Emily C., Ashli H., Lesson Record/Reactions, 2/10/14

Emily C., Ashli H., Lesson Record/Reactions, 2/10/14

Lesson Record: 

• We started the lesson with squatting and reiterating the feeling of having the breath come in past the shoulders and having the lower back expand, rather than having the stomach pooch or shoulder movement. I also quickly went over the “laying down” exercise to get the back aligned the correct way for our singing posture. Last week, I had her stand against the wall, and after reaching What Every Singer needs to know about the Body, I am going to correct that instruction. Because she said she has some back problems, I think that this could help with her alignment. 
• I started her off with some lip trills going down on 54321, making sure that the sound is easy and free flowing. She got better at keeping her air flowing at a consistent enough rate to keep her lips buzzing. Her in-between breaths, however, were a little shallow, so I had her put her arms out like she’s putting them around a Santa belly so she can have the feeling of silent inhale. After a bit, it didn’t sound like she was having a hard onset for her singing, but her tone was shallow, and I could hear tongue tension, so I moved on. 
• Next, I did a “yawn” on 54321, telling her to keep the space. Sometimes, when we work on this exercise, she says the word, but forgets the space that needs to accompany it. On her higher notes, she had a tendency to swallow her tone, so I would tell her to swoop her notes when she got to the top, especially because she struggled slightly to reach them. 
• I could tell it was because of her tongue bunching up in the back that she was having these issues, so I told her stick her tongue out as far as she could (keeping her lower jaw and lip released), and eventually, I had her grab a tissue and hold her tongue out. We did “ahh” as in “cat” on 531 a couple of times before moving on. 
• After what we did in the last Friday session, I wanted to try the “who are you” in 8531 with Ashli, making sure to keep a yawning/swoopy sensation on the high notes. I made her yawn before every one because her jaw kept on getting tense. I told her to have the sensation of having the “who” going right through her nose, like if she were to say “whooooeyy that smells bad.” For a little bit, because her tone was still getting swallowed, I had her say “moo are you.” I told her to keep her yawn space through this as well. 
• “lalalalala” on 53421, then alternating to “lelelelele,” then to “lilililili” whenever her tone got too tight. I told her to keep her hands on either side of her jaw so she became aware of whenever she tightened it unnecessarily because that’s her biggest issue besides her tongue tension. 
• Next, because her tone kept on getting swallowed up, I had her do some chewy “mmm” sounds, activating her face and projecting her tone forward through her mask. 
• Between each exercise, I had her stick her tongue out and stretch it to reset it from getting too tense. 
• We returned to the “who are you” on 8531 with more swoop, applying the yawn before each one. After a bit, she get a little bit of a voice crack? as we went higher, and it didn’t sound healthy, and I think it’s because her voice is constantly conflicted with which way her tone should go. So I had her do some more swoop speech, and even then, her voice kept doing the funky things. So I decided to grab a tissue so she could grab her tongue. We returned to the “ahh” as in cat exercise to help with this. 
• We sang “laaa” on 54321. After a bit, I decided to introduce her to primal sound, with the “hmmmm I choose purple” (the decision making sound) before each exercise to get her to release more. We then switched to “le.” 
• I had her say some things in random swoopy or childlike speech. I told her that she was thinking too much about how she sounded, and then she pretty much got better after that. I had her say a couple of things in child speech, and I made sure to tell her that it’s okay if it’s a little airy sounding. I pointed out the ones that sounded good versus the ones that didn’t to make sure she knew which ones were best. I told her to practice her child speech 2-5 minutes every practice session because we don’t want to overwork those muscles. 
• I then had her do some 531 on “yay,” telling her to use her child voice and the lower we go, the more the child matures. I had her check her singing stance, and then we moved on to 53421 on “yay,” keeping the same concepts from before. 
• We started working on her piece “A Change in Me” from the musical The Beauty and the Beast. I had her sing through it all the way, and I noticed that her jaw tension went right back to the place it was before. Her singing was a little stagnant, but her sense of direction was improving slightly. I did notice that she was pushing a little for her higher notes with her chest voice, and I could tell in her “bridge” areas that her voice was definitely conflicted on where to go. She has some sustained notes that she was struggling to keep sound on. 
• The first thing I talked about with her was her jaw. I told her to keep her hands on either side of her face and sing it that way in front of a mirror so that she keeps things released. I also told her to try and enunciate the words with as little movement in the jaw as possible, leaving all articulation to the tongue and the lips only. I told her to go through her music and to highlight the words that are most important in the phrase to give her some sense of direction/movement in the piece. I told her to experiment with “shaping” and movement, using her arms as a guide to physically map out the melody. I told her to hair pin the phrases that are sustained notes so it’s easier to keep the breath going. I didn’t really address her chest/head voice conflicting in hopes that she’ll figure it out with the correct breath movements and enunciation. 

Lesson Reactions:

• I noticed that Ashli was much more willing to experiment along side me this lesson than in previous lessons, so I was able to move through the lesson much more smoothly than before. 
• The most pressing issues are her jaw and tongue tension; it’s really strong, and it takes constant reminding for her to snap out of her habit. I think having her put her hands on her face really helps. 
• The exercises that helped a lot was the “who are you” and the child voice experimentations; I need to help her and her voice become more familiar with the heady side of her singing because she’s always conflicted on whether or not to get to the top via chest or head voice. 
• There was some sort of weird throat tension that I had a hard time getting rid of with her this lesson; it sounded like her vocal cords were stretching out as if to get thin but a low sound came out? It was really weird. The only way I managed to get rid of it was to have her stick her tongue out, so maybe that’s what the problem was, but it was really weird. 
• I need to find an exercise that will help her maintain her yawn space but get her tone more forward; her yawns are nice and open, but they tend to be really far back.