Emily F. lesson 10/29

Emily F. lesson 10/29: It was an interesting lesson today. I came having warmed up some and my voice felt fine. When we started the vocalizes, I found myself thinking really hard. All of the ideas in pedagogy are swimming around in my head and all my singing problems are coming to the forefront of my awareness. It's a little overwhelming, but I'm trying to trust that I'm improving. So I had a hard time feeling free. I've particularly been paying attention to the base of the tongue issues, so my singing felt strange. It was "easy" in my larynx, but felt exposed and vulnerable. And it was unfamiliar. I felt like I had to experiment with my body a lot to get the free feeling I wanted. We did a lot of "getting high" type exercises. When I worked on my songs, I found myself trying to "get it right," technique-wise, and then found that I was locking myself into a set position, mentally and physically. I was thinking about the book idea of the thousands of gears, so I tried to shake myself loose and adjust as I was going. I had an issue with keeping my sound energized throughout the songs--nothing new there. I'm not sure how I can learn to energize my singing without the aids and tricks that I have in lessons. When I pull on the exercise band, or do the flamingo surfer, my sound changes every time. It didn't feel like a really productive lesson, but I'm hoping that all the foreign feelings meant that I was making progress and change.