Blog Manifesto

Blog Manifesto


This blog is dedicated, as the title would suggest, to the qualities of being young. We are young writers. We are playful and sensitive, fluid and changing. We are unashamed with our art. We wonder at the world, puzzle over the meanings of things and twirl in delight at images and ideas that float by, grabbing at them as they pass. We are curious and constantly inquiring and prying concepts open and taking assumptions apart. We are on the ground, close to the earth. We have bare feet and wiggle our toes into nature. We carry our blankies still and wrap up cozy and comfy with each other and tell ghost stories and shiver at creepy things. We laugh and we cry and we take a lot of naps, drained from our outings and exertions.

We write as gifts to each other, tying them up in ribbon and leaving them around for each other to find, hiding and waiting for the person to wake up and read. Surprise! We weave our stories together to create a bond. One writes, then the other. then another again. We have a shared reality that we have crafted, bit by piece by patch, by string. We write simple, honest authentic things, with our unique voices. You can tell each one of us from the other, without knowing who wrote what. Our voices are clear and gentle and original. We whisper and our personalities roar! Like children, our feelings are strong, our passion for what we write shakes us. We are moved and sometimes left breathless, by our own words or the words of each other. We cannonball into each others spaces. We fall backward into each others writing, like into a pile of leaves or a soft bed. We gobble and grin and ask for more. (footnote kudos to JC)

Then we go to bed, wake up to a new day and do it all over again!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

the story of ay

if you want perfect laryngeal placement for singing
sing ay or the italian form eh (which lacks the often treacherous diphthong)

ay causes a tilt of the larynx (voice box) forward and down
what a glorious little device
and a miracle.. for without a flexible trachea (wind pipe) this would be impossible

ay is a warm vowel.  open, deep, and resonant.  it is characterized by a relaxed jaw, and is slightly less focused than ee, simply because as the pillars relax inward the vocal cords relax apart and allow for the escape of air.  in fact, the further away from ee we go, within the pure vowel spectrum.. the more slack the cord becomes and the more air escapes into the sound. 
this is completely treatable. ;)


ay, like ee, is a wider vowel and only slightly narrower than ee
if you say ee and then say ay you will feel those pillars move inward
remember the pillars?
did you feel them?
ok try this exercise again..
sing eeeeeeee and then slide into ayyyyyyyyyy
now do it backward.. ayyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
did you move your lips? 
did your jaw move?
ok again.
no lips no jaw this time..
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
ayyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

lets play a little now.
remember no moving the jaw and no moving the lips..
sing ee and slide into ay..
but this time
when you sing ay THINK eeeeeee

what happened?
did the color of ay change?
did ay feel different than ee?

now sing ay and slide into ee..
but keep THINKING ayyyyy

what happened this time?
did the color of ee change?
did ee feel different than ay?

do not read on until you have tried this and thought about it!

ok carry on.
....................................................................................................

here's what you should have experienced.

when you sing eeeeeeayyyyyy and think only ee, the ay vowel should have sounded brighter and more pingy and focused like ee.. and it should have felt more like ee feels.

when you sing ayyyyyeeeeeeee and think only ay, the ee vowel should have a warmer more round sound like ay.. and it should feel more relaxed like ay feels.






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