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

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

Lesson Transcript:

• We started out with some stretches, reaching for the sky and bending to each side before dropping down, letting the head and arms hang, going back up one vertebrae at a time. We then let our head loll gently from side to side, releasing the tension in our necks. I briefly went over the proper singer’s stance, standing with feet apart, shoulder back and released, and feeling like there’s a string coming out the top of your head and holding you up and straitening your spine. I noticed that Ashli had some extra spinal curvature, so I had her stand against a wall. This is when she told me she has a problem with her back that causes her to have a greater spinal curvature than average people. So I told her about laying on the floor with some books under the head and knees bent for about 15 minutes to maybe help with her posture and back. We then did toaster shoulders a couple of times. 
• I had Ashli do some lip trills on 54321, starting in F major, skipping around the keyboard. I interrupted it because I noticed that she really heaves with her shoulders. I had her do the “shhh” exercise with silent inhalation of breath. I had to remind her to have the same inhalation before the “shhh” as well as after. We expanded on this and did a “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and shhhhhhh” exercise, with a “shh” on each number and a silent inhalation on each “and.” 
• We then returned to the vocalizes, and I reminded her to keep the same breathing motions from the “shhh” exercises. We continued with the 54321 lip trills, in the same range. We then moved on to “shee” instead of lip trills. I made sure to go over the areas in her voice where there was a “break” in her voice. I changed the vowel to [a] because her [i] sounds was getting shallow and tense. 
• I think this is where I kept seeing shoulder movement in her breathing, so I told her to gasp and heave her shoulders, then gasp while breathing low, then breathe silently while breathing low, telling her that we want the ribcage (not the belly) to expand upon inhalation, and that while we exhale, we need to avoid collapsing. I returned to the “shhh” exercise, breathing in for five counts, then breathing out for five counts, trying to keep the ribcage expanded and prevent collapsing in the chest/shoulders. 
• I did a “lalalala” exercise on 54321, in the same general range as the first vocalize. I took her higher than the first exercise, telling her to have more of a yawn as we get higher. I also told her to think about how it feels, not how it sounds. I then changed the exercise to a 5 to 1 glissando on “yawn,” relaxing the jaw and letting it hang immediately after speaking the words. 
• I had her do “li le la lo la” on 53421, letting the jaw hang, just using the tip of the tongue to articulate the words, stilling using the yawn sensation. 
• Because she kept getting her tongue and jaw tightened, I did the Oren Brown exercise thing where you grab your tongue (we used tissues) and just yawning on a downward glissando (pitch less). Then I added some pitch on 5 to 1. This seemed to work really well with her because it physically forced her to yawn, and when she finally did, she began to relax much more. We changed the word to “yum” with her tongue still sticking out. Then we changed it to more pitch oriented, with 531 chords. We then said “shee, then shei” with the same released tongue. 
• We worked a little bit on “A Change in Me” from the musical The Beauty and the Beast. Her singing was quite note-to-note, and whenever we got to the “bridge” area of the voice, she couldn’t decide whether or not she wanted to bring the chest voice up or switch to head voice. I told her to utilize the same relaxed jaw and “fat tongue” that we discovered in the vocalizes. 
• Whenever she got to the bridge areas, I told her to add more of  a yawn sensation the higher up in the scale she went. I told her it’s okay to engage the face to instigate that feeling of openness in the throat. She wasn’t able to yawn honestly until her jaw became completely released, even for just a moment. I told her that I’d rather have too much yawn in her sound, and that’s when I started getting her to relax (finally). 

Lesson Reactions:

• I noticed that Ashli has some tense breathing problems that we really need to work on; she tends to collapse as she exhales and gasp/heave the shoulders upon inhalation. I’ll be doing a lot more of the “shh” in the future. 
• I really need to find something other than 54321 for vocalize exercises. I did try 53421 and 531 a couple of times, but I feel like it’s not divergent enough? I don’t know. 
• I need to stop using “la” and use something like “da.” It ties her tongue up too much. 
• The yawn really works well (even more so than with Amanda) because it gets her to relax her jaw, which is always so rigid. 
• I need to remind myself to give enough time to actually work on their pieces more and get into applying the vocalizes to music.