Emily C.'s Voice Lesson Summary, 9/18/13

Emily Cottam

9/18/13 Lesson

We started the lesson out with the same “thee” exercise I mentioned from last week, going on a descending scale. I focused on the “th” being a higher pitch than the desired one and just “falling” down the scale to my starting note. I had to work on making the transition from the “th” to the vowel sound smoother and without a glottal stop; it required that I relaxed my tongue and jaw and get everything in the throat out of the way. Brianna had me release my breath like a sigh, which was relaxed and not forced. The release of my breath at the end of a note/phrase also had to be as if I was preparing for an intake of breath so I don’t use my throat to cut off air. She said to relate the sensation to the small curl you get on soft-serve ice cream cones, with a smooth drop off. She also had me point upwards as I descended on the scale to keep my breath engaged and to prevent myself from going slightly flat. I need to remember that I have to sing through the last pitch and not lose the commitment I make at the start of every breath. When singing, Brianna told me to use “happy thoughts” to encourage a higher soft palette, a relaxed jaw, the feeling of buoyancy in my diaphragm and lower ribcage. She introduced a new vocal exercise that had me groan a primal sound, thinking through a quick series of notes, and then on the third time actually gently singing the notes while emphasizing “dump” moments on the starting note every time I return to it. When singing, I was told to imagine that there are strings tied to the ceiling and to my top jaw and everything below that just hangs is and relaxed. We started working on “La Serenata” by Tosti because I told her I was having issues with the higher notes. She had me speak the words in a “Julia Child voice,” which is in the head voice and is a swoopy form of speech. This helps to provide upper space in my head when I go to reach the top notes. She told me to “always provide more space than you think you need, because you need it.” I was having problems with breath prep, so we did some “gorilla grunts” between phrases where I’d normally breath, and that helped keep my body engaged throughout the song.