Emily C., Amanda G., Lesson Plan for 1/23/14

Emily C., Amanda G., Lesson Plan for 1/23/14

Plans:

• I would like to have Amanda do some physical relaxation exercises (stretching) before we even starting singing in this lesson, focusing on her neck because I noticed lots of neck tension last time. I’d also like to do some breathing exercises, working on maintaing good posture and relaxed shoulders while inhaling and preventing the shoulders from collapsing on the exhale. 
• For vocalizes, I definitely want to do some more “yawn” motion exercises, staying tension-free in the neck, because that worked really well for her last time. I want to make sure that I focus on telling her what sound good versus what doesn’t as she’s doing her vocalizes so she knows what to look for. I kept these things to myself, so Amanda probably doesn’t know what she should be aiming for in her warm ups. 
• I want to check up on her Julia Child voice and see if that did any good or harm. 
• Lastly, we’ll work on her piece. I need to remind myself to get her the minus track so she can practice with accompaniment. 

Goals:

• Short: 
• I would like for her to get her neck to release; she had a tendency to crane her neck. I’m going to use open vowels to get her to relax—I noticed it was especially prominent when she said [e] or [i], so I’ll have her do vocalizes on [a] or “oh.” 
• I would like to get her to have a more stable posture. I think I’ll just tell her the “laying down on the floor” trick that Cindy told us to get her more used to that good, free posture. 
• Long:
• The throat tension is (obviously) what’s getting in the way of Amanda’s higher notes, so I want to make sure that she has a solid foundation of good posture and neck freedom to facilitate those pitches.