Emily F. lesson 4/9

Emily F. lesson 4/9: I hadn't managed my time well, so I wasn't very warmed up. Laurie had me take a few breaths and get my body ready. We did some lip trill octave down-up-down glissando, did some wobble. I didn't feel very balanced and emotionally prepared to sing. During all of the vocalizes I was thinking about a whole bunch of things--nasopharyngeal space, my tongue, my lower back tension, visceral displacement and low breaths, tracheal tug, facial muscle differentiation, jaw tension--and it was a lot to be running through my head while just trying to warm up. I finally settled on focusing on having an in-body, low breath, and letting everything else just BE. I was able to get comfortable and focused, and it was successful. We did some more panting, wobble, inhaled k, and getting high exercises. I was able to easily get up to a F6, but I did still have that weird popping thing going on in my larynx, and I wonder if it is something to do with my hyoid bone. I really am curious as to what is going on. We talked a little about my songs. I feel good about all of my songs for jury, but I can't decide which to present first. We worked on "Mandoline", because we haven't done anything with it since NATS. It was better since then, but I still had some weirdness going on. We worked on my imagery for the piece, then decided on a vocalize to do with my least favorite line--transposing it everywhere. We worked on "The Last Word of a Bluebird" and focused on imagery. The song is pretty low, and I need to be able to negotiate register shifts more smoothly. I also needed better body connection. Listening back, I recognize that I need better nasopharyngeal resonance. We worked on "Faites-lui mes aveux". I was still really struggling with my [u] vowels. Laurie helped me realize that I don't have to push my jaw down so much with those, but that I can have quite rounded lips and high/forward resonance. I also need to do more speaking with it. My goals for the week are to slowly and carefully read through and understand my French texts, speak the texts in different ways. I also need to work my rough spots and vowels on my English songs. I want to find a more internal rhythmic connection to "Shelling Peas" because it's tricky.