Date of Lesson: 3/5/14
Brief Overview of lesson: I began asking Stephanie how her practice went over the past week. She said that there wasn't much of it because she had a sore throat and it hurt too much to practice. She said that she had tried to drink a lot more, and sleep, but her husband also got sick, so it was a rough week. I said, "I'm sorry, well let's begin by clarifying a few things from our last lesson."
I talked to her about the wobble exercise, and told her that that exercise will feel scary and feel like we are losing control because we might not sing all the notes correctly, however if we let the voice move by thinking the pitch,and maintain the yawn jaw, it will come out and be less taxing. She responded by saying, "That makes sense, and I feel like that would be an exercise that I would want to practice because, when I sing the higher notes, I often try to control it too much. So when I get to the higher notes it will help to me just think the pitch and not necessarily try to make it happen."
"Yeah so in the end it will be easier for you, and less stressful on the voice."
I then began with warm ups by having her stretch and lean over in forward fold to release her neck. I asked her if she had been exercising since being sick, and she said that she had been trying to. Sometimes it was just a walk, but she was trying to stay active while being sick. I told her that was okay, but to be careful and try to listen to her body and voice, and allow it to recover.
I then told her when she was ready, to sit on the edge of the piano bench, having her butt kind of hanging off while leaning forward, releasing her neck, and extending her arms over her head. I asked her to feel the expansion in her lower back, and to make sure that she felt her neck was released. I was hoping this would help her to feel a release in her body after being sick.
I began with the wobble exercise 535153515351 on [u] I tried to start her on A4, she had a hard time starting her pitch because of the drainage in her throat, so we tried it again, and this time it was better and felt more free. We kept on doing more repetitions moving down and then randomly upward, although I don't think I moved her higher than a D5, just because I knew she was recovering still. It sounded to me that when she returned to the 5 on a few repetitions that it was a little harder, so I redirected her by saying that every time she returned to the top she should feel like it was lighter and floating to there. After that instruction I felt that all of her repetitions were consistently free, and easily produced. I was happy with what I heard. I asked her to explain to me how her voice was feeling, just because I wanted to check in and make sure that all was well and that I hadn't missed anything if her voice felt tired at all. She said, "Everything feels loose. And I'm trying not to think about it so much. I'm trying to think released not relaxed, and I feel more loose. That's one thing I learned from the warm-up I recorded of us doing: I realized from listening that it's not a performance, it's just a warm-up. So I've been trying to remember that while I sing."
I said, "That's wonderful! Another thing I just want you to know that it's okay to make mistakes here, because at voice lessons we learn how to improve, and if we don't show our imperfections, we can't learn how to fix them."
"So let's have some fun!"
I had her go back down we tried a few more wobble exercises, and I complimented her that I really liked the free and easy sound we were getting today.
I then clarified another thing from our last lesson. I had asked her where she felt the presence of the sound. She was really confused, so I tried to explain to her vocal indigestion. I explained to her that when we eat we think about chewing our food, but once we swallow we don't feel the process of indigestion. I then related this to singing by saying that our vf's are inside our body, however we don't really feel the presence of the sound (or the process that goes to produce it) until it is falling right in front of us.
"Okay, so the voice teacher I had when I was preparing for Miss Utah, talked a lot about feeling different vowels resonate in different spots. Is that kind of like the same thing?"
"Umm...I'm not sure. Probably not exactly, but that's interesting..."
"I guess what I feel when I'm producing sound and its' free and released it comes out right in front of me. And I don't feel anything entangling it or getting in the way. And I'm still working on that. It's really hard to free your voice and let it do its thing because we want to sing and we want to perform well. We want to sound pretty."
"Well, and I think it's more comfortable to feel in control."
"Yeah, and it's very scary to let go. So that's going to be our mantra for the rest of our lessons. Letting go, and letting the think-let-trust idea guide our singing."
Stephanie then told me that she no longer wanted to work on the song she had picked out in our previous lessons. I told her , "okay, that's alright. What would you like to work on?"
She told me that she was interested in singing in church. And so I told her that I could bring some ideas to our next lesson. And if she wanted to do the same we could take a look and see which one she liked best. I told her that way she could pick something she actually liked, and she would be more apt to practice it.
I then told her that I wanted to go over one more vocal warm-up. I told her I wanted to attempt the dove-like noise again, because last time I didn't give good instruction. This time I gave her the instruction to not sing, but make a noise. She figured it out right away. She did it a few times like a sigh and then I applied it to a 54321 scale and started at B4. After about 3-4 repetitions I stopped and asked her, "Do you see how that feeling is reinforcing the idea of vocal indigestion?" She said, "Yeah, I can feel that." We kept on going, and I was really happy with the sounds I was hearing her make. They seemed much more released and less like she was trying to make it sound pretty. I think this was the key: to take away the "singing" factor, because when stephanie sings she tries to make it sound a certain way, or make it sound pretty. I complimented her after we finished with the vocalize and said, "That was great, Stephanie. I'm really happy with the release you found today, even though I know you're still recovering from being sick, you still were able to practice the think-let-trust idea. So let's continue this in our next lesson."
Then we made 3 take-aways.
Assessment of student: I felt like Stephanie is really learning to implement the think-let-trust into her thought and singing process. I also found that through the wobble exercise and dove sounds she was truly learning to let go and not make it sound a certain way. I think I've finally gotten the idea across that it is important to not control things so much.
Goals for future implementation: I think I want to continue down the path of helping Stephanie find a place where she can discover her voice by letting things go and just letting her body do its thing.
How will you modify your teaching based off of what you learned from the lesson? I need to practice playing the wobble exercise more so that I can play it proficiently so that it is at the right speed for her to be able to let go.
Questions for Cindy: What should I have said about her question about vowels resonating in different places? I feel like that might be an odd thing to tackle...Is that something teachers should teach?
Also what other tools can I use to help Stephanie let go, and explore being creative with her voice? I feel like I've tried quite a few things, but she doesn't seem to want to try them, or gets embarrassed.
Takeaways for the student:
1. Maintain Yawn Jaw
2. Think the pitch
3. And let it go of everything, so that the pitch may happen.
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