynx, modification of the vowels to have a sound more forward) in an impossible sum of command. Those who had not a natural voice and they find how to unblock it with an exercise in a function and get convinced that voice is training and finding everything with that function.

What I wanted to precise is that we have to gain and give our students or singers perspective. Singing is a movement, it uses synergistic functions and many patterns into a movement and every kind of work we do on parts must maintain the perspective and the care of the movement.

Sometimes we have to deal with singers who see a great improvement into their sound by improving just one function and do not see the risk of loosing the entire movement, and we have to improve the culture of what singing is on a functional level so that they will follow our advices when we say that yes to improve but let the system integrate and then see if can absorb another quantity of this function.

Also we have to give trust and courage to those who found finally something in voice by working on one thing with the integration of knowledge from other fields who can better clarify why at a certain point we want them to make a step further into true singing movement.

Italian belcanto as all the others method born from it contains the movement and work on movement and that is why it is so renowned and balancing in the voices. It has the limit of being well balanced but not yet developed into how much we can develop the single functions before losing the movement or if you prefer getting dysfunctional. Train on the single functions, but do it smartly.

Do as artists have to look to immediate clarity? #vocalcoaching

on By

This is something truly important to me when working with artists, the productive confusion, that specific clarity behind a specific fog that can seem confusion.

A series of technical talks on vocal fundamentals.

I am a voice teacher specialised in technique and solutions for professional singers and future professionals.

I come from a soloist career in classical music interrupted by a long septicaemia. I relate to Italian belcanto technique and some exercises I invented to make a step forward in the possibility of working on voices. I had results also in vocal issues organic and functional, called by their doctor, https://luciacossu.com/cossu-method-program/