Stephanie J.
Gender: female
Age: 22
Experience: Sang throughout high school in choir, and has taken some formal lessons for performing in beauty pageants.
Brief Overview of Lesson:
Stephanie and I went to high school together, so we began the lesson with catching up on her life and what's she's now doing. I found out that she is a school aid at the Edith Bowen School on campus, and is working there while she works on her masters degree. We also discussed the questions I had prepared for the questionnaire:
Q: What kinds of styles do you enjoy singing
A: Anything and everything. I enjoy singing pop and musical theater, classical stuff, and when I took lessons before I was starting to get into opera.
Q: What kind of music do you you enjoy listening to?
A: Pretty much everything.
Q: What are your long-term goals?
A: I just want to be able to learn and practice a piece of music on my own. If someone asked me to sing in church, I would like to be able to prepare the music and be able to sing. I need to work on breathing. It's mainly just a hobby that I like to do, and I would like to get better at it.
Q: Do you have any health concerns that I should know about?
A: No.
Q: Do you play any instruments?
A: A tiny bit of piano.
Q: What are your hobbies/pursuits, and do you play any sports?
A: I like to run and exercise.
Q: What do you expect to gain from studying with me?
A: I would like to learn how to read music more efficiently. Work on breathing. Extend my range, and become more familiar with different types of music.
Q: What do you like about your voice?
A: I wish I had better relative pitch. I feel like I have pretty good tone, and that I can sing pretty loud.
Q: So I understand that you are a teacher. Do you ever feel like your voice is tired after a long day of school? How much water do you drink on a daily basis?
A: Not really. I drink a ton of water throughout the day, so I'm always hydrated.
Q: Do you do any voice warm-ups in the morning before work?
A: No, not really.
Q: What do you expect to learn while studying with me?
A: I would like to reestablish my passion for singing.
I then asked her to try warming her voice up in the shower every morning with yawns, sighs, primal noises, and sirens so that her voice would have time to warm up before she began speaking for the day.
Vocalizes:
I started on G4 in a 5 note descending scale on lip buzzes, while moving around randomly. I sensed a pressed timbre, so I switched to doing a raspberry to release the tongue. The sound became a lot more free and easy.
Next, we did the "No. Never. No" exercise 8-5-3-1. I asked her to speak first, and then associate the speech with the pitches. I felt like her intent wasn't really there. I then redirected her to get a more authentic response
We then tried a yes, yes yes 5-4-3-2-1. I felt like she was trying to make it sound pretty. I stopped her and asked her to do it ugly, instead of pretty.
The Rest of the Lesson:
After we did a few warm-ups, we sat down and made some goals for study based off of the interview, and some insight I gained from the warm-ups. Stephanie and I came up with.
1. extend range
2. become better at reading music
3. release breath
4. become more familiar with different types of music.
Stephanie then sang through "Savior Redeemer, of my soul". It sounded like she was trying to force a lot of the sound, due to excess tension in both body and breath. Timbre was a little bit breathy, but mostly dominated by a tense vibrato. Her sound was pressed and often began in a straight tone and then ended in a wobbly controlled vibrato. I took note that some eliciting pitch exercises, and breathing exercises would be of benefit to her.
When she finished, I asked her what she thought of her performance. She said that she felt like her breath needed some work and that she often felt out of breath when singing. I then spoke to her about how breath should be low, down-and-out, and how the air should feel like it's always moving. I demonstrated a correct model of breathing and had her feel my stomach and lower back to get an idea. I then laid down on the floor to model the breathing exercise. I explained that we want to feel the breath in a down-and-out fashion while watching my shoulders/chest to make sure there isn't any unnecessary movement there. I then demonstrated the exercise by inhaling and then exhaling on a "sss". After I finished Stephanie asked me "So when I breath out do I want to feel that area contracting?" I answered "No, you'll actually want that area to feel like its energizing and staying open." I also told her not to be afraid to feel fat. Stephanie then laid down on the floor to try the exercise. She seemed to understand the idea, and when she finished I asked her how it felt and if she noticed anything particular. She answered that she felt her shoulders come up a little towards the end of her breath. I was happy to see that she herself was able to see that. I told her that she could assess her breath in this position cause she can keep an eye on her chest and shoulders to see if they are rising. And then I asked her to try this three times a day, or if she felt like her voice was tired, she could do this in her practice.
Next, I stood her back up again, and asked her how she thought she could warm-up her voice every morning before going to work. She replied with singing in the shower. I said that would be a great idea because it is moist and a good warm/hydrating environment for the voice. I asked her to begin with sighs and yawns, and then move to some gentle sirens and lip buzzes.
The last thing we did in the lesson was note some take-aways (see below).
Assessment of Student: Overall, I felt like there was a lot of controlling of the sound, and tension throughout the whole body. I think once we release her body/breathing it will fix a lot of the timbral issues I heard (breathiness, and tense vibrato). She seemed to match pitch (with the exception of a few intonation problems), but wasn't able to really match intent: for example, when I asked her to say "No. never. no!" or "yes. yes. yes!" it seemed very robotic, meaningless, and pretty. I think that I could receive a much more genuine response if I spent more time on eliciting pitch first through word vocalizes "What?" or "Whooo?", and releasing the body in some pre-warm-up stretching.
Goals for future implementation: 1. begin with some stretches for release in neck, lower back, and breath, and try the squat/sit pose to feel the breath in the lower back.
2. Be more logical in the warm-ups. Begin with sighs/yawns/"Whooo?" "What!?"
3. 5-4-3-2-1 raspberries or lip buzzes
4. 5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 chewy hum
5. 8-5-3-1 "please" or "shopping" as ugly and not pretty as you can.
6. 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 "thee" or "please"
How will you modify your teaching based off of what you learned from the lesson?
I want to be much more logical in the order of warm-ups, and topics discussed. I need to ask how things feel, and how she felt about certain warm-ups.
Questions for Cindy:
Takeaways:
1. Feel the deep rooted (grounded) breath with the release in the lower back.
2. Warm-up the voice every morning in the shower w/sirens, or lip buzzes.
3. Think about ideas for rep.
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