Sam Meredith Lesson Summary 11/9

I was decently prepared for my lesson today. I had been up kind of late the night before, though and I feel like my lack of physical energy probably had a negative effect on my singing. We started by doing a few vocalizes. We did one similar to one I have done before where I sang descending five-tone scales on the syllable 'bp'. It was surprisingly difficult. I really had to internalize my starting pitch each time to make sure that the note came out right because I was only singing it for a very short time. I also had to concentrate on keeping consistent space and consistent lack of tension as we moved further up the keyboard. It got even harder when Cindy started to move the exercise randomly throughout the keyboard. I want to continue to do this exercise daily so I can develop better intonation and also more consistency in all parts of my range. Next did an exercise where we sang ascending thirds on the words 'many men'. First we did the exercise over the course of an octave and then we did it over the course of an octave and a half and sang just the word 'many'. The object of this exercise was to help me learn to keep consistent space between my molars regardless of the vowel or tone. I had to focus on the space and keep the same space there as I moved from the open vowel to the closed vowel. As I got higher in my range I also needed to concentrate on not recruiting unnecessary muscle contractions in order to reach the top note. I want to do this exercise daily in the future and focus not just on getting high, but on getting high in a healthy way. After that we sung some of my repertoire. We started with 'si tra i ceppi'. It just didn't seem to have as much energy today. I think that might be a result of my lack of energy today. It may have also been a result of bad body alignment. Cindy encouraged me to write my own narrative to the song including a text that I can think of during the interludes between verses to help put me in the proper frame of mind to sing the song. I think that is something I want to do not only for this song, but also for all of the other songs I will be singing for juries. Next we went through 'wohl denk ich oft'. The problem with this piece today was that the transition between my chest and head voice was too obvious. So, Cindy encouraged me to think of it as a more gradual transition when I sing. When the contour is descending, I am to add more of a speech-like quality to the sound. When I ascend, I am to add more of a sigh-like quality. It felt a lot easier and a lot more natural once I started doing that. That's also something that I want to take time applying to all of my jury pieces. After that we sang 'beau soir'. It was pretty good, but not quite as good as it was the other day in master class. I think I just need more free flowing air and more freedom in my jaw still. There are also some diction issues I want to work out. I'm going to work on both of those aspects this week in my practice.