Emily F. lesson 9/17

Emily F. lesson 9/17: I had finished two song analyses this week, which I brought. I was somewhat warmed up, but when I was warming up before my lesson I felt a lot of grabbing and pulling on the high notes, so I stopped pushing. We did some vocalises that helped me access some higher notes. I was still having some body tension, so Laurie taught me a new cross-over body breathing exercise that really helped me access good full-body breathing, and showed me how tense I was in my lower back. Because of having had surgery on my low back fifteen years ago, and problems with it ever since, I hang onto a lot of tension in my lumbar region and hips. I did some snort breathing in connection with "holly-lolly-polly-pop" 8-5-3-1. We talked about accessing the nasopharyngial space that we talked about in class, and tracheal tug. I sang through one song on nonsense syllables. The song is in an "easy" range for me, so I wasn't using good molar space, so Laurie suggested I use something to keep my molars apart (ha ha! Tootsie rolls! Side note--I tried tootsie rolls today but found that they produced too much spit, but Dots worked pretty good.). I sang the song through with my thumb between my molars, and the difference in the quality and consistency of sound on playback was significant! I also tried putting my fist up to my lower jaw, and was surprised at how much my jaw tried to move, even when the vowel stayed the same, with no consonants. Then I sang it with my head tilted back, on "uh" in order to tap into my core, and force me to stop using my neck/throat/jaw for everything. I always forget that exercise, but it really reminds me of how much I try to adjust or cheat by using everything neck up instead of using my body. Goals for this week include: continuing to do more body work, drinking water, two more song analyses, making my practice more effective. I also need to work on memorization.