Sarah Boucher Masterclass Critiques 12/3

Sarah Boucher Masterclass Critiques 12/3
Jake Spjute: When Jake first sang, I felt that he was forcing a bit. Sometimes I would notice his head shaking, maybe as a result of the forcing? I thought his breath support was good. He had good posture and nice expression in his eyes. One thing I noticed was that he closes his eyes a lot to evoke emotion. I think that sometimes that is nice but that he should maybe only pick one or two spots to do that. Cindy began by talking to him about placing the sound in his head rather than his mouth. Thinking about nasality, made his sound lighten up a bit. It was still present but not forced. I liked when she talked about the La at the beginning and how he should just think the "a" because the L should not "tell you what the vowel is going to be". I also like what she said about letting the jaw go instead of thinking creating more space.
Taylee Beckstead: The first time Taylee sang, I noticed that she was running out of breath at the ends of phrases, causing her to squeeze the notes at the end of phrases. I heard a little breathiness, I am not sure what that means. I liked her confidence and that she was emoting. Some moments she had a very present ping to her tone that was really nice. Cindy addressed the emotional aspect of the piece. She suggested creating a world, where she was comfortable singing the song so that her body does not try to control the sound. This helped her to get rid of her "twitchy body" movements, wow it was so beautiful that way, everything was so much more free.
Laura Berg: It sound really lovely and free the first time. I think Laura has a really nice chiaroscuro. Cindy had her point at things so that she would not rest her hands on the fronts of her legs. It helped give her more energy. It also helped to get the phrases and sentences more definitive. Cindy next had her do it without pointing but still keep those emotional shifts. This helped to make the emotion in the piece have more depth and meaning.