Mariah Lesson Summary

Mariah Lesson Summary 9/5
I felt very prepared for this lesson because I had thought of composers and songs that I might want to sing as Professor Hart had asked each of us to do. We began by discussing the main requirements for voice lessons and Professor Hart's additional requirements. We also went over what counted for the two hour daily practice time and the song analysis form. After the introduction section of the lesson, we continued with warm ups. I learned some new warm ups that helped me to gently warm up my voice and help release any tension in my jaw and throat. A specific warm up we worked on was having me start speaking an oo ee oo ee oo sound and then go into singing on the oo ee oo ee oo. When I started out speaking my jaw and throat were a lot more relaxed and that continued into my singing with this warm up. We also did a warm up where I had my throat closed off and then when I breathed in I would open it and then sing. This helped me to open up my mouth and throat more to allow the sound to come through. After I warmed up, I sang part of Standchen so she could hear my voice and assess my current ability. She then chose a couple songs from my list that I could begin to work on, Traume and Clair de Lune, and told me that she expected me to have the word for word translation of Traume completed and have this song learned by my next lesson. Some key things I learned from this lesson was that I have been holding a lot of tension in my jaw and throat. Once I released this tension, my singing was a lot more free and it was easier to go into my higher range. Also, I was reminded by Professor Hart's additional requirements that singing requires the whole body. I can help my singing by following her guidelines of exercising at least three times a week, drinking plenty of water and straightening my alignment. I learned that I need to warm up my voice a lot more gently to begin with instead of going straight into high, loud warm ups. My goals for my next lesson are to have my word by word translation for Traume completed, have the notes and correct pronunciation of words learned, and have a copy of Traume in IPA translation.