Student: April A.
Supervised Lesson
Brief overview of lesson: I asked April how her body and voice was feeling and how her practice went, and if she had any questions or concerns. She said that she had been speaking higher everyday to avoid the low vocal-fry-like speech she had been speaking in during our last lesson. She said that she felt like it was easier and that her voice wasn't tired anymore towards the end of the day, and also that her throat was much more open in that higher speech.
I told her, "That is a great observation. So we want to always feel like our throat is open while we are singing, and also when we are speaking, because what we do in our speaking voice directly translates into our singing. So that's great, I'm glad that that is going good for you."
Before we started the warm up, I had April stretch the back of her tongue out to loosen it by bringing it forward and biting on it. I then referenced her to the high-arch-in-back tongue posture. I called it the "ng" posture. I asked her if she felt that she could maintain the open throat while she did that and she answered no (I am not sure if I will combine those two things together again for a inexperienced singer). I said, "Okay, is there anyway you can keep the "ng" posture, and imagine an open throat?" She took a second, and said, that she felt it was more open now (I wonder if she felt the absence of air moving in her pharynx and maybe that's why she said no, or what. Either way, I probably won't address both at the same time. I think a better alternative is to have her try the rose breath).
I then asked April to try to yawn to open and free her jaw. She let out some big yawns. I chimed in by saying, "Do you notice how open your body and breath feel when you yawn?"
I had then planned to try some vampire speech, because I thought it might also help her free her jaw. We tried it together the first time, and I noticed how she didn't open her jaw on hardly any of the vowels. We tried it again together, and I noticed the same thing. After the second time I stopped and said, "So every time there is a vowel, our jaw swings back and reopens. Have you ever seen a megaphone?" She answered yes. "So a megaphone is pointed in front, well I want you to think of the megaphone pointing in the opposite direction, with the internal space in your top jaw the front of the megaphone."
She answered, "Okay."
I told her that it might be helpful to use a hand gesture. She tried it again, and I noticed that she closed her jaw on every single consonant. I pointed it out that she doesn't have to close her jaw on all consonants; she may have to on the [w], [s], and [b]. However, on the [t] and [y] the jaw should remain open. I told her this would be a great tool to practice in the mornings to free her jaw, and practice the swinging back motion of it. Also it reiterated the space her jaw has.
I asked her about the slow silent surprise breath we had talked about and how the breath feels in her body when she does it. She said it felt pretty smooth and that it moved down.
I began the wobble exercise on A4 and had her sing it on [i]. I thought it might be a good vowel to begin on since it reiterated the "ng" tongue posture. I tried the first repetition, it didn't match pitch at all. I had her try it two more times and it got slightly better, however it still didn't match pitch. I stopped and said, "Okay, so you're going to feel like you're losing control of what your voice is doing, but that's what we're going for. So just think the pitch, provide some air, and then trust that it will come." I had played an A4 again, and reiterated the last instruction, "Think the pitch really hard." She did not match pitch. I asked her what she noticed about that one, and she replied that she didn't notice anything. I asked her to try it again, and let me know what she noticed that time. She again did not match pitch. I asked her what she noticed about that one. She didn't really answer, so I said, "It can be anything that you noticed." She said, "It sounded breathy."
I said, "Okay, did you notice anything about the pitch?" She said, "It was lower." I replied "Okay, so that one didn't quite match the pitch. Let's try it again. And this time I'll give you a motion to cue you.(I was hoping this would get her to think more about the pitch and less about her nerves) Let's have you do the swinging back of the jaw with your arms."
She tried it again and this time it matched at the beginning, but it didn't end well. After she finished she asked me, "Did that one go better?" I answered, "It began better, you didn't quite end on that note, but I felt like the beginning was much better. What did you feel about that one?" She said, "It sounded better at the beginning, but then I kind of didn't pay attention."
I said, "Okay, so remember that we have to think the pitch really really hard. That doesn't mean that we have to make it happen, but we are thinking, letting, and trusting."
I started her at G4 this time, and I asked her again how that one went, she said that it was better. I could hear a noticeable difference in that one, because it almost matched every pitch, and sounded like it was coming together better. I moved down to F#4, and it matched pitch for the first 3/4ths of the exercise. I moved down another half step to F4 and had her try it once more, and I could tell that it was improving. I stopped her and said, "That was great. How do you feel your voice is doing in all aspects?"
She said, "It feels more free."
I said, "That's great!"
She then said, that she thought she needed to speak a little bit higher, so I suggested if she feels that way, that she should speak like Glinda.
I then asked her if she could do some dove sounds by choosing whichever pitch she desired, and then descending. I asked her after she had done a few how her throat felt. She said that it felt open. I told her, "That's great!"
We continued with the dove sigh. After a few repetitions I told her that we'd match them with pitch. I did this with a 54321 pattern. I began at B4 and moved down by half-steps. She was doing a great job up there, and matched almost every one of the repetitions (I did like that I was giving short instructions during this time, rather then stopping between each one to analyze and interrupt her). Because she did such a great job, I thought I'd have her try it on 8531. This proved to be challenging, but for most of the repetitions she matched with 531, but not the octave. After all of the repetitions, I asked her, "So what were you thinking during those ones?" She answered, "I was trying to think about approaching the pitch a little bit above, but I'm not sure."
I said, "Okay, so would it help you if I played a pitch a little bit above?"
She answered, "I'm not sure...maybe I should stop thinking about approaching from above, and just match the pitch."
I said, "Well, approaching from above is a good idea because a lot of times when we are singing ascending phrases we can't quite get there, so the approaching from above idea is a great trick to help us get there."
I then wanted to move on to something that could help her just let go, and try to not care so much. I gave her the horrible instruction of, "I want you to sigh, I don't want you to care what pitches come out. I want you to sigh on the pitches...Wait, I just told you not to care about the pitches..."
Cindy then chimed in, "But you could ask her to start somewhere high and end somewhere low, so it doesn't come out all the same. You want to make sure that she is exploring a wider range of notes. So start some place high, and end some place lower."
She did quite a few, and occasionally Cindy would say, "higher!" I liked this simple cue. I need to work on these more.
The last one she did she had a very nice transition through her registers. I pointed this out and then said, "So you can see how, naturally, we can transition from the different registers, we just need to transition that into our singing."
"So let's try this idea with the exercise again. I want to see what happens if I say, don't care about the pitches, but start in a high place and end in a low place." The first repetition was pretty good about half of it matched. We kept on going, and I would cue her with "Don't care".
That was great, we found something that works for us. So when we say don't care that allows our body to what?"
"Just go."
"Just go. So what are some of the feelings you're feeling in your body or your voice while you're doing that?"
She answered that it helped her feel more release. She said that when she thinks the tenses up, but when she doesn't care it is easier for her to let go.
I said to her that I wanted her to feel that way in all of her singing, and that she did a great job of just trusting that it would come.
I then moved on to "So what!" 8531. I instructed her for the top to be more child-like voice and then when she got to "what" for her to speak it. We tried it on C5, and moved down a half-step. For the most part she wasn't really matching pitch, so I cued her again by saying, "Start in a high place, and end in a low place, and don't care." They still weren't matching pitch. I wasn't sure what to do, so I had her try sighing again.
We then sang through "Where can I turn for peace?"
I gave her the instruction to feel an openness in the body, and be more sigh-like. She still didn't match pitch. I'm not sure if this is because of her unfamiliarity with her head voice or if it was because she wasn't listening to the piano because of nerves.
I gave her the instruction to not sing the notes, but to sigh the notes. That didn't help.
I then told her to not care.
She said that she wasn't sure how to sigh and sing at the same time. I told her that I didn't want her to sing, and that I only wanted her to sigh.
We started again, and her voice was in a higher place.
I then asked Cindy to help me.
Cindy suggested that I ask her to use an inflected sing-song voice. She said that that would help with clarity. She said that sighing is confusing. So she said to have her practice that highly-inflected
sing-song speech voice to help her find that connection in her singing.
Assessment of student:
I would use bright vowel but more open choice for wobble, maybe eh
I think because of her pitch matching issues that wobble is to advanced for her.
She really has no sense of internal space. Her larynx is high and her pharynx is small. I would be working still on more yawny stuff.
I think she does not yet have very reliable sensory awareness, she may not be ready to respond with very useful information/insights, but I like that you are asking. Perhaps just do it less often, focusing on those moments when you hear/see something really different happen.
Taking quite a bit of time deciding what to do, and not letting her sing enough. Rather than stopping and giving instructions, try giving short clear instructions (1 or 2 words) WHILE she is singing. Speak less. Let her figure more of it out for herself.
I think she needs to do some energizing exercises like panting like a dog, so that she can free her voice and experience a released pharynx.
At first in each lesson I would focus less on whether she is matching pitch all the time and pay more attention to whether she is able to start with an easy sound and move the voice around the full range of the voice. You moved to this idea.
How does your body feel? Not sure she is doing enough to notice any difference.
Can she be more speaking at bottom?
During the hymn I would suggest instructing her to sing-song talk rather than to sigh. When she gave you a better result (That was in a better place) you stopped her. Let her keep going and then tell her afterward.
Goals for future implementation: In our final lesson, I will focus mostly on starting an easy sound that is free to move around her full range. I would also like for April to experience the gentleness of inspiration with the rose breath, and see how this effects the way she maneuvers her register changes. Also I'm going to use the instruction for her to start in a high place and end in a low place. Asking her to not care about what happens or what pitches come out. Stop asking her how she feels/how her body feels. I will also use some energizing exercises to help her free the sound, and maintain a released pharynx.
How will you modify your teaching based off of what you learned from the lesson? I gave her a lot of instruction to sing more sigh-like but I think I should have referred to the child-like sound or the inflected speaking voice, because the sigh stuff didn't work. I also talked a lot about feeling an openness in the body, because I thought that that might cue a lower breath gesture and help with tracheal tug. I recognized that she was struggling with high larynx and a squeeze-y pharynx, but I just wasn't sure what tool to use to correct it. As I listen to the recording I can see that while we sang through the hymn the sigh-like thought was confusing, and not helpful at all. I need to give less instructions, and if I do give an instruction it needs to be short and one word. She needs to sing more, and hear less of my talking. I lacked energy again, and you could hear it in my voice. I did not feel that way while I was singing. I need to pretend like I'm someone else while I'm teaching. Just find something that will help me have more positive energy and help my student to do the same.
Questions for Cindy: I tried using sighs in this lesson to help April maintain a low larynx position while moving through different registers, however I realize this didn't work. How do I help April keep her larynx low while learning to maneuver the different registers? Just the inflected speech? Are there any other ways to help promote this?
Takeaways for the student:
1. Sing-songy talk, speaking around certain pitches
2. Don't care! Let go, and allow your voice to do its thing.
3. Maintain an openness in your breath and body.
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