Emily C., Voice Lesson Summary, 2/24/14

Emily C., Voice Lesson Summary, 2/24/14

We started off the lesson with lip trills going down on 54321. Brianna told me a lot to have more energy/depth in my breathing. She said I was tightening the abdominal muscles too much, and my breaths were shallow, so my sound was shallow. We then moved on to “thee” on 54321, making sure the tongue was released and that we had the “huh” sensation. She told me to let the onset be gentle with a “fall through” sensation, instead of a culmination of air that bursts through on the first syllable. We did [li le la lo lu] on 53421, and Brianna told me to move my head around (so that I don’t get stuck in one neck position). My breath was still not as energized as it should have been, so I did some dog panting and gorilla grunts. We also did “gai lai” on 5432123454321, keeping flexibility in the body, jaw, and tongue. 

I talked to Brianna about struggling with my [o] and [u] vowels, and she told me that typically, with [i, e, a], we maintain the same tongue position after singing “ng.” When we go to [o], the lips part a little more, are relaxed, and the tongue touches the hard gum area below the teeth. For [u], the tip of the tongue touches the “soft” part of the gums that are past the hard gum. I had never done this before, and so the feeling was completely foreign to me. The lips are relaxed and slightly parted, and they don’t have to be rounded. 

For my music, we worked on “L’absent” by Gounod, and Brianna worked a little bit with me on the pronunciation. She told me to practice singing the piece a lot on primal sound (“huh”) until I have the rhythms completely memorized. Then, when I go to practice my diction, I need to do it in front of the mirror slowly and pay particular attention to my jaw (released, down and back) and my tongue position (fat, forward). On the areas with sustained higher notes, she told me to have that frontal, “chewy” and masky sound while staying grounded with depth in my breath.