Emily Cottam's Voice Lesson Summary, 9/4

Emily Cottam

9/4/13 Lesson

Today, we started lessons with a review of the vocal exercises we went over last time, which was the lip trills, “tsaws,” and the “thaws” going down fifth and octave intervals. I’m still having some troubles when it comes to my high notes, so Brianna had me think of the higher pitch and “falling down” to the lower pitch, and this seems to work for me. We also worked on keeping a low larynx in an exercise where I say “uh-huh” on an arpeggio and use primal sound to help keep my vocal area in a relaxed place as I hit the high note and glide down the scale. We discussed the use of internal space and the sensation of yawning and feeling as though you’re about to sneeze to keep that space open. When learning my new songs, Brianna suggested that I use primal sound on “huh” on a single, easily accessible “note” (more like a groan) and simply think the melody (not sing it) as I play it on the piano. That way, when I hear the melody, I’d associate it with a low, relaxed laryngeal position. She also introduced some tongue stretching exercises because when I sing, my tongue does a lot of work and that’s inhibiting me from hitting my notes with ease and disrupting my vibrato. I am to stick my tongue out, fold it, and bite it as far back as I can to free up the back of my throat. We discussed the benefit of having a tongue position that is “fat and flat,” with the tip of the tongue touching the back of the lower row of teeth and the other end of the tongue just grazing the top molars. We picked out some new repertoire for me to work on, and I’m going to practice using primal sound while I’m learning the melody so I don’t practice unhealthy habits in the process of learning the music.