Volume kills melody.
This may sound obvious, but ask yourself, do you have it learned as a Mind Concept or a Body Knowledge? Personally, I finally made the move to the latter. Having it there, I've been playing with calibration. Here is the play by play.
As an actor I belong to the school of being heard all the way to the back of the house. Having finally trusted I was doing that, I relaxed about it for the first time in my life. Relaxing made me realize I was louder than I needed to be. So courageously, I took the volume down. I then realized, my pace was a bit too fast for the new volume level, so I trepidatious-ly slowed it down. Going just that hair slower afforded me extra time on the line. With the extra time on my hands, I became curious to find out if I could travel up and down my range a bit more. So, I floated the high notes a little higher and the low's a little lower, thus making what I was saying more expressive. Well, because I was being more expressive with one part of my body ( my voice ), it transferred to the rest my body, filling me with a surge of …of…something I can't explain, but it took my acting to another level. All with 1/8 less effort.
Strangely, because I was more relaxed, and breathing more (you know, all the stuff they teach you in school or class but never learned until found for oneself) I was aware of the entire process listed previously while in the middle of a run. Strange out-of-body feeling.
I've continued this way of working over the last few days with amazing results. The other day in performance I said the line "Lucy?" with a spin I'd never given it before, and it came out about an octave lower! Yes, can you believe it? It was a really wonderful low, dark note that I'd only ever heard while warming up, or doing silly character voices.
What's even more exciting, and even startling: the choice made itself!!! I had no sensation of anything new in my instrument prior to saying the line. It... just… came... out.
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