Student Information
Emma Wright, Age 20, female, little singing experience, but extensive musical background.
Physical Attributes:
Posture: pretty decent naturally but could be improved on. Her spine is nice and upright, but her shoulders curve forward and down slightly.
Breath: shallow and gaspy at times.
Tension: jaw is pleasantly released. Her body was too relaxed in the postural muscles. She did odd things with her neck while she sang.
Vocal Attributes: Tone has a lot of depth and sonority. There is a lot of breathiness, which in the low range sounds pleasant, but is excessive in the high range. I was impressed at how well her singing was connected to her speech! She sang close to her singing range for the majority of the song, but all the same it was very pleasant to hear. Her intonation was very good. She did not use vibrato.
Performance Attributes: Emma sang with a lot of energy and excitement. I can tell that she enjoys singing, and the folk genre in particular, based on how she sang it. She sings very well in that style, and you can tell she has listened to a lot of it. There were things going on physically that detracted from her performance, eyes closed, neck movement, and hands held together in front of her body.
Emma's Goals: Emma wants to expand her range and learn to sing "better" and healthier. She also wants to learn to sight read music, and to use vibrato.
Lesson Transcript
Emma was 5 minutes late because she just got off work and had to run over to the FAC. We had our lesson in a practice room. When she arrived she was out of breath and nervous and so I chatted with her for a minute about how she was doing. I noticed that she was a spunky, kind girl who seemed unintimidated by the prospect of her first voice lesson. She was energetic, but not hyper. Her body language showed that she was excited and interested in what was happening: leaning forward, endge of her seat. But I could also tell she was tired, her shoulders looked tense and her back was a little caved (her backpack is probably too heavy for her). After chatting we plunged into the lesson.
I told her we would start with some questions so that I could get to know her musical and vocal history.
S: What musical styles to you like to listen to?
E: Oh that's a hard question, I really like all genres. Growing up we listened to a lot of folk music, and that's my favorite style to sing. I listen to a lot of that. Lately I've been listening to alternative rock and Owl City.
S: Oh ya they're fun. That's great! Folk music is such a healthy style to sing in compared to pop. Do you play other instruments? I know you play piano.
E: Ya I play piano and I teach it as well. I also play the violin.
S: That's so awesome! You are answering all these questions right! You're like the perfect student. We always advise students to take piano or a string instrument and here you know both! Piano teaches a lot of theoretical musical concepts and strings help you develop a great ear, so you're set!
E: haha yup I'm totally ready. I also play the banjo which is really fun!
S: That's so cool! I love the banjo. So how long have you played piano and violin?
E: Umm.... ... let's see it's hard to think back... about 12 years of piano and 11 of violin.
S: Wow that's fabulous! Were you in orchestra then?
E: Ya in middle school and high school.
S: Did you sing in choirs?
E: No I never did. I always wanted to - I see the notices around the halls about choir auditions here, but I never do it. I can't see a note and sing it, I know the general direction of the notes, but I can't just sing them.
S: Oh you mean like sight reading?
E: Ya I wish I could do that.
S: That could definitely be one of ours goals this semester! Would you like to work on that?
E: Ya that would be great!
S: Awesome, it really just takes practice. There's no tricks to it, but I mean I can teach you to recogize intervals by ear and things like that, but it mostly takes time. So what are your long term goals for singing, we already mentioned sight reading, what else do you want to get out of these lessons?
E: Umm... well... I would really like to expand my range. Um. I'd like to sing better, I mean you know in like an easy way.
S: So singing healthy?
E: Ya healthy. I also want to learn to sing with vibrato, I don't know how to do that. I mean I don't want to sing opera! But like just normal singing, to sing with vibrato.
S: Ok so lighter stuff, ok. Ya I mean vibrato is used in jazz and musical theater all the time so it's not just classical, definitely that's a good goal. Ok this is a weird question to phrase, but you work for the school as a cleaner right? Do you have any other jobs?
E: No other than teaching piano.
S: Ok, see I want to get an idea of how much you are talking during the day. Some people talk a lot for their work and it can be really hard on the voice.
E: Oh ya there are days when I wake up and after school and work I sound like a bullfrog!
S: Phew oh ya we don't want that! Haha, that is not ideal of singing!
E: haha ya. And I also do martial arts. We yell a lot in there...
S: Well ya, that's great! That's really cool. I mean, even if you make your voice a priority, you can't just stop living and stay in a plastic bubble to keep it safe. You have to do the things you enjoy you just have to be aware of that and be careful with it. So what do you like about your voice?
E: I really like the range I sing in. I have a lower voice than I think most women sing in and that's fun! I can carry a tune, I'm really good with that and I've learned to harmonize really well.
S: Oh that's a great skill to have! That's really impressive. Even I'm not very good at that! I can read it off the page but doing it by ear is harder for me. So that's a great talent. What would you like to change about your voice?
E: Well there are things, like suddenly cracking and stuff.
S: Ya ok, that makes sense. Well let's get singing! Enough talk! Have you warmed up at all?
E: Umm no.
S: Do you know any warm ups?
E: No I don't.
S: Oh man you are in luck! I am going to teach you so many warm ups that are so fun! Lets sing, what have you brought for me?
E: Oh man I was thinking about this all day! I don't know for sure.... Ok I've got one.
At this point, and much to my chagrin, she began singing A Capella right there where she was slumping on the bench. She just closed her eyes and went for it! I didn't mine too much, but I wish she had planned ahead and brought some music with her, or at least stood up when she sang! But I didn't want to interrupt her her first time singing for me when she was already so nervous. Sets a bad precedent. She sang a folk tune about birds. It was really a lovely tune! Her low voice was nice and rich, but a little belty. Every time she went into a higher range (around A or B) her voice became very breathy and thin. She sang very stylistically, with a great swinging, lilting feel. Her shoulders were very caved, and her breath came in short, shallow gasps. She was sitting, and her back was not very straight. She had her eyes closed while she sang, I think because she was nervous and didn't know where to look. She also moved her head a lot, scooping it with the notes and bobbing it up and down. Her jaw was really nicely released! I was amazed. Every vowel and really good space! She had a decent amount of space between her molars. Very cool! I noticed that her singing was very well connected to her speech, which was exciting. When she finished I cheered and clapped.
S: That was lovely, what a great song! You have such a lovely tone!
E: Thank you! Ugh I hate the chorus in the song because every time it goes high I can't get the notes with enough power!
S: Oh? Hmm. I think I heard what you were talking about. But you know, the lower range was really pleasant! You singing is very well connected to your speech. This is exactly what we want! Think about it, you have developed a speaking pattern that is exactly suited for your individual vocal cords. That is the most healthy, natural, and beautiful way for you to phonate. The goal is to get our singing to be as easy and healthy as our speech and you are already doing that really well so great job! I'm really excited to teach you. The higher notes that you noticed are different because you have to adjust registers there, have you heard of the different registers of the voice?
E: No?
S: Well let me tell ya, and you know this is not a difficult problem to fix! We'll be able to work on that this semester and get your voice nice and consistent. See, women mostly sing in two registers, there's the chest voice and the head voice. The chest voice is where we speak ([a] modeling chest voice), and the head voice (I say this while speaking in head voice) is a much lighter, higher sound, like you would hear Galinda the good witch using.
E: Oh ya that sounds like her.
S: Yes or a more childlike, fluty sound. (Now I stop speaking in head voice.) When we sing there is a place where we need to transition from one to the other (I model an ascending [a] with a very obvious shift between chest voice and head voice). And what we want is a smooth adjustment so that the tone is consistent. Let me draw you a picture (I draw the picture of chest and head voice, first for and untrained singer where the box is split horoxontaly. Then for a trained singer, where the box is split diagonally. I explain for a few minutes that we want to bring the head voice down so that we can smooth out the transition.)
E: Ya ok that makes sense!
S: No I can give you some warm ups that will help with this. The thing is, we need to get the airflow going in those higher notes.
E: Yes! Oh ya I have noticed that if I use my air better those notes get better up there!
S: Ya perfect! You are already noticing so much, that's great. But one thing you need to watch out for is pushing your voice up there, really punching it or using forced air to get them out. That can be really dangerous for your voice. What we want is enough air, but no pushing. So can you make this sound (demonstrating lip buzz. Emma tries, but cannot get her lips to buzz.) Ya it's hard to get used to! Keep trying, but if you can't there are plenty of other ways to do it. Can you roll your Rs? (she shakes her head no). Ok then lets try a light [v] sound.
She can do the [v] just fine so I sing with her on [v]. I show her how to do a five note descending scale on [v]. We start on B flat and go down to C, then I carry her up to D and go down to B flat again. I write down the exercise on a paper I am sending home with her. She asks questions to clarify the exercise and the ranges she should use. I tell her if she feels easy and released, she may go higher or lower than instructed. I hope that wasn't a mistake. Then I show her the downward sigh, starting with [u] and opening to [a] at the bottom. She caught on to that one really well. She sounded nice and light and released on the sigh. I wrote that one down too.
S: Now lets talk about breathing. You can't have good breathing unless you have good posture and you can't have good posture unless you release tension in your body. So focusing on your body, do you feel tension anywhere?
E: Ummm... Ya, in my neck I have some.
S: Lets do a stretch to get rid of that (I go through the releasing exercises for the neck from Oren Browns book.)
E: That feels so good!
S: I know right! See the funny thing about the voice is, we can't see it. So we need to be very aware of what's happening in our bodies. If there is tension in the jaw, neck, back, or anywhere in the body, there will be tension in the voice as well. Do you feel tension anywhere else?
E: Some in my shoulders from my backpack.
S: Ok lets stretch and massage shoulders. Let me know if your back is feeling tense, because I have some great stretches to teach you!
Then I show her the toaster shoulder exercise to get her shoulders back and her posture aligned. She said it didn't feel very comfortable. We did more stretching and shaking out of tension and tried again. The second time she felt much better about it. We did some breathing exercises from Browns book so that she could feel the breath coming in lower. I explained how the diaphragm moves out of the way so the lungs can fill with air. She noticed that she felt her breath in her stomach. We did some dog like panting. After that I told her I wanted to give her a few more warm ups for the week. I taught her the descending arpeggio "Try me." Starting on B flat, and going down. Then going up to D and going down. She said she can warm up in the car on her way to school so I tried to think of a good warm up for driving in a car. I taught her "manymanymanymanymen" (132435421).
Then time was up so we ended the lesson.
Reactions:
I really enjoyed the lesson. I had a lot of fun! I think she had a good experience too. I think things went really well. I might have overloaded her with information, but I think she enjoyed learning the technical aspects of things. I also worry that I might have been a little goofy and not very professional. But since she's a college student, I don't think this will affect her behavior as much as it would for a younger student. I don't mind being friendly with my students. I don't think...
Instructions that really helped were the toaster posture directions, and the sigh was really effective. I'm excited for my lest lesson. But i feel like this one was a little haphazard and want the next one to run more smoothly. I think a more detailed plan will help. I don't know how to teach vibrato. I don't know how much practicing I should assign her to do. I don't know what repertoire to find for her. In the next lesson I want to have a strategy for helping her now that I know specifics about her voice.
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