LaeKin Burgess MayeRee Lesson Report #5 for 3/27

So, our goal was to work on intrinsic pitch change and to be able to monitor tension as we ascend in pitch. I started out just having MayeRee wiggle around and get her body loose. I started with lip trills on C4 descending 54321. I did this from G4 to E5 just to start warming up. Then we did 54321 with the tongue out. MayeRee has a really tight tongue.  We did pwa on 531 starting on C4 again and we went up to a G5 this time. I had her move her head around so she could release more and not be tempted to hold it. I noticed the breath was still quite high in MayeRee's body so I had her lean over while sitting on a chair careful to make sure her neck was released. I asked her to breathe so low she could feel it in her back. We breathed this way a few times before coming up a little and doing it a few more times. I explained that the expansion of the back is not our goal, but is an exaggerated feeling of releasing and expanding because of full contraction of the diaphragm and visceral displacement. She understood this. I then had her stand again and instead of thinking of making the back expand, I just wanted her to be aware of her back being released so that if could expand when the viscera were displaced. She seemed to understand this too. After we talked about releasing the back we started to sing one of her songs. I told her to pay attention to releasing all of the abdominals so they can expand and having a free buoyant feeling in her abdomen. I did notice a change in her timbre and a little more release to the sound.  This is what I assigned her to practice this week.