Stephanie M. Neumann 00:00
[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists, sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Stephanie M. Neumann, co-producer and audio engineer of For Good Measure, filling in as host for this episode. We continue today interviewing artistic executive director of Ensemble for These Times, and For Good Measure host and producer, Nanette McGuinness [INTRO MUSIC ENDS]. As a singer, you deal with text, which is not something that all musicians actually encounter. When you start rehearsing a piece of repertoire, do you have a specific way you like to learn it? What does your rehearsal practice look like?
Nanette McGuinness 00:51
Those are good questions, these are all good questions. So first, the big picture of what I'm doing, what my job is, is to communicate meaning. I'm taking dots, words, and squiggles that are on a page, that somebody either living or a long time ago, thought had meaning to them. And I'm connecting what those meant to their creator as best as I can tell, and what they mean to me, to try and embody that, and share that with the people who listen and or watch me. So it's an interesting exercise, but really, that's what I'm trying to do. That the music says or mean something, and, you know, when it's really good and you're singing and you're feeling well, you kind of open up your mouth, open up your spirit, and it flies out and communicates across that. In terms of the nitty gritty, I have a very fairly standard way of going after learning music. I'm going to start out still by looking at the context and the meaning and the history, and making sure I know what all the words are. And, you know, if it's a character, where the character's coming from, where they're going with the dramatic arc, all that kind of stuff. If it's a role, I'm going to study the whole role. And I'll do that early on because otherwise, you're just kind of diving in without knowing what you're singing about. If it's a language I speak, I just make sure it doesn't have arcane or old words, because then I can usually just know what's going on. If it's not, then I make sure that I know what every word means. And not just what every word means, though, what the overall meaning is, you can know what all the words mean, and still not know what's going on in a sentence, right? If it's a language you don't speak, even if it's one you've studied. So I want to make sure I know what the gist as well as the word the word is. And, as I said earlier, I listen to some recordings, if they exist, then I put music into my voice at the piano. It puts fewer miles on the voice because when something isn't into voice, you tend to sing it wrong. You're not on your breath, you're thinking about the notes, you're thinking about the rhythms. So I'll have a tendency to play it at the piano. If the part is such that I can play, I'll play the whole thing. Otherwise, I'll just play the bass and my line. And then from, I guess, from the organ practice, the bassline being important there. And then I start to work on putting it into voice, I play my part and I have a very specific way of doing it that I learned from my teacher, the wonderful Jane Randolph, with whom I've studied, at this point, the bulk of my career, she keeps me on the straight and narrow. And so you put it in thinking on, on an "ah," and then on vowels, and you speak the vowels, and then you speak the words and you're working on the legato line, and you just work phrase to phrase, and then you've got it in your voice. And you haven't, hopefully, put in too many habits that you're going to have to undo that had to do with sight reading the part. I'm a fairly quick musician, If I sight read something wrong, and I read it again, wrong, it's very likely to be in there, and I'm gonna have to work hard to knock it out, so I want to get it right from the start.
Stephanie M. Neumann 04:19
That's interesting, starting with the music, and then you're saying you're adding...you're kind of breaking it down into components, first, right, then practicing it that way. And I'm sure it's interesting for other musicians who aren't dealing with text to hear, because not only are you dealing with the notes, but it's just this other totally different thing that you have to add on top of that.
Nanette McGuinness 04:45
Right. And yet when you're singing, the vowels and the vowel to vowel in the line are what's really important.
Stephanie M. Neumann 04:52
Yes.
Nanette McGuinness 04:53
So if you, especially if you're singing a language like English, you're very likely to just kind of go "consonant, consonant, consonant, consonant," that doesn't work too well. So you really want to be mindful of the vowels that you're singing. And, I mean, I have all these steps that I teach my students. At this point, I've narrowed it down to the ones I have to do, and I encourage them to do that as well, you know, there are ones that you can skip. And then there are ones that you can't. And that if you do, you'll be sorry, and sad, and have to do some backhoe back work. Oh, and you asked what my rehearsal practice looks like, I warm up 10 to 15 minutes and then I work on repertory. If I'm working on a role, at a certain point, I'll be also working on the drama and the staging. And when I do that, I'll work with a mirror and practice that way. When I'm going to perform, even art song, there comes a point where I'll work with a mirror to make sure that what I'm doing with the character in the words, matches what I think it should match, you know, that it makes sense. And I'll often, more in the past, but I'll take an aria or a role or, you know, piece to my drama coach to work with them on that as well. Until the last couple of years, I sing every day. And it would feel wrong, I felt like something would be missing if I didn't do it. You know, and I could feel the edge, like the very top level of performing I could feel that go after about two days, and I didn't like that feeling. So even on vacation, I would warm up every two maximum three days, just 10-15 minutes and then, you know, go on with my day or, or whatever. So that's been the practice.
Stephanie M. Neumann 06:51
Yeah, there's other things that you're dealing with, getting sick, you know, it's a little easier for somebody who's playing an actual physical instrument, maybe to kind of hide if they're just a little sick, you know, that's gonna affect your quality and what you are able to, to actually bring. And so how is that actually dealing with, you know, when you're sick? And is there something, do you have any tips, also, or things that you do to get through that?
Nanette McGuinness 07:21
Sure, no, that's a good question. First, sometimes when you're fighting a cold, but you don't have it yet, sometimes you sing very, very well. I'm not really sure why. But when you're sick, if you don't have to sing, it's better not to, you can really drive something that's in, say, your throat or whatever down into your lungs and, you know, get sicker and you can make a cough worse by irritating things. So it's better if you don't have to, not to. At the same time, I have had to sing sick any number of times in my life, and I do think that Jane's technique, the way she teaches, is really good because you, it helps you sing when you're under the weather, because you're doing what you're supposed to do, instead of responding to what the instrument is doing and trying to overcome it, you just do it as best you can. And for me, allergies and illness have been an issue because I have a lot of allergies. You know, when I performed in Europe, I learned to ask them to spray down the stage because the, you know, the stages are older and there's a lot of dust and I'm super allergic to dust. But if they spray it down with just a little water, then the dust isn't flying around.
Stephanie M. Neumann 07:59
That's interesting, yeah.
Nanette McGuinness 08:45
Every instrument has its Achilles' heel. And whatever instrument you've chosen, you're really aware of that.
Stephanie M. Neumann 08:54
Yes, I definitely am very aware of my hands. The saxophone, so sharp knives I'm very cautious around.
Nanette McGuinness 09:03
Right, you don't go digging in the garden pruning with heavy shears.
Stephanie M. Neumann 09:06
Yes. Yeah.
Stephanie M. Neumann 09:07
[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Nanette McGuinness, for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting it on social media, and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT, our concert season online and in the Bay Area, or to make a tax deductible donation, please visit us at www.e4tt.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors, like you. For Good Measure is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times and designed by Brennan Stokes, with co-producer and audio engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts, and tune in next week "for good measure" [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS].