Avoiding High Notes

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by Andrea Lynn Cianflone

In my foundational years of vocal training, I fondly remember the day I sang my first “A” high note with a former voice teacher at my side ascending the piano keys by way of an arpeggiated vocal exercise. Like any ‘firsts’ in life, like riding a bicycle or going skydiving, this exploratory journey felt exhilarating. I dove into some vocal “hiccups”, however, as I approached this unknown vocal stratosphere. The scale continued onward and upward. I was now singing into what is called the “whistle register,” a very delicate part of the highest range in the voice. Unbeknownst to me was the ability of the vocal mechanism to sing that high. You can appreciate some of these high notes by listening to the famous aria “Der Hölle Rache” (Hell’s Vengeance), from the opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) sung by the Queen of the Night. I have posted a sample excerpt of mine here: www.andrea-lynn.com. (Disclaimer: Don’t try this at home).

There were certainly times in practice when I wanted to skip over those high notes, avoiding the difficult measures, but if I was remiss from such discipline, I am confident my audience’s expectations would be unfulfilled by my complete debauchery of the aria, as this song is considered one of the most difficult of the coloratura soprano repertoire. Practicing these types of phrases takes incredible support from the vocal instrument, patience, and courage as one fearlessly embraces this tonal jet stream.

Suppose, however, that I decided to step on stage unprepared and indeed eliminate the difficult high note passages and leave the skeleton of the piece to be sung. I could shield my decision in a myriad of ways: my voice teacher taught me such and such; my voice teacher laughed at me when I hiccupped on those high notes; my voice teacher acted like she did not care about my feelings when questioning how I approached those high notes; I had a bad experience the first time I sang those high notes. I only want to do the easy parts of the music because it sounds more pleasurable to my ear. The list goes on.

Is it me or does it often seem that relationships have become like these hypothetical skeletal arias, dismissing and avoiding what is necessary to present a secure song (relationship)?  It seems so often that choices made in the now are influenced by physiological responses in the nervous system of past memorized experiences, making life challenging to embrace what is calm in the present. It becomes a warzone of freedom verses fear. I wonder what would happen if a person approached life like a vocal student desiring to master that empty aria:

• recognizing any deficiencies from the formative patterns taught by voice teachers –i.e. recognizing any shortcomings in parental modeling.

  
  

• recognizing when the emotional accountability may have been remiss in those formative years-i.e. a parent dismissing the emotions of a child who then struggles in adulthood to securely attach or be accountable to his/her relationships, romantic, divine, or otherwise.

  
  

• recognizing how those patterns are felt in the mind and body as an adult-i.e. a child learning coping strategies who then feels the push and pull of the nervous system in adult years, attempting to securely attach to relationships.

I empathize with the person whose worldview was shaped by this following experience: “I never had a parent [a friend, authority figure, et al.] responsible to my emotional welfare, and now I am supposed to be responsible to someone else?” In the wise words of a former voice teacher: You cannot give what you do not know. How often it seems people may resort to a solution of sticking with the ‘easy measures’ of life or running away completely, relying on the dopamine hits of newfound relationships, or creating exit and distance strategies to sidestep unhealed trauma wounds, only to find that when the “drug” wears off, one is left feeling empty, pondering where to go next, rather than sticking to what is secure. As a singer, I could certainly make the choice to avoid all sorts of learning curves, but escaping such difficulty only evades the beauty that could be expressed in oneself and ultimately to others. Singing on this sort of life’s stage is risky…but then again, so is authentic love, the highest note of all.

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