Caitlin Craig April A. Lesson Plan for February 28

Student: April A.
Date: 2/28/14

Short-term goals: Finding the child-like part of her register and head voice. Think-let-trust in terms of eliciting pitch, and pitch matching.
Long-term goals: Finding a better connection to the speaking and singing voice, and become better at reading music.
Anticipated plan of action: Ask how her practice went, and how she felt when she sang through the warm-ups in class. Ask her what stood out to her, and what she learned from that experience.
1. Stretch and release neck/breath. Feeling the breath low in our body, while still maintaining energy.
2. Yawn and stretch. Add sigh when appropriate. Feel the release in the jaw.
3. Talk about the child-like voice that we found previously in the warm-ups we did in class and do some speaking exercises. "It's so fluffy!"
3. Lip buzzes 54321. Assess and verify that her neck is released.
4. Chewy hum, moving the articulators like you're chewing a huge piece of gum. 12345432123454321. Make sure to keep the feeling of the yawn jaw.
5. "Whoooo are yoooou?" 54321. Lighter on top, and let the last note be spoken or plop into chest voice. If these are successful, I might try it on 8531.
6. Try saying "boooo" in a spooky voice and when she has a genuine attempt of trying to be spooky, have her try it on 87654321. I might even have her move around like a ghost while she does this to promote energy in her body.
7. "Neem, nehm, nahm n[o]m, n[u]m" letting her establish a pitch, unless the piano gives her confidence.
8. "n[u]m" 534231271. If I need to remind her to keep it lighter on top, I will.

I would like to plan to have her sing "Candle on the water" in her head voice. I will have her think of two things while she sings through the piece on [u]:
1. Keeping the yawn jaw feeling
2. And when the melody gets higher the voice gets lighter.

If needed I will stop her to remind her of something, or point out something that worked. Although, if it is going well I won't stop her, because I want to have that good thing continue.

I also need to be aware of her larynx, and watch for it. If I feel like there is a problem, I will have her try the forward fold, and then roll up while she's singing a phrase, and then repeat.

Establish any take-aways and clarify any questions/concerns.

How will you speak to your students "injury": I am going to focus on finding her head voice by asking her to feel like she's tapping into her child-like voice. I will try to use words/quotes from movies that she likes. I might reference to our warm-ups in class and ask her how things felt then, and then compare them and contrast them to the warm-ups in the lesson. I will try to be better about moving the vocalizes down the scale, and then when she feels comfortable move up to a higher pitch, and then do some successions in a downward motion, and repeat this to give her the confidence, and chance to have successful vocalizes both high and low.
Materials needed: Computer to play the minus track, minus track CD, and music.
Verification and assessment (how will you decipher your student's understanding): I will ask her questions about how a certain vocalize felt. Or even ask her to describe what it felt like in her body. If I notice something good about a certain attempt I will be specific about my praise so that she knows what to continue doing in all of her singing.