Sam and I began our practice with a short vocal warm-up. He played while I sang, since he had already warmed up his voice. We decided to split the practice into halves so each of us sang for a half hour.
First, we practiced "Bon Nuit" to work with Sam's breathing and phrasing. We decided to sing a certain phrase three times, and after each stop and reflect on what we liked or didn't like. After all three attempts we were to pick a favorite. I felt like Sam's breath and phrasing improved, but I felt like all the attempts lacked the buoyancy that we were looking for. So I suggested we do some group dancing. It was fun, and it helped Sam release some unwanted tension. I think that we should do this in our next practice sessions, but try dancing to the songs which he is singing, because it would help him retain that deeper connection to his body. We concluded Sam's half hour by going over his German Diction in his Wolf piece.
During my half hour we tried the same activity of singing a certain phrase three times, and analyzing each one. I didn't feel like this helped me as much as it helped Sam. I think my problem with singing is that I think about it too much, and I need to find a connection in my normal speaking voice to singing. I don't think the three different attempts were all that different in production. So I think next time I want to try something different like speaking the phrase, and then singing it. I think this would help me with what I worked with Thomas Glenn on: not over thinking singing, but thinking of it having a closer relationship to my speaking voice. I worked on Wolf's "Mignon".
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