Record
Steve came pretty late unfortunately. He had forgotten about the lesson entirely. When he arrived I was concerned to hear how raspy and full of gunk his voice was. But oh well! We battle on!
First we did some stretches because Steve generally needs it pretty bad. I did some back stretching exercises. I asked him if he'd had a chance to do them on his own and he said not really.
Then I asked him to tell me what we had discussed about the 6 points of balance. He was able to repeat back the information accurately. I then stood with really horrible posture and asked Steve what I should do to fix it. He did pretty well. He got the obvious things, but missed a few little ones. When he was done, one toe was still turned inwards and my spine was rotated to the lift slightly. But all in all he remembered pretty well.
After that we talked about breathing. I asked him what he knew about the diaphragm. He said he had heard of it and showed me where it is. He had an accurate knowledge of its location, but I wanted to fill him in on its shape and function. I explained that the diaphragm is like a pancake in shape, but domed. It connects around the edges to the lowest ribs. When it contracts it flattens out and the lungs expand to fill the space it left behind... etc etc blah blah blah. I explained how the ribs expand as well to increase the space even more. I told him that the important thing to remember is that we don't breathe in air - we change the space and the air just comes in. We don't have to suck the air in or work for it at all, we just alter internal space. He seamed to be on board with me. We did the breathing exercise where you breathe in for 5 counts and out for 10. Then in for 7 and out for 15 then in for 10 and out for 10, and on and on. I had him exhale on an [s] so that he could control his airflow better. He was expelling much more air than he needed to at first so I told him to make it a tiny little hiss like a kettle just starting to boil. That helped and he was able to do the exercises without feeling uncomfortably low on air or collapsing. Overall Steve improved as we went, but he doesn't have great release on inhale or great control on exhale. I don't really understand this. I am half his size and can exhale for much much longer than he can. I can only guess that this is due to his overall physical fitness, which is not good. If we continue these lessons, I will definitely advise him to exercise. The body is the instrument, and you need to take care of it. I changed over from the [s] to the lip buzz after a few exercises. None of my students have been able to do the lip trill! It is driving me crazy. They can't stop laughing and they can't maintain it for very long at all. Sigh. I just keep telling them to do it on their own and that as they practice it will get easier.
After the breathing exercises we did some vocalizing. I started with sighs and yawns. Steve does pretty well with these. At first he was just gliding down in a few seconds and wasn't sustaining phonation. I asked him if he could take his time descending. He did well with that instruction. Steve does really well going higher without constricting on sighs and yawns. After that we started doing "Father, feather, fever." We start by speaking, and then we inflect it, elevate it, and sing it on a 54321 pattern. I noticed that he was moving his jaw in really weird ways. I told him to go look in the mirror and tell me what he saw. He picked up on the jaw right away. I had him tilt his head back and try to release those jaw closing muscles. His jaw stopped moving side to side while he sang after that, but it still looked very held. I asked him how he felt. He said it was better because he was "holding it open." Which was telling. I explained that we don't have to hold the jaw. I used the "drop your arm" example. I explained that if we hold the jaw open we are just tensing in the other direction and tension in either direction is undesirable for singing. We kept trying. After a while, Cindy came over and helped Steve balance his A-O joint. He was shortening his neck in the back. I was really impressed by the change! He looked very different, much more confident. The sound was a little more full, but as he is all gunky today it's harder to hear. I had him wiggle his head around while we did some descending exercises. If he stopped moving, he was holding.
We moved on to "Someone Like You." I had him sing the first lines, but it sounded very low for him today. I transposed it higher. I noticed that he was holding he neck and jaw in place. I told him to dust Cindy's office. We got him a duster and he walked around dusting. He did really well, changing levels and directions often. It looked great, but it didn't show in his sound as much as it might have if he were less congested. After going through the first section a few times Cindy told me to keep transposing it around. We did this a few times and then we were out of time.
Reaction
I don't connect with Steve very well still. I think it just takes time with some students. I really like his voice though and I think he is retaining a lot of the things we are talking about. I'm just not sure he's as dedicated to improving his voice as he could be. Which is totally fine! It just makes him teaching him a little bit awkward.
Anyway I think this lesson went ok. I had some good ideas. I'm displeased with myself for missing the A-O imbalance. I never catch onto those when they shorten in the back. Rats! I know now that that's a blind spot. I think next time (if there is a next time. it's up to Steve.) I'll have him lie on the floor for a little while or do ragdoll.
No comments:
Post a Comment