Jared Daley Listening Assignment # 2

Caro Mio Ben

1.  What is wrong with the sound I am hearing (and what I am seeing)? I'm hearing a lot of airiness and intonation (flat) problems in her singing. She also had minimal vibrato. I thought that she actually did a fairly decent job of being released--I didn't see a locked down jaw or rigidity in her body or face, but her being released was at the expense of being strong and energized. Her chest was kind of concave with shoulders rolled in, and she did a sort of gorilla arm swing, directing herself.

2.  What is causing this problem? Lack of good breath support, body alignment, energy and strength.

3.  What would I do about it if I were the teacher? First, I would have her practice alignment exercises, "toaster" shoulders being high on the priority list! I would have her do some panting to feel the level of body engagement necessary. I'd have her do a primal "uh" before each phrase so she could feel the tracheal tug needed to keep her body engaged and larynx low. I might have her hiss through the phrases to feel the connection of breath to phrase. I'd also try something like pulling on exercise bands or pushing against the wall to engage her core muscles for strength.

4.  How well prepared was the performance prepared (musicianship, diction, style, etc.)?  Give specifics that support your answer. I thought she did a pretty good job for being such a young singer. Her musicianship and style were appropriate. Diction was not bad, but some vowels were not totally pure, and [t]s were aspirate. She seemed pretty comfortable performing except for the extraneous body movement--hands, arm swinging.

 

The Roadside Fire

1.  What is wrong with the sound I am hearing (and what I am seeing)? I hear a pressed sound, forced vibrato. I see upper body tension and lack of lower body engagement.

2.  What is causing this problem? I think the pressed sound is from lack of release in jaw, lack of free access to register 3, and focus on singing "forward" rather than having low larynx and free resonance. The forced vibrato is a symptom of the other things.

3.  What would I do about it if I were the teacher? I'd have him try singing in a squat position to really stabilize the lower body and use his strength from there. I'd also have him practice singing while lying on an exercise ball or couch to free up the upper body. I might have him alternate between singing with head back and normal to free the jaw and engage tracheal tug. I'd also have him speak through the text with meaning to get a good understanding of the appropriate stresses and vowels. I'd have him practice the song maybe all in falsetto, much lighter than what he was doing, to get a released sound. I'd have him sing the song with tootsie rolls or a pencil between his back teeth to open up that molar space rather than alligator jaw-ing it.

4.  How well prepared was the performance prepared (musicianship, diction, style, etc.)?  Give specifics that support your answer. I couldn't understand the text almost at all. I caught  a word here and there, but I don't know what the song is about, and if I didn't know the title and composer, I might have thought that this was in a different language. It was odd, because I heard a lot of consonants, but I heard no meaning. I think the words were treated equally and overly manufactured. Seems like he did a lot of work trying to get the vowels "correct" but there was a lot of difference in the vowels. I pictured the vowel formant picture with his vowels all over rather than aligned. The body movement was a little distracting.