Jared Daley lesson summary 1/22

Voice lesson

Today was an interesting lesson. Cindy had a look at the Tarzan score and realized how high I have to sing. So one of the first things we did was loosen up like a gorilla. We focused on gorilla posture. Their chest doesn't cave in, nor does it get overly pushed out. It's all in perfect alignment. Their movements are not rigid. They are very smooth and connected. Their arms and shoulders have to be free at all times. They use momentum to swing their arms, it's never a forced movement. Another thing we focused on before even vocalizing was breathing like a gorilla and not like a man. It became a common phrase in the lesson, "oh that was a man breath! Don't breathe like a man!" We warmed up with some lip buzzes. She told me to imagine the sound coming from above and to just let it happen. The first few were definitely manufactured in my throat. I was able to get that sense of the note forming in my head and just happening.  We did a lot of scales going to the 9th. Starting on the [i] vowel and gradually changing into [e] and by the 9th it was [o]. The whole time I had to be in that loose and free gorilla position. When I breathed like a man I could never get through the whole exercise. She also had me pull against her while doing the exercise and I tended to release that pull or stretch when I got to the top note. What she tried to get me to do was pull throughout the entire exercise and that the very last note at the bottom of the scale was the one that needed the most energy. I was successful a couple of times. It really required gorilla breathing, no tension in my shoulders or neck, and that constant stretch feeling in order to be successful. We worked on one of my Ricky Ian Gordon pieces called Harlem night song. I really struggle applying all the good things I learn in my lesson into actual pieces of music. So she showed me how to apply almost everything we did. She helped me find that connection again and applied it to different phrases in the music. When I thought about that constant pull and stretch the notes came out easier. We also found a tricky passage and she told me to just turn it into a vocalise. We tried it in a few different keys and got the pattern down. Then came back to the music and it was a lot easier.