Today was my fifth lesson with Anna. I started by asking her how her voice feels. She said it felt good and that she had been singing a little bit that day. Next, I asked her how the rest of her body felt. She said that her back hurt a little bit. I told her that this was useful information to me because I wanted to talk about how good posture when singing can prevent tension and muscle pain. We started by finding a state of release. I asked her to let her head fall forward on to her chest as if she were falling asleep. I then directed her to just let it fall slowly from side to side just so the neck got stretched out. Next, we massaged our necks to help free them up. Next we did some yawn-stretches. After that we did a few things to loosen up our jaws. I asked her to imagine that she had a really big piece of gum in her mouth. After that I asked her how that movement felt. She said it felt good. I then asked her to let me know if any of the things we do are ever painful because we always want these exercise to induce a healthy stretch and release of tension. Next, I told her that I wanted to talk about how our whole body relates to singing. I asked her to step in front of the mirror so that the side of her body was facing the mirror. Next, I asked her to just take a minute to look at her body and just become as aware as possible of where all the different parts of her body are. Next I asked her to close her eyes as I told her some facts about the body that are important for singers to know. I also told her that if she feels she needs to change the position of any parts of her body so that they more accurately reflect what I'm telling her, she should feel free to do so. I started by telling her that the joint that supports her head is literally in the center of her skull. Next, I told her that her shoulders are meant to rest on the rest of her skeleton and don't need to be doing any work during singing. Then, I told her that the weight-bearing portion of her spine is in the middle of her body. Next, I told her that her knees can be in three possible positions: locked, bent, or balanced. After that I asked her to look at herself in the mirror and notice if anything had changed. She commented that her shoulders felt more relaxed than before and that her knees weren't locked anymore. I told her that I also noticed more of those things. I added that having enough spatial awareness to know where all the different parts of our body are can be a very useful thing for a singer. Next, we did some vocalizes. We started on Eb4 (top note) and did a closed-mouth chew on a 5-tone scale starting at the top, moving down, moving up, moving down, moving up, and moving down again. After doing that pattern once, we then moved down two half-steps, then back up to Eb4, then up a whole step, and up a half-step. I asked her how that exercise felt. She said it felt good. I told her that it looked and sounded good. Next, we sang the same pattern, but this time I asked Anna to start each scale with a light, easy quality and then pick up some steam so that the bottom note of the scale is nice and robust. I directed her to make the mental transition back to a more head voice quality once she began to go up the scale again. We did the exercise alternating between the syllables [be] and [de]. We started with Eb4 being the top note of the scale. We did that once and then moved up a half step. After se sang another repetition I asked her to step in front of the mirror and just be aware of her body. We performed the exercise up another half step. I asked her if she noticed anything peculiar about her body. She said that she had forgotten to really pay close attention to it. I told her that one thing I noticed was that she moved her neck slightly whenever she was making the transition between registers. I told her that we don't want to do that because we don't need it. I asked her to do the vocalize one more time while she was pretending to draw an infinity symbol with the tip of her nose. We repeated the exercise again on the same pitch. I then asked her if she felt she improved that time. She said that she felt she had improved the sound quality. I told her that it's very possible that ridding herself of the neck bracing issue could be the reason for the improvement. We then talked about what she could do better. She said that she felt she could make the transition between registers more smooth. We did a couple more repetitions. Before we did I asked her to try to make the transition from head voice to full voice on the way down the scale more gradual, but to bounce off the bottom note and transition back into head voice for the ascending portion of the scale. We started with E4 as the top note. I asked her also to continue using the free and easy neck movement we had installed. We moved the exercise down a half-step, then down another half step and then up to F4. I told her after the final repetition that I thought that was her best repetition. I had trouble explaining this vocalize properly, so I think that was a big reason for the improvement with more repetition. I told her that exercises like this are good for her because they help exercise the muscle that is responsible for helping us sing higher pitches. Next, I told her that we were going to do some exercises to help release the jaw. I told her that a released jaw is a very important thing for a singer because it helps them have a free, resonant sound. I added that this is a difficult task sometimes because we are so accustomed in speech to keeping our jaw closed when we articulate certain vowels and consonants even though we might not necessarily need to do so. We did some descending scales on the syllable [be] articulating it once at the top of the scale and then riding the vowel down to scale degree 1. I asked her before she sang if she could find the same jaw position that she had in one of our previous lessons where we were talking like a vampire. We started with a C scale, then did a B scale, then a Bb scale. After that I asked her how she felt she did with those scales. She said that she was having trouble with the concept at the beginning of the scales, but was then correcting it later on in the exercise. I observed the same. I asked her if she can have the release in her jaw more consistently. When I did so I also informed her that the jaw when it releases moves in a down and back motion. I told her that she can even mimmic that motion with her arms by bending her elbows at a 90 degree angle with her arms pointing in front of her body and then swinging her elbows back and up and that this visualization might help her elicit a similar response in her actual jaw. We did another C scale, followed by a Db scale, and a D scale. I asked her then how those felt. She asked me for a clarification on what I meant by the jaw moving back. I told her that I didn't want her to force the jaw back, but that I wanted her to allow the natural down-and-back movement of the jaw to take place. I asked her if she noticed when she opened her jaw wide that there is some slight backward movement in the jaw. After opening her jaw and looking for that movement she said she did notice that. I told her that I felt that the beginning scales that we sang in the last set seemed to be a lot more full sounding. I also told her that I did get the sense in some of the later scales she was trying more to push the jaw back rather than just letting fall into its natural position. Next we talked about what song Anna wanted to sing. She chose "How Can I keep from Singing." I agreed that it would be a good choice. I started by playing the melody along with her and asking her to sing through it. After we sang a couple of lines I realized that she was having trouble reading the music standing behind me, so I asked her to sing it on the syllable [be] to continue to find the released jaw that we had found earlier. We continued to sing through the song. I asked how she felt she did at keeping the jaw open. She said that she was focused mostly on singing the right pitches, so she wasn't really paying attention to the jaw. I told her that we were going to go back and just concentrate on the rhythm instead of the rhythm and the pitches. I told her that I would still play her notes on the piano so that she could get them in her mind, but I just wanted her to focus mostly on singing the right rhythm. I elaborated and said that it's good to split things up into chunks so that we can focus on one thing rather than trying to do too many things at once, which may cause us to pick up bad habits without realizing it. I asked her continue to sing the rhythm on a comfortable pitch using the syllable [be]. She commented that it felt uncomfortable to sing the wrong note throughout the whole piece. I told her that it is hard to get used to because we want to sing the right notes, but I further commented that I felt that she had a really free jaw when we were performing that exercise. I told her that this is why doing things like this is helpful because we are asking ourselves to do something that is challenging, but not something that is impossible with our current abilities. Before ending our lesson I asked her if she had any questions. She said that she didn't.
I feel like I'm having a lot more trouble teaching Anna than I'm having teaching Rob. First of all, I don't understand the female voice as well (obviously) and it's also harder to get her to talk about her experience than it is to get Rob to talk. For example, I usually ask my students after a set of vocalizes how they would assess their performance so that they can start to notice things and start to become their own teachers. Rob is really good at pointing out specific things that he did well and also things that he wants to improve. Anna, on the other hand, usually gives me one-word answers that don't help me as much. I think I just need to change my approach with Anna and not expect the same things out of her that I expect from Rob. Maybe I should just have her start a vocalize before I even explain what I want, wait to see what happens, and then ask her for adjustments that will help her know better what I want. I also think that I need to just be better at demonstrating the vocalizes I have for her, so that I don't have to spend so much time explaining them. I do, however, think that Anna made some progress with regards to having a loose jaw. I just want to have more consistency there and also help her better understand the importance of posture.
No comments:
Post a Comment