Earlier this week, while I was doing daily technical practices I stopped to enjoy singing the song, “I’m Still Here,” written by John Rzeznik for the 2002 Disney film Treasure Planet.
Media Logs
Vlog
Github Study Respository
Link to my Github repository containing music notes.
General Session Records
| Date Session | Duration (Minutes) | Public Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-11 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts, vowel study. |
| 2026-01-12 | 20 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts, vowel study. |
| 2026-01-13 | 25 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts, vowel study. |
| 2026-01-14 | 30 | Sliding lip trills, glottal starts, vowel study. “I’m Still Here.” |
| 2026-01-15 | 10 | Vowel study. |
| 2026-01-18 | 20 | Sliding lip trills. Glottal starts and sliding thirds. |
Memories to Share
A Few Observations About the Process of Learning Singing
I began learning how to sing about six months ago. When I began, I didn’t know what to expect. As I’ve had time to explore this creative endeavor, I am beginning to catch glimpses of what may occur in the life of a master singer. My awareness is growing of the existence of basic techniques, such as vocal sliding and finding a natural vibrato.
One task of a singer can be the exploration of how our voice responds as we attempt to slide and jump across different tonal registers.
For example, I frequently notice a challenge when I attempt to slide with my voice. Suppose that I intend to slide from the note of E down to C; often, I slide too far, going as low as B or B flat, before I correct myself and return to an accurate pitch. The process of practicing calls me to master the ability to slide so that the outcome of my voice follows the musical intention of my mind. When I am careful, I am more capable of hitting the correct pitch and avoiding overshooting.
Another observation occurred on a recent day when my voice seemed to be naturally producing a recognizable vibrato. (I say, “seem,” because I don’t consider myself developed enough to know whether a master would consider my vibrato to be formed correctly.)
On this day, I was able to purposefully choose to carry the tension in my throat in one manner and my voice would be reasonably stable (which I could verify by the vocal-pitch app I use on my phone). With intention, I could then change the tension in my voice — in a way that felt like I was ‘pulling’ my throat backwards — and my voice would oscillate of its own accord. The oscillations of my voice were relatively stable and rounded. The number of oscillations per second felt close to five or six, which I have heard is the desirable range.
The feeling of vibrato in my throat was like a bouncing rubber cord, stretching and releasing. I did not notice myself attempting to force a vibrato with the back of my tongue; the vibrato simply occurred. My voice even felt relaxed.
The glimpses into the nature of singing have given me an inkling of the experience of a master singer. I imagine this master singer experimenting at length in the afternoon light of a dusty cathedral chamber hall. The singer is searching with their voice through the various octaves, glottal starts and stops, harmonic effects, and many other singing techniques to listen and master the sounds created by the human body. I also imagine the master training with a colleague to test and balance each others’ abilities and musical effects.
Just think about all the millions of singers, musicians, and creative spirits who have come before us, sitting focused on a task, plucking and humming away, searching for that perfect artistic effect that pleases one’s soul.
Artificial Intelligence Transparency Report
No artificial intelligence was used for the writing or performing portion of this blog post.
I used Google’s Gemini AI to help me create and manage my sql database for tracking relevant data. For example, I used Google Gemini to write a script that exports my singing data records from my custom PostgreSQL database and format the data as an HTML table.
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