Sam Meredith Lesson Summary 3/4/14

I felt fairly well prepared for my lesson today. I was warmed-up and had been practicing a good deal throughout the week. We started by going over the results of NATS. I got some really good feedback from the adjudicators. There are still some things that I need to improve, obviously, but I feel content with the results. The overriding comments were that I need to be more engaged in the emotion of the piece and that I need bring the sound more forward. We started vocalizing by singing 'guy lie' on a 5-tone pattern, with the first scale degree being in a heavier chest voice and the rest of the notes being in falsetto. It was a difficult exercise at times to make the transition back to falsetto after singing full voice. Next did a vocalize where we started on scale degree 5, sang [hng, n, m, u, i], transitioned quickly between [u] and [i], and then moved down the scale on the vowel [a]. Next I sang 5-tone descending scales on [nja]. In the beginning, I wasn't really giving myself enough time to reset and find a state of release before singing each repetition. So, we added a short break between repetitions to help ensure that I had enough time to open up more. Next, we sang the word "yikes" on a descending 1-octave arpeggio. We used this as a strategy to practice having a good transition between registers and making sure that there was good space between the molars regardless of the pitch. We did the vocalize once in a comfortable pitch range and used that as the model behavior for future repetitions. Cindy reminded me that the only thing that needs to happen for pitch change is the contraction of very small muscles. Next, Cindy encouraged me to allow the emotion implied in the word 'yikes' to show through in my performance of the vocalize and in my face. Next we did descending turns in thirds over the space of an octave alternating between the syllables [li, le, la, lo]. Next we did a descending arpeggio on the word 'way.' In the future I really want to apply these vocalizes and similar vocalizes in my practice. In retrospect I realize that all of these vocalize condition responses that are just what I need right now and put me in a position where I can be aware of when things happen correctly and when they don't. Next we worked on some repertoire. We did a lot of work on 'Wenn du zu den Blumen gehst.' I had a lot of trouble staying open the whole time through out the song. I don't know why, but I felt really short of breath at a lot of places throughout the song and I wasn't really showing much emotion in my face. We worked on breath coordination by singing the melody using an alternative method of phonation. I sang it on a trilled 'r' in a comfortable register, using the mouth position of a 'w'. That really helped me coordinate the breath better. I think I was just a lot more relaxed because I wasn't so worried about getting to all of the notes. In order to improve the expression in my face, Cindy had me sing the song with a pencil in my mouth. I still was concentrating on having the space in the back of my throat, but with the pencil between my teeth I was forced to have a more pleasant expression on my face. I think I'll keep doing that in the future so I can get used to having that lively feeling in my face.