Sarah Brenay - Lesson - 9/20/13

I had a really difficult time in my lesson today. Cindy and I were working on things that were way outside my current ability - a very "bitter-sweet spot," if you will. We were trying to find natural, true vowels. And I think I was only getting 60% of the way there 15% of the time. The other 85% was just not it. It was very discouraging. In fact it was almost one of those break down into tears lessons. But I was able to get through it by thinking about my attempts as catching a glimpse of something very important that I need to start moving toward rather than as failures. By the end of the lesson I was feeling a lot better. If I can only get a hold of this new idea, I think it will make a big difference in my singing, in my endurance, sound, and my general enjoyment of what I do. That's what I'm hoping.
Exercises:
-sigh like ah's followed by a five note descending pattern where you try to maintain the exact ah sound. Then full octaves descending.
-switching between "e" and "a" first slowly and then quickly while trying not to move the tongue or jaw.

I also had a mini lesson with Thomas and asked him to work with me on the same thing, because I left my lesson with Cindy still wondering how on earth to recreate something I cannot hear and don't have a model for yet. (I'm pretty sure the answer is you can't.) Thomas tried to get me to use less affected vowels, to use the same vowels that I use when speaking. He advised me to read aloud for a while before practicing so I get an idea of my natural voice, and then to use the same vowels. After all, these are the sounds I've been making for 20 years, so they are more fitted to my voice. What he said makes sense, but I think I'll need Cindy's say so before I run with it. After all, there are plenty of vowels I need to sing that are not used in the English language. We'll see...