Luke Shepherd Lesson Summary 9/9/2013

I came to my lesson very prepared today and I feel like I achieved a lot in this lesson that I need to take with me to my daily practice. First, I did fast, energetic sucky breaths leading into every phrase I sang throughout the lesson to allow my body to breathe naturally and get released, good breaths. A lot of things fixed themselves as I started each phrase with a good, natural breath. Second, we did a lot of vocalizing with the 'E' vowel to find the tall, resonant space rather then letting it fall forward and nasally. We practiced switching from 'oo' to 'ee' and trying to keep the same space I had for 'oo' on my 'ee'. We also sang 'nee nee nee' in a scale while plugging and unplugging my nose to keep checking for and maintaining open space. With all of that combined I found release and access into even the higher register of my voice. It helped me a lot to think of going higher as needing more release as opposed to more pressure-more of the same, right thing I need always. The other visual that helped me significantly through these exercises was Cindy's "Korean Jaw". Keeping top molars up and energized and letting the bottom jaw just hang loose. I need to ALWAYS have that space as if strings were tied to my top molars and I was literally hanging by them. The things we do to get our bodies out of our own way...