Emily C., Ashli H., Lesson Plan for 1/27/14

Emily C., Ashli H., Lesson Plan for 1/27/14

Plan:

• I want to start out the lesson with some basic stretches—standing, side to side, neck, especially working the shoulders, doing the “toaster shoulders” exercise specifically with her. I’m going to work on her jaw tension from the beginning as well, massaging the muscles on the face. I’ll pull out some Oren Brown relaxation exercises (I really like the “fake it until you make it” yawn exercise, as well as the postural exercises he has in there). I might also try the tongue-grabbing thing on [ae] (the <a> sound in “cat”). 
• For vocalizes, I’m going to treat her as a hyper-functional student; we definitely need to work on coming to the pitch from above, not below, so lots of swoopy speech and yawn exercises since that worked well last time. I’m going to work a lot with “gliding” from pitch to pitch in an attempt to get her to loosen up. I want to do the “shhh” breathing exercise with her as well, and hopefully that’ll work out some throat tension with her inhalation. 
• When we work her piece, I need to remember to give her a copy of the minus track as well and have her practice to that. 

Goals:

• Short:
• I want to get her to find (proper) postural release in her shoulders and lower back. There are some bad habits we need to work out in this area.
• I would like to get her to become very comfortable with the 54321 downward scale exercise. 
• Long:
• I want to get her to come at the pitch from above; that’ll solve a lot of her tension problems and straining for higher pitches.