Sarah Brenay - Steve Buys - Lesson Record 4/15/14

Record

Steve really wrecked his legs doing some crazy percussion piece where he had to crawl around a lot. So he's in a lot of pain and couldn't stand well. He kept buckling! It was awful. I had him sit, of course, telling him to choose between the ball and the big black computer chair and a piano bench.

S: Alright lets do some stretches though because I'm sure your back is in bad shape.

We stretch for a while. Shoulders forward and back. 

S: That probably feels very uncomfortable

Steve: No I'm good.

S: Oh really? Ok good. Now the neck. Hey funny - I can touch my ear to my shoulder on this side, but not this side.

Steve: There's some tension there!

S: Maybe I'm in worse shape than you are. Ok can you just flop down (ragdoll)? Let your head just feel like it's hanging.

When I see Steve do this, his head does not look like it's hanging at all. But he has a very different body than I do, so I couldn't tell what was going on. He said he felt like he was releasing it. 

S: So we'll stay seated today. Have you been staying hydrated?

Steve: Ya I've been keeping one of those sports sized Gatorade bottles in my fridge full of water.

S: Good! Good. Im going to keep stretching my neck, feel free to do so. Do you remember our discussion - I know it was a while ago - about the 6 points of balance? 

Steve looks confused.

S: Oh no we talked about the A-O joint. What can you tell me about that?

Steve: Uh most people think the spine connects to the skull in the back, but it actually connects right in the middle of the head between the ears, so most people put their head forward most of the time when really the ears should be over the shoulders.

S: Right right. And a lot of people tend to overcorrect when they sing and they pull their head too far back. And neither is good. Yours looks pretty good, let me see from the side. Good that looks good does it feel released?

Steve: Ya.

S: Ok so there are 5 more points of balance. Your posture is pretty good but I'm going to go through them really lickity split here.

Steve: My posture's only good when I'm really trying to keep it upright. Most of the time its awful!

S: Ya so is everybodies. So 6 points of balance. You have the A-O joint, then the shoulders. This is to make sure you're not caving your shoulders forward, which is how most people stand.

I show him the toaster thing. 

S: The shoulders center directly over the ribs. They hang from the shoulder girdle. It's when our pectorals are tense that we pull them in and it becomes a problem, right? So that looks pretty good, how does that feel to you?

Steve: Fine.

S: Good so the next is the relationship between the upper and lower vertebrae. 

I show him standing properly and improperly. Steve stands up and does it too. 

S: So the next point is the hip joint. Where would you say your hips are. They're actually much lower I'm going to find an image.

I look up the skeleton on google and show Steve.

Steve: So the part I thought was the hips is that bone there... and there's the hip joint. Funny thing it's right were your legs bends!

S: Hahah ya funny thing!

Steve: I know right?

S: Now this is where people run into trouble when they try to bend at the waist. As you can see in the picture, there's no joint here. Curving the vertebrae too far is bad for your back. So next we have the knees. There are 3 positions for the knees. We have bent (I model), locked ( model), and balanced ( I model). And if you had been in choir they would have told you to "bend at the knees" so you don't lock them and pass out, you might have heard that with band too. 

Steve: Ya I have.

S: Ya, but you don't have to bend your knees,so

Steve: You just have to release them.

S: That's right so can you show me bent?

Steve tries and almost falls over.

Steve: Nope. Those muscles say no. 

S: Haha woah ok never mind, can you show me locked? Ok and then find that position that's just released and balanced. Let me show you another image.

I look up the knee joint and show him how the femur and tibia stand like a column or pile of blocks.

S: They just rest on top of each other. So you don't need any muscular exertion to keep the body upright. The body just kind of sets on each other like a bunch of blocks. It's designed in a very crafty way in fact! So that when you're standing with correct alignment, you should be using

Steve: You should be able to stand all day.

S: Ha well I know I can't but there shouldn't be muscular fatigue. If you feel muscular fatigue or tension from standing, then something's out of alignment probably, you know. So the next balance point is the ankle joint. As you can see the joint is here, forward from the heel. If you try to stand on your heel, you'll feel like you're going to fall back. So the weight is actually balanced like on a tripod on these points (I show him).
Steve: Ok ya that makes sense.
Sarah:  Alright awesome so lets review, give me a brief rundown of the 6 points of balance.
Steve: There's the... I don't remember the name, the neck joint that's in the middle of the ears.
S: Ya it's called the atlanto occipital joint or A-O joint for short.
Steve: Right, and it's in the middle of your head. Then there's the shoulders and they just... wiat they just hang there right?
S: ya ya that's right.
Steve: Then there's the relationship of the lower back to the upper back. Then there's the hip joint, which is here, not here. (He points to his hip joint and then to his waist). The knees, they have three positions - locked, bent, and balanced. And then the feet are like a tripod and you don't want to put your weight to far forward or to far back.
Sarah: Excellent work Steve! Really good. Alrighty well lets get singing then! Can you do some yawns for me?
(We did yawns, changing pitch range and duration. I find that if you add the stretching it really helps. Probably it helps posturally and to stretch the jaw and get the mouth open. We also did some sighs. I don't think this one helps as much but it can be cued to make an [u] that is closer to singing.)
Sarah: Good now lets do some beeps!
(We do [bip bip bip bip bip] on 54321 and then 13531 patterns. Steve does really well with these. His ear is good and his sound is clear when he doesn't have time to contort it, so the beeps work really well.)
Sarah: Great! Have we done much speak-to-sing stuff?
Steve: Um I don't know.
Sarah: Did we do "Father, feather, fever?"
Steve: Nope.
S: Great! Well we're going to. Say "Father."
Steve: Father
(We do a couple of these at different pitch levels and amplitudes, but still just speaking.)
S: Ok now this time we will elongate it. "Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaather."
Steve: "Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaather."
(We do a few more)S: Good, now lets inflect it.
(We bend the pitch around more, as though asking "Father?" as a question. We start high and end low, and just mess with it generally. I start livening it up by reacting to the way he says "Father" and answering a "Father" back that is dramatic and silly. Steve joins in and we have some laughs.)
S: Now we elevate it to a higher pitch.

(I have Steve start the word higher in his voice but don't give him a pitch yet. I just have him say it like a descending sigh. He starts somewhere around C4. I play B3 and have him start the word on that note and sigh down, but it's still very speech-like at this point.)

S: Awesome, now "Father" 54321 (this time I sing it.)

Steve: "Father" 54321

(This time Steve's voice changed drastically. As his brain switched to "command-sing.")

S: Let's do another one. (we go down a half step and do the process again but a little faster. Just a few repetitions of "Father" on speak, elongate, inflect, and elevate. His voice makes a dramatic switch again.)

S: Now do you feel or hear any difference between your speech and the last one you did?

Steve: Um I don't know. 

S: Let's go back to speaking and try again. (we do a super condensed version of the exercise.)

Steve: Oh ya I noticed a difference that time!

S: Ok lets go back to speech. (We do the sigh like descending "Fathers" on different pitches, moving around chromatically. We do the sigh and then we do the 54321 pattern. It's still changing quite a bit, but now Steve is more aware of it.)

S: Now you see what's happening is you've developed a lot of extra, unnecessary physical actions that, in your mind accompany singing. When your brain thinks "command-sing," your body is going, "Oh now it's time to sing, this has to sound like singing" and then all these extra muscles work and create tension in your voice and body. 

Steve: Haha "command-sing" I like it!

S: Ya it's a good way to explain it, I got it from Cindy. 

Steve: Oh really?

S: Ya - it's the perfect way to think of it. See, what we need to do is replace all those extra functions that come up with "command-sing." So instead lets try "command-speak" or "command-phonate." 

Steve: That makes sense. Of course my body is so tense right now it's impossible for me to get comfotable.

S: Oh man Steve! You should lie down maybe, would that help?

Steve: Uh I don't know probably.

S: Ya why don't you lie down here. I'll grab something for your head.

Steve: No I'm ok.

S: It's actually much better for your body alignment to have your head supported. Here ya go. Now can you bend your legs and lay your arms to the side? That looks good, is that comfortable?

Steve: Ya that's pretty good.

S: Ok great. Now just stay there and let's continue the exercise.

(We go through more "Father"s and then switch to "Fever" and "Feather." Steve gets really good at telling the difference and he starts to close the gap between the sounds.)

S: Steve this is sounding much closer to speech, how does it feel?

Steve: Um I don't know? I guess I can feel the vibrations.

S: Does the speech and the singing still feel different? Let's do some more and just be aware of the feeling. Don't try to change anything, just be aware and report back.

(We do some more.)

S: What do you think?

Steve: Well things feel the same to me.

S: Good that's the goal! Alright well we're out of time. But that would be a great way to practice as well, just take one line at a time and speak-elongate-inflect-elevate.

Steve: Ok!

S: Thanks Steve, good work!

 

 

Reaction

I feel really really good about this lesson! Steve got a lot of useful information and started to really hear what was going on with his voice. I think the "command-phonate" vs "command-sing" example really made sense to him. If he really wants to sing, he has a long way to go. But he's musical and has good raw material to work with, so if he wants to he can get pretty darn good. I had a lot of fun with this lesson! Woohooo!