20 Sep
2010
20 Sep
'10
5:23 p.m.
Thank you Andrea! I've been wishing we could talk in general about our
voices - how to make them stronger, yet more pleasant. Vocal health would be
a good starting place. These are great ideas (and completely unknown to this
non-singer!).
Then there must be exercises - relaxation exercises, loudness exercises,
stuff like that...
Any ideas?
M
E
On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Andrea Nettleton <twirly-girl(a)bellsouth.net
wrote:
On the subject of vocal inflammation, which is the
reason you lose your
voice, I have more experience as a singer than as a caller. If you are
truly very ill and the bug is in the tissues perpetually renewing the
inflammatory response, there isn't a whole lot you can do in the short term,
but I have had success with: ice (cold takes down the inflammation quickly,
but it doesn't last long, so count on keeping it up), cooled ginger tea,
cooled mint tea, ginger and mint both have antinflammatory properties,
honey, thai coconut soup, slippery elm lozenges, salt gargle, or if you are
out and can't do a home remedy eat salty food that is a little oily (like a
salad with fish or chicken and vinaigrette, or a good soup or stew), drink
icy drinks and get some halls or something to get you through till you can
really take care. It goes without saying, that rest is the preferred
remedy.
Yours,
Andrea
On 9/20/2010 3:54 PM, Mortland, Jo wrote:
--
For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle
And the merry love to dance. ~ William Butler Yeats
An experienced caller once told me that medleys are useful is when there
aren't a lot of dancers, maybe towards the end of an evening. It helps
keep a dance interesting, and you can run it longer. I've tried this
and it works well.
This past summer, I had the pleasure of sharing the bill at the dance
festival with Nils Fredland. One of the workshops was an hour long
medley, and I learned a lot about medleys from Nils. Before that, I had
put dances together based on formation (becket or improper) and the
first moves of the dances being similar.
But Nils showed me how to change from improper to Becket so you can use
both kinds of dances. Basically, it means looking at the beginning
moves of each dance, and the end moves. With enough attention to those
areas, it became easy to move from one formation to the other.
For example, let's say you are dancing in Becket, and the last move is a
partner balance and swing. If you can find an improper dance that
begins with a circle left one time around and swing your neighbor (like
Roll in the Hey), you could change that move, JUST THE FIRST TIME
THROUGH THE DANCE, to a circle left three places and swing your
neighbor. That way, from the partner balance and swing, you would move
everyone to the same side of the set as their neighbor for a swing.
Once I began looking at my dances with that goal in mind, I found many
more possibilities. It takes some creativity on the part of the caller,
but for me, that is one of the things I like about it.
On another note, and while I have your "ears", I have a question. As
callers, if you feel you are losing your voice, or you have a cold, is
there anything you have found that can help clear your throat?
Thanks.
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