Emily C., Ashli H., Lesson Record/Reactions, 4/1/14

Emily C., Ashli H., Lesson Record/Reactions, 4/1/14

(This was a supervised lesson.)

EDIT: I used the Lesson Plan for 3/3/14 for this lesson. (I forgot to write this initially. Sorry about that.) 

Lesson Record:

• We started out the lesson with simple lip trills going down on 54321 to warm her voice up a bit, starting on C5. Then I had her do some descending humming exercises in the same range. As she was doing those, I instructed her to have happy thoughts while breathing in deeply as though smelling perfume. I basically told her to imagine that she’s in a field filled with flowers with cute puppies rolling around and she’s trying to “take it all in.” I really liked how this worked with her, because it engaged her face a bit and it helped her to practice good breathing technique. 
• Next, I had her try some “who are you” exercises on 8531. I wanted to get her to release a bit on the higher notes because she was constricting a bit on the hums from before. She has a tendency to go vertically from pitch to pitch (she focuses too much on how it sounds rather than how it feels), so I told her that we aren’t worried about the pitches. She still had trouble with that, I had just played 8 and 1 on the piano and had her sing the words without me playing the middle, and that seemed to help a bit. 
• Because she seemed a little tense, I had her drop down and do a “floppy doll” swinging from side to side to loosen up her neck. We stood up slowly, and I told her to try and find a position where her body felt balanced. I had noticed earlier that she had a tendency to not be balanced at her A-O joint; at the higher notes especially, she tends to jut her head forward. I also noticed that she typically has a “slouched” position, even when she thinks she’s standing up straight. I tried the “ponytail” trick to get her head balanced on the A-O joint. 
• We then returned to the “who are you” exercise, I made sure to reiterate the “happy thoughts” and perfume breath throughout. I told her that I liked how the notes are light on top, and that it’s okay to make the lower notes more speech like as she descends from the top. I also told her again that we’re not worried at all about the “in between notes.” 
• I can’t exactly remember why I had her do this next exercise, but I think it was because she was depressing her tongue or something for the “oo” sound. Something just didn’t seem right about how she was singing the previous exercise. So I had her sing “yo yo yo” on 531, hoping that the diphthong would help a bit. I didn’t like how she tensed up her jaw for “yo,” so I had her switch immediately to “ya.” I wanted to get her singing away from the back of the throat, so I had her sing “mya” instead. I then switched her to “na” because I think that I thought the “y” in “mya” was making her unnecessarily use her jaw. 
• I felt like her breathing was a little under energized, so I had her do some gorilla grunts (referencing Tarzan…) before singing the next vocalize, which was “moo moo” on 53421. I had her do that between each one. 
• Her jaw was getting a little tight, so I had her massage it for a little bit. I asked her if she knew where the jaw hinges on the skull, and she totally knew that it was right in front of the ears. (I personally had no idea up until earlier this week, so I was kind of disappointed in myself that she already knew haha.) 
• I wanted to try and get her to sing out of her throat, so I next told her to sing “an ugly sound” on “na” (as in “cat”) (really forward and in the mask) on 531. Then I realized it was constricting her sound, so I had her try “nah” (as in “bought”). 
• At this point in the lesson, we started working on her piece, “A Change in Me” from the musical Beauty and the Beast. I told her before she started think of using the “perfume” breath during the rests between phrases. As she was singing this, I noticed that she had released quite a bit since the last time I saw her; she was much more confident in the way she sang than before. She was also able to negotiate the changes between “high and low” voice with more ease than before. The first “big” thing that I noticed was that on the higher notes, she tends to just her head forward, taking her A-O joint out of balance. When she reached sustained higher notes, she constricted in the throat (and this goes hand in hand with the head thing). Her notes were squeezed out towards the end on the notes that were too low for her. 
• I acknowledged that I liked how the higher notes were lighter than the bottom notes (which were more speech like). I decided to start out with reminding her of that “perfume breath” because she had a tendency to collapse and have a gasp-like breath (and honestly because I didn’t quite know how to address the other problems yet). I also reminded her about the A-O joint because her head was jutting forward. Her jaw was also tightening, so I had her sing on “dummy jaw,” with only the lips and tongue doing the articulation work. 
• I also had her do some “bobble heading” while was singing. However, her movements were really disjointed and not smooth and released. When I got her to release a bit during the wobble, I told her it was okay to stop, but I wanted her to keep the sensation that she can “wobble any time” she wanted because she was so released in the head and neck. 
• On the jump from the notes on the words “and I” from low to high, I turned it into a swoopy vocalize. In hindsight, I should’ve just started on the high note going down instead of giving her the opportunity to approach the note from below. She was turning the exercise into a “yawn,” (which is my fault from previous lessons), so I told her that we don’t necessarily want to yawn, but we want the free/released feeling that comes with yawning. 
• As she was singing, I would sometimes interrupt her and remind her to “reset” and release before moving on. 
• At the end of the lesson, I told her to remember three things: Puppies (and that happy feeling), perfume breath, and to make sure that her A-O joint was balanced by watching herself in the mirror. 

Lesson Reactions:

• I realized as I was listening through the recording that I never really tell her what she’s doing right versus what she’s doing wrong. Whoops. 
• I also found that she tends to constrict/get unnecessarily tight on the vowel [u], and she releases really well on the vowel [a]. 
• I didn’t really have much variation in range in any of the vocalizes, and they all sort of stayed in her area of comfort. I should’ve taken her a little lower and a little higher than what she’s used to. 
• I think I’m getting better at diagnosing the problems, but I still think I struggle slightly to find what I can do to fix them. I also still struggle with figuring out how to get the student to release in the same way that we do for vocalizes in their actual pieces. 
• After reading Cindy’s review of the lesson, I realized that it was probably my fault that Ashli was staying so under-energized, but I think it’s just because I’m equating energized singing with tension and constriction. My bad.
• This was my final lesson with Ashli, and I’ve got some bittersweet feelings; it was stressful and hard to figure out how to help the student, but at the same time, it was really satisfying to see their improvement as well as my own when it comes to being a better teacher.