We began with some neck stretches, rolling in a circle 3 times in each direction nice and slow.
Then we did descending pentatonic lip trills starting on C5. She struggled with the flow so I told her she could push the front part of her lips together to help. She did fine for a few more scales then struggled again with getting the pitch to come out.
Then we did more descending pentatonic scales on an "a" to get the breath going. She asked about the thinking of the rose and breathing. She wondered if she should breath through the nose or mouth. And I said she could do either, but when your performing its easier through the mouth. I also talked about how thinking about smelling the rose sets her up for success, with a high soft palate and a lower larynx. We continued the scale down to where she ended on A3.
After that we did ascending and descending scales 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1(x2) on an "i" I reminded her about breathing posture, she asked about where her feet should be. So I told her that she should be a little more narrow than shoulder length, but explained that she should feel loose, that if I was to push her on the shoulder a little bit she would fall over. So loose and relaxed, but ready to sing.
I asked her how it felt at the end of the exercise. She said that as she went higher her voice changed, she said it just felt different. I told her that I thought that as she got higher in her range the space in her mouth and throat were closing. So I explained that she needs to keep the space in her mouth and throat big and deep on all the vowels. I then demonstrated a really nasal closed "i" and then I demonstrated an "i" with a bigger space creating a richer sound. She asked how to make that space, so i explained that she needs to keep the molars separated in the back at all times, and did a couple quick demonstrations.
So I demonstrated a closed "i" and an open "i" then asked her to try right after I did.
She improved a little bit, but the space wasn't quite where I wanted it to be. So I had her switch from "a" to "i" in scale to try and correlate that space with both of the vowels. So then I had her do it by herself and there was some improvement so that was good. I reminded her of breath gesture as well, I wonder if I'm having her concentrate on too many things at the same time...
she kept spreading the "i" vowel way too much. It was really hard for her to not move her mouth when switching from "a" to "i"
So we did some together, I thought maybe it would help if I did it with her. But she kept spreading her mouth way to much. So we just made kind of droned "a" to "i" and it helped a little bit. Its a new concept so I'm sure it'll take some time for her to figure it out.
I did a few more demonstrations with the vowel unification just so she could see it with all the vowels. a e i o u.
So then I had her switch from "e" to "i" and those two vowels were much closer together than "a" and "i" so that was good. She asked if the mouth should change a lot and I said no, mainly its just the lips that move on "o" and "u"
we went back to "i" and I asked to pretend that she was a dog salivating over a meal with her mouth just hanging open, then to sing an "i" and.... it didn't work. She still went back to the flat/spread mouth.
overall it was a good lesson. She's a smart girl and she'll start figuring it out.
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