Lesson Summary 8/28/13 Sam Meredith

I feel like i was well prepared for my lesson this week. I figured that we would mostly be discussing repertoire so I brought a good amount of literature from my own library and i think that gave me a pretty good selection. We started by doing a series of vocalizes. We did some lip buzzing and a lot of descending scales. I felt like this was helpful because I really just want to work on increasing my range and finding more consistency in the upper register of my voice. As we did the vocalizes, my teacher suggested that I think of a note slightly higher than the note I was actually about to sing so that I could figuratively step down onto the top note of the scale instead of feeling like I'm reaching up to get the high note. After vocalizes we did some breathing exercises. I felt that this was a very helpful exercise as well because i really want to improve my breathing technique. I think that I have a good lung capacity, but I want to be smarter in the way that i use my breath. My teacher gave me some things i can do to ensure that i'm breathing properly in the first place. She had me place my hands on the bottom of my rib cage as I sang to confirm that I was getting proper expansion in that area when I breath. She also encouraged me to come up with a "happy thought" that I can retain in my head as I sing to help me maintain proper posture that will allow me to get the maximum amount of breath into my lungs. Next, we did an exercise that helped my distribute my breath evenly over the course of a musical phrase. She had me find accented points within the vocalizes I was singing and make an outward motion with my hand to take my mind of the deflation of my lungs and gradual loss of breath. It seemed to have some sort of placebo effect and make me think that I had more air than i actually had. After that we discussed my repertoire. I was given an extensive list of titles and encouraged to choose five of them as my repertoire for the semester. I'm really excited for the pieces I chose. I'm particularly excited for the selection from Dvorak's Gypsy Songs I will have in my arsenal because I speak Czech. It is a pretty simple song and the diction won't be difficult for me to learn or memorize, so my first goal for my next lesson is to be ready to perform that piece without music. My next goal is to have one of my other pieces prepared with regards to pitch and rhythm as per my teachers assignment. I also want to continue to apply the things i learned from this lesson by having proper posture and a frame of mind that will be a catalyst for proper use of breath.