Lesson Transcript:
Emma came in 10 minutes late so I gave her a slight scolding. I told her that it wasn't a problem because I didn't have plans and could let her lesson time go longer, but I also told her that I wouldn't always be able to do that and I would hate for her to be cheated on time because of her tardiness. I asked her about her weekend and chatted for a bit to kind of let her catch her breath and get comfortable. Then I stood up and started stretching with her. While we stretched I asked her some questions.
S: Do you feel tension anywhere in particular?
E: My neck hurts really bad because I was head banging at the dance last night!
S: Oh ya that will get you. Let's massage that area and then stretch it out. How does your voice feel today?
E: Well I was yelling a lot in Karate, so it's pretty soar.
S: Ok. How does the instructor ask you to yell? (She demonstrates.) Ya? Ok. Well I'm not going to tell you to stop yelling because I know that karate is important to you. I think it's really great that you are staying active! And honestly it has made you really self aware, which is a great quality for a singer. But just be aware that when you use your voice that way in karate you are going to pay the price with your voice. Let it rest for a day or so if you can, and it will recover much faster. Did you get a chance to use those warm ups I gave you last week?
E: Oh ya I did!
S: How did it go, do you have any questions?
E: Uh no. Not really.
S: Of course, you're a smart girl. Did you try some on your commute in the morning?
E: Ya I did, I really like the sigh one.
S: Oh ya that one just feels great doesn't it? It leaves the voice very warm and open.
E: Ya.
S: Well now that we've stretched out a bit lets do some singing! Let's do some sighing.
We stretch and sigh, starting at a high pitch and gliding down to low.
S: Do you feel any constriction in your throat when you start this?
Emma thinks about it, and then does the exercise again focusing on her voice.
E: No I don't feel anything like that.
S: Wonderful!
We do a few more of these, really stretching our arms and shoulders before we sigh down.
S: Great great! Now lets do some humms.
I start her on A4 and do some five note descending scales on a humm. I then go down by half steps until I get as low as B flat 3, then we ascend back to B flat 4. I now ask her to add some chewing motions to the humm. She had trouble embracing this so I told her to chew like a crazy person and not to be afraid of making funny faces. I tried to exaggerate mine so that she would do more. It worked pretty well. We descended to E flat 4 and then I had her go up do D5. We did a few more descending from there. I explained to her that humming brought the sound forward. I had her focus on the vibrating sensation in her nose and mask. I explained that this prevented the sound from falling back and tried to demonstrate the difference. I told her about how healthy singing is all about using the least amount of effort for the greatest output. She was really excited about the concept and said her karate instructor said the exact same thing, which I thought was a pretty cool connection!
Next we did some [ni ne na no nu] exercises. We started with speaking the syllables conversationally. Then we elongated, projected and elevated the voice. I tried to explain the mixed middle register by telling her to immitate Julia Child. She didn't know who Julia Child was, so I had to find a youtube video for her to watch. After hearing a bit of that she was able to recreate the sound much better. Her middle range is still very weak. I don't know exactly what to do about it other than keep exercising it. Then we spoke in the high childlike head voice which was very easy for her. Then we sang [ni ne na no nu] all on one note. The low register was strong and speachlike, but when her voice got up to D4 her voice made a funny crack and she got embarrassed. I tried to explain to her that we love making funny noises in voice lessons! Because it means we're exploring new things and discovering our capabilities. We're letting the voice figure things out. I hope that I had her convinced. We did a 13531 pattern next. Getting her to project was unsuccessful. I tried to have her speak as though she was trying to get someone's attention from out in the hall. But she only ever reached what I'd call mp. In order to get a more full, focused sound I tried to have her sing "No! No! No!" on 5 3 1. The onset was more immediate with this exercise, but she was still not projecting. I tried to make her say no as if she were mad, but she said that that didn't really work for her because she doesn't yell when she's mad, she speaks lower and softer. So. That approach didn't work. I couldn't really think of any other approach I told her to pretend she was a yeller and keep trying. Now I wish I had found another scenario for her to imagine, like a 57 year old man asking her on a date. Or anything. But either way she still isn't projecting. I'm not too worried about it because at least she's staying light and not hurting herself. I think as we continue she will gain more strength and confidence. We will see!
After these warm ups we looked at some folk songs. I showed her about 8 options I thought she would like and we picked out 3. Then I made her some copies, and told her to go ahead and learn them, practicing about 25 minutes a day. I told her to use the piano to get the notes down, but not to get addicted to playing while singing. I asked her to spend some time singing while standing with her posture erect. Then I sent her on her way!
Lesson Reaction:
Well I didn't feel as good about this lesson. I feel like we don't have direction yet. I'm not entirely sure how to help her. I think she's hypofunctioning, and I'm going to re read that section in Brown's book so that I can get ideas. I felt like a lot of the concepts we discuss are good and she's a smart girl. I'm excited to work on repertoire with her, I think that will open up some interesting doors for exploration. But I feel like I need some more warm up ideas. I need to have tons of warm ups at my finger tips and know their function so that I can always pull out the right one! I'll have to work on a warm up collection.
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