LaeKin Burgess Lesson Summary 2/24

This lesson started out with some speech to singing. I said A-B-C-D then went straight into sing [i] on a descending 5 note scale. This seemed to work really well for me because it helped me find release on the onset. After that we did Hmm followed by a downward arpeggio saying "sah." The object was to carry the release of the Hmm into the "sah." Brianna said she noticed I was beginning to have more release in my lower back and abdomen which is something we've been working on for a while now. The next vocalise was [thi-the-tha-tho-thu] on a downward 5 note scale trying to keep a released jaw and tongue. We added a sigh on to this to further encourage release. After a while of still not finding complete release I tried flopping over and singing as I came up.  This was somewhat successful though not entirely. I had the most success when I started the pitch just before I started coming up. Brianna told me I should definitely mix things up when I'm doing vocalizes so that I don't become an over achiever and manipulate my sound. After finding success with release on some of my higher pitches we moved on to working on songs. We first worked on "Una donna a quindici anni." Brianna told me that even though the aria moves fairly quickly I need to keep a feeling of grounded legato throughout. We did the whole piece on [li] and it was alright but I could still feel myself grabbing especially at the top. Brianna had me stretch forward over the piano bench and take nice released breaths throughout. We also discussed that I try to hard to make sure there is vibrato on every note and that I should just forget about that for the time being. We decided I should practice my piece sloppily for now and stop trying to make them sound pretty so I could get more feeling of release. Overall, I need more release. I think this day wasn't the best as far as finding release but I know that is the objective in all my practice sessions. I should try practicing sloppily especially seeking release in my jaw and back.