Emily F. Tali P. lesson record/reactions for 3/12

Emily F. Tali P. lesson record/reactions for 3/12: 
E: How has practicing been?
T: It was better, because I'm not thinking about it as much and working in small chunks of time has been fun. 
E: Good! I'm glad that you're doing it that way. How's your voice?
T: It feels good! 
E: Let's do some sigh. [We did several sighs on "hu" and "mm". She sounded good. I moved to a 54321 on [hu] starting at G4, Ab4, A4, Bb4, B4, Bb4, B4, C5, Db5, D5.] Good. Am I rushing your breaths?
T: No, I don't think so. It felt fine. [We went back to the [hu] on 54321, Db5, D5, Eb5, E5, F5.]
E: Good! I liked how nice and light and easy those top pitches were. Good job! [I asked her to sing [hng n m i u i u] on one pitch, G4, then Ab4, A4, Bb4, Ab4, C5, Bb4, B4, C5.] Ok, what is your neck doing?
T: Mmm, it's a little tight.
E: Does your head feel balanced?
T: Yeah. Well, I kinda feel like I'm pushing my neck forward. Should I not be doing that?
E: Just it keep it balanced and easy. If you want to do a little bobble-head, that's fine. [back to the exercise at Db5, with her head moving a little.] That was better! [back to the same exercise, moving around the range a bit for a few more repetitions. I asked her to do [ia] on 54321 beginning at G4, Gb4, F4.] This is a little low, but you can do it. Just keep it really easy. Remember the zombie feel? If your voice doesn't come out, that's ok! You don't need to push. [back to [ia] 54321 Eb4, Db4.]
T: I literally feel my Adam's apple moving. Is that ok?
E: That is fine. There is a lot of movement that happens there. The cartilages move to adjust pitch.[I gave a brief overview of the structures of the larynx.] If you try to make the cartilages move, or try to manage or hold everything in place, that's when we get tensions. But allowing that to be free is good. [back to [ia] 54321 E4, Eb4, D4, Db4, C4, B3, Bb3.] Good!
T: That was really low! What do we call that--when the voice changes like that?
E: Register adjustment. It never hurts to explore both ends of your range. Remember how Cindy talked about being curious and seeing what your voice can do? As long as you're not pushing, you can practice going from both extremes. You won't necessarily use all of your range for singing a song, but you know how when you train for a marathon, you do different kinds of training? You do sprints, longer distances, and you don't use all of that, but when you run, all the work that you've done helps. So that's what we do when we work on the different parts of our range. It helps the whole voice. [I asked Tali to sing [bap] on 1358531 at C4, emphasizing loose, plosive [b]s and a feeling of allowing the jaw to fall open. We went up by half step till F4.] Ok. I hear you singing [mmbap]. Can you do that without the m?
T: Hmm, it's like I use the m to find the pitch and then I sing.
E: I don't want you to worry about pitch so much, just how it feels. Let's try it with a p instead. [I went back down to Eb4, and she still did the m first but recognized it and did it without. We moved up by half-step to G4, back down a couple, back up a couple.]
Those sounded pretty easy to me. Did it feel easy?
T: Just the high ones. It gets scrunched.
E: Ok. Do a little bit of siren. [she did a few, down-up-down]
T: My tongue is all back.
E: Ok. Think of this as just floating and dumping--it just floats at the top.
T: Ok, so my voice breaks when I do that!
E: That's ok! I know it's not what you want, but that's fine. [She did some more, and kept them lighter and it was better. She was concerned about running out of air, so I asked her to take a couple breaths of surprise and asked her how much air she had when she did that. She recognized that her breaths weren't low enough. She did a couple more sirens.] Good. This time, when you get to the bottom, can you immediately let go of the weight to float back up to the top? I'll try to demonstrate it. [I modeled, and she followed and did a good job.]
T: Are we loosening with this exercise?
E: It's for register adjustment. [I asked her to adjust the siren to [u] because she had let it get to [a]. The [u] was easier.]
T: Ok, so when I'm floating, does that mean I'm supposed to be quieter?
E: Well, it's more of a feeling thing, but if feeling "light" seems like quieter to you, that's ok. Our lower voices feel stronger because that's where we speak, and the higher voice is lighter because it doesn't get as much exercise.
T: So if we sang a lot, the high voice would be just as loud as the low voice?
E: Yeah, it could be, but we can sing quieter higher and it would sound the same because of the way that sound works. Higher pitches actually sound louder. So sometimes we push the high voice, thinking that we need to do more, but really we can keep it easy. Ok. Do you want to work on "Panis Angelicus" or something else? I feel like you're getting bored with this.
T: Yeah, I'll bring something else next time. But for now, let's work on the song for church.
[I had her sing the chorus of the song, which is higher. She was breathy, scoopy, and below the pitch.]
E: What do you like about the way you sang that? What parts felt good to you?
T: Umm, I liked that I could reach the high notes, but I don't know if I liked the power I had. I don't really like....oh. You asked me what I did like! Well, I like that it's a thoughtful song, and quiet like a lullaby, and I like the way I sound singing like that.
E: Ok. Let's go with that then! I don't want you to think about your neck or your jaw, or what you think I think! I want you to sing it exactly the way you feel it. Who would you be singing this song to? It's a song for all of us women, but if there's someone who you feel like is struggling or needing extra love, how would you sing that to her? Do you have someone?
T: Hmm. I don't know.
E: Even if you wouldn't actually sing this to someone, who is someone you'd pray for?
T: Yeah. My cousin.
E: Good. You know the melody and the words well enough, so don't worry about that. Just sing to your cousin. [I gave her the pitch, reminded her to take her time coming in, and let her sing the chorus.] K, how did that feel?
T: It felt better. It was nice to just close my eyes. I mean I still thought about the notes, but it was different. I didn't worry as much about the notes that I was worried about. I didn't think about the power of the high notes and they came out just fine.
E: Good! So, what I heard, purely musically speaking, was that at the beginning it was really sweet and pure. It wasn't as airy as it usually is, and I liked that. It was very sincere and appropriate for the song. You don't need to sing loud. I think sometimes you worry that because you're not loud you have to push more, but I think that you can trust yourself. When you weren't worried about hitting the notes, you were able to sing them better.
T: That's so ironic! When I don't try I sing better than when I try!
E: That happens to me too! Let's work on another part of the song--how about the verse? Do the same thing--think about what you're singing. The one technical thing I want to add is to have you push on the table.
T: This is to engage my core?
E: Yes, but think about your cousin, not about your core. [She sang the verse.] Good, this time I want you speak the line, then go right into singing the same line. I want the same feeling between the speech and the singing. [She did, and it was much improved]
T: Better?
E: To me it was! I spend a LOT of time speaking my texts. I spent probably half of my lesson this week just speaking.
T: Wow. I can see how that could help. Because, like, if you speak it, it's like it's your song, not just somebody else who wrote it.
E: Yeah, definitely. And also I think it helps because we kind of think of our "speaking voice" and our "singing voice" and it would be great if it could be just one same kind of thing! So I'd practice this by speaking, then singing, and try to connect the two as much as possible. You could do a half-squat while you sing if it feels like you need more energy. It might help you to think of breathing on a plié for expansion. [We recapped what we did in the lesson so she could take notes.]
Lesson reactions: Cindy, did you see how many more vocalizes I let her do this time?! I was determined to give her lots more repetitions and I did! She's still super curious, so I feel like she ropes me into talking, but I tried to get back on track to singing each time. Tali is getting better at dump/float, but doesn't seem to enjoy it much. I think she wants to know everything about why I ask her to do certain things, but I don't want to spend all the lesson time doing that, and I don't think she's really ready for it all. And she seems frustrated that she's not getting exactly what she wants out of her voice. I think she just needs to sing more. I also realized that she needs to listen to more music, different kinds, and identify what she wants. I know she wants a sleepy, smooth, Norah Jones-type voice, but I think she thinks that she's going to get it by just doing more of what she's doing. (Does that make sense?) I want her to trust me that if she continues to do the exercises I've been teaching her that she'll have more agility and overall ability. I asked Tali after the lesson what I could do to improve my teaching, and she said that she likes when I answer her questions. She also said that she appreciates my modeling the behaviors and vocalizes. From her responses and from her lessons it seems like she wants to be able to see and understand everything and then she thinks she'll just get it all. I want her to be more curious and have more insights through procedural learning.
This is my last lesson record for the class and I'm just barely starting to feel like I can understand what I need to do to help Tali and see where the challenges are. I've learned tons by listening to the lessons and doing these records, so it's been an extremely valuable project. I'll continue to teach Tali until at least after our next in-class mini-lesson, and perhaps after that if she wants.