Date: 4/25/14
Student: April A.
Brief overview of lesson: We began by stretching and I asked her how her body felt today since I had known that she had been feeling a little sore earlier in the week. She said that she was feeling really good so we didn't do a whole lot of stretching.
I started our vocalization saying that we wouldn't be singing with the piano for the majority of the lesson, I wanted to focus on doing vocalizes without the piano. I gave her two major instructions. 1) Start at a high place, and 2) end in a low place. I told her that we would start with some yawns, and after a few good yawns, she added into the mix some sighs. They seemed to be fairly free, so I gave the cue for her to keep it free. I wanted to see some low larynx and an element of freedom in the sound. Once I heard that I cued to start higher, so I said, "higher! higher!". Sometimes I think this made her constrict more. But as she went on I think she figured it out and they sounded more free.
I then moved on to vampire speech, because I wanted to touch on that because in our last lesson I noticed that she wasn't completely opening on each vowel. I explained to her that we don't have to close our jaw for all consonants, and that every time there is a vowel we should reiterate it by letting the jaw swing back, and feeling a space between our back molars. We worked on it a bit, since the first time we did it April's jaw was closed on "I". We tried it again and although it was a little bit foreign to her, I think she gained a better perspective on how reiterating that space between the molars helps keep the jaw open and released.
I then moved on to some lip buzzes. I asked her if she would rather try the raspberry instead, but she had a hard time keeping it going. I noticed that her posture was hunched over and that she breath-farted, so I asked her to do the toaster motion to get her in a better alert and happy posture. I also asked her to feel as if her feet and breath were more grounded. She seemed to be able to sustain the raspberry for longer. I asked her again to start in a high place and end in a low. I heard a better transition, sometimes there was some grabbing and pulling up of the larynx, but I could hear that she was starting to find release.
Next I wanted to introduce her to the rose breath. I asked her to pretend to smell a rose. I told her that this helps to release things, since we only really need air and our vf's to produce sound. I asked her to smell a rose before every vocalize we do from then on out. We switched to lip buzzes, and I sensed that she was feeling the presence of an open throat for the first time. Her transition from high to low was seamless, and it seemed genuinely easy. I stopped her after doing quite a few repetitions to ask her how that felt different from the vocalizes we had done earlier in the lesson. She said, "It felt easier, it felt more free rather then tense in my throat." I then said, "That's great! Let's try to incorporate that rose breath into our practice."
I then had her try the rose breath before starting the dove sound. I again asked her to start in a high place and end in a low place. She did a few that were alright, and then I noticed one that wasn't so great. So in an effort to teach her the difference between a released, low larynx, I pointed out that the feeling of rose breath changed once she started the dove sound. She said she noticed that too. She kept on going, and I wanted to check in on her and make sure that she had a released tongue and slight arch in the back. She didn't have her tongue released, so I asked her to have a fat tongue for a second, and make sure that it is released with a slight arch in the back. This made it an easier transition. I then tried to distract April by giving her something to do while singing to distract her so I had her move her arms. That worked well, to distract her from the task at hand.
I then wanted to do some panting to give her some energy, and then sing "day" on 54321. After she did it a few times I saw that she looked really scared, so I asked her to have a pleasant look on her face, and to use her most agreeable voice she could use. I found that saying "agreeable" helped immensely to trigger the easy transition while descending. She matched all the pitches. I was really happy with it. I wanted to try something else by asking her to move around because I wasn't sure that she could feel the released pharynx while panting yet. So I told her that she could also think of excitement in a low breath. She did this while I cued her with words like "agreeable" and "rose". I noticed that it was much more free, energized, and transition was fluid. I thought that I'd add one more thing by asking her to think about happy moments like her boyfriend bringing her flowers, or getting a job promotion, the farmer's market opened, etc... When she had specific thoughts in mind the breathy quality was lessened. Overall, she was matching almost every single repetition.
I stopped to tell her that she was doing really well, and that she was matching almost every single pitch. I told her that I could tell she was getting closer to finding more release.
Since I could see some improvement in matching pitch, and finding release, I wanted to challenge her a bit so we then switched to "day" 8531. She was doing a great job with matching pitch and falling through the top. The only time when she didn't match was when we approached D5 and above. Then she constricted and it got difficult.
We ended our lesson by discussing the progress that April had made over this semester. She told me that she feels like she gained a lot of confidence and that she felt that that alone was worth her time. I told her that as we practice, we will see progress. It won't always be large, but baby steps are a great way to start. I also told her that I was really proud of her willingness to try weird or different things, and to be patient with me as I learn to become a better voice teacher.
Assessment of student: The presence of the rose breath and thinking of having an agreeable voice were some great tools that helped April experience a low larynx! I was so happy with the progress she made in this lesson. I tried to do less with the piano as Cindy suggested, and I saw a tremendous leap in her awareness and confidence because of that.
How will you modify your teaching based off of what you learned from the lesson? April has been a challenge to teach this semester, however, teaching her has been a great learning experience for me. Now in the future, if I have a student who struggles with matching pitch, I am going to stay away from the piano for a bit, until he/she becomes more aware of what is happening in their voice/body vs. the model.
Takeaways for the student:
1. Rose breath
2. agreeable voice
3. think let trust
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