This was my seventh lesson with Anna. I started by asking her how her voice felt. She had mentioned that she was having hay fever problems, so I was curious as to whether that was affecting her voice at all. She said that it didn't really seem to affect it at all. Next, I asked her how the rest of her body felt. She replied that it felt good. We started by getting stretched out. We started by doing some things to release the next joint. First, I directed her to gently massage the muscles of her neck as well as the muscles that connect her neck to her shoulders. After that I asked her to just let her head fall forward onto her chest as if she had fallen asleep. I then asked her to let her neck move gently from side to side to get her neck stretched out. After that we took the bottoms of the palms of our hands and massaged the muscles of our face. Then, I asked her to place her hand on her chin and gently manipulate her jaw. I mentioned that this is a good way to get the muscles that open the jaw more engaged. After that we did a few toaster stretches. I asked her how all of that felt. She replied that it all felt good. Next, I asked her to stand in the crook of the piano so that I could see her well as she vocalized. Once she was in a good spot I directed her to just take a minute to become aware of her body and find a proper alignment for singing. As she did so, I reminded her that good body alignment starts at our neck joint by having our neck in a position so that the bottoms of our top teeth are parallel to the floor. I also reminded her that all of the other joints in her body should be balanced under that joint. I started vocalization by asking her to pretend that she had just woken up from a long nap. We stretched and yawned 4 times. After that we did some siren exercises. I asked her to start low with a nice, easy tone. As she was doing the first one, I told her that she should feel free to breathe when she needs to. After she went up and down a couple of times I asked her how it felt. She said that it felt fine. I clarified my question by asking if there was any tension that she could feel in that exercise and she said no. Next I moved to the piano and asked her to sing a vocalize on the word 'blah.' We sang that word in a 5-tone pattern with each repetition being in a 543212345432123454321 pattern and the word being re-articulated on scale degrees 1 and 5. We started with Bb4 as the top note of the exercise. I asked her to have the same kind of bounce and float technique that we had used in previous lessons--starting with a lighter quality, carrying that to the bottom note, singing the bottom note in a fuller tone, and transitioning immediately back to the lighter quality as she went back up the scale. After our first rep I moved down in half steps. When we got to the point where F#4 was the top note in the exercise I briefly stopped and asked her if the feeling in her jaw could be dumber. With that we continued. We did two more reps. After that we stopped and I asked her if she could feel the difference it made. She said that she could and that she hadn't really been thinking about her jaw very much when we had been doing the exercise originally. I told her that in this exercise I wasn't so much concerned about the way that her voice sounded, but was more concerned about her making an easy transition between heavier and lighter registration as well as her having an experience with singing with a tension-free jaw. I went on to say that I thought she did a very good job at both. I specified that I felt that she did especially well at finding a good jaw opening on the bottom note of the exercise. I then asked her if she could try to find that same healthier opening earlier in the following repetitions. Before we went on I asked her just to speak the word 'blah' a few times with the same 'dumb' feeling in her jaw that we were trying for. After saying it a few times in a shorter, punchier manner I asked her if she could then extend the word and hold out the vowel for a little bit. We did that a few times together. I replied that I liked the jaw space that I saw when she was just speaking the word. I then asked her if she could find that same space as she sang. We did a few more reps of our vocalize starting with E4 as the top note in our scale. I moved down one half step before going back towards the top of the keyboard. I asked her if she could change the word to [ble]. We did the exercise again this time using C#3 as our top note. I moved down in half steps, reminding her in between repetitions to have a stupid feeling in her jaw. After a few repetitions I felt that she wasn't really making as much of a transition between light and heavy, so I asked her quickly between reps if she could make the bounce at the bottom of the scale bigger. After that she did a wonderful job of bouncing, floating, and having a free jaw. Our last rep had Ab4 as it's top note. After that I asked her how it felt. She said that it felt good. She then asked me if it was what I wanted. I replied that I really liked what I saw and heard. I asked her if she liked the way it felt better than the way some of the other sets we did were feeling. She said yes. She went on to say that nothing felt tense when she was signing the vocalize. I complimented her on her proficiency. After that we moved on to working on some music. I started by asking her if she had worked on the song at all. She said that she had listened to the song that day. I then asked her if there were any particular aspects of the music that she wanted to work on. She said that nothing came to mind. I told her I would play the melody for her on the piano and asked her to sing through the first verse, informing her that I wanted to stop after the first verse to talk about things that we both liked and didn't like about her performance. After we sang through it she said that the words were really the only thing that was messing her up. I then asked her what things she liked about it. She wasn't sure what she liked about it, so I asked her if I could tell her what I liked about it. She assented. I complimented her on the fact that for the most part she had retained the progress we made in her last lesson when we worked together on the rhythm. I also complimented her on her intonation. I also complimented her on the healthy vibrato that I heard at certain points throughout the verse. Since she was having trouble seeing the words on the page over my shoulder I told her that the next time we sang it I wanted her to just not worry about the words because I wanted to focus mostly on achieving a rich, vibrant timbre throughout the whole verse. I asked her to again stand next to the piano where she was for vocalization so that I could see her better. I asked her to sing the notes on [ble]. We went through the verse again. After that I asked her if there was anything that she liked better about that repetition. She replied that her jaw was looser. I told her that I noticed that as well. Next I apologized because I felt that there was less energy in her singing that time and I felt that was a result of me telling her that I told her to have a 'dumb person' jaw. I told her that in order to inject more energy into her performance I wanted her to pretend that she was conducting an orchestra that was playing the song and that if she felt the music should grow, get softer, or increase in speed, she should mimmic that with her arms. I told her that I didn't care how silly her conducting gestures were. We sang through the phrase again as Anna moved her arms to the music. Halfway through the phrase I noticed she was losing some of her good jaw placement so I just said the words 'stupid jaw' as I continued playing. After we finished the phrase I asked her if she noticed how much better that was. She said that she did. I told her that this is the kind of singing we want. I told her that the [ble] exercise is good because it releases the muscles of our jaw, but we also need to be expressive as well as released when we sing. Next, we put the words back in. Before we went on I asked her what this song means to her and why she personally would sing the words in the song. She said that she thinks that the words just make her think of a feeling of happiness that is so intense that there is no way that she can keep herself from singing. After that I told her that now I wanted her to continue to ask herself for the dumb jaw while singing the words, think of something that gives her that happy feeling she spoke of, and continue with the conducting gestures. We sang through the first verse once again and I then ask her what she thought about it. She said that some of the notes were a little shaky. I said that since the piece is still new she doesn't need to worry about singing a wrong pitch here and there. I told her that I wanted her to feel comfortable making mistakes and not apologize for them. I offered her the example of my dad when he once told me that he had sung the wrong word in a performance. Because he maintained the same facial expression and confident demeanor, I didn't even notice the mistake. After that I asked her what she liked about her most recent trip through the verse. She struggled to come up with an answer. I told her that even though we had the words back in, she did a pretty good job of maintaining the loose feeling in her jaw. I also pointed about a specific passage in the piece and told her that I felt that she had had her most successful performance of that particular part just now. I asked her if there was anything that she would like to see improve other than the things we had already talked about. She said that she probably just needs to practice more on her own time. Next we moved on to another phrase. I told her before we sang more that she had more trouble finding a good jaw opening on the [i] and [u] vowels. So, we took a pencil and circles all of the place where those vowels appeared so that she could be more aware of them and adjust accordingly. I asked her to sing through the phrase and just be aware of all of those vowels without actually trying to do anything different. I asked her if she felt like she improved at all after she was done singing. She said that she noticed an improvement. I told her that it is important to remember that the only thing that needs to happen for the vowel to change is for her to move her tongue ever so slightly. Before we ended our lesson I asked her if she had any questions. She had some questions about the teaching evaluation that she was planning on helping me with the next day in class. Cindy and I answered her questions.
I think this was definitely the best lesson I've taught Anna if not the best lesson that I've taught all semester period. I think I really did a good job doing some of the things that I've been trying to implement for a long time now. For example, I think I did a good job being more brief in my instruction. I was able to offer some effective instructions/corrections in just a few words while she was still singing rather than having to stop and take over a minute to explain what's happening. I think my vocalization pattern made a lot more sense today as well. I think I started her in a good place, set her up to succeed, but also challenged her. I also think that I did a pretty good job at getting what I wanted out of her with regards to her performance of the song. I really wanted her to just have more life in her sound while also staying released. I think the exercises that I had her do did a pretty good job of helping her maintain a good balance between those two things. As far as improvements I need to make, I think I could probably make the vocalization part of the lesson a little bit better. I feel like once she really understood what was supposed to happen and was doing the right things to allow that to happen I only did a few more reps with her. I think it would probably be good if I gave her more opportunities to be successful and remember the feeling that she had when she was doing the right things.
No comments:
Post a Comment