Sarah Boucher Lesson Summary 10/17

Sarah Boucher Lesson Summary 10/17

It was great to have a lesson at the end of a stressful week of midterms! I felt like I had a lot of tension all week that I could finally release in my lessons! My voice was feeling better than it had in days. Laurie warmed me up and a new thing that we implemented in warm ups was the "silent scream". I had never done this before but wow it really helped me to release my jaw and relax my throat! I liked doing this before warm ups especially when the warm ups would get high, it helped me to create the space I needed for those high notes to come out. Laurie also had me use the "grandpa snore breath" to relax my throat and keep my larynx low.

We worked on the third and fourth songs of my Schumann set.  Both of these songs are in a tricky spot in my range. I have a hard time finding the space needed for my sound to ring in my lower register. Laurie had me sing in on an ugly "nah" to get it forward and then we worked on finding the space needed. She had me put tootsie rolls in and that really helped. Another tool that I liked was pinching my lips together in the front so I am forced to created space in the back of my mouth. This really really helped!!! She had me hold her giant workout ball and that really helped my breath on the fourth piece, because it is slow and sustained. When I hold the ball, it helps my breath feel more expansive and grounded. We talked about ways that I could find that feeling in the practice room when I don't have access to the ball.

For this week, I need to continue a lot of vowel practice. Focusing on consistency, not moving the jaw and keeping the larynx low. Vowel practice will help me to find lots of space in my mouth as well.