Jake Spjute Angeles Lesson Record/Reactions Feb 5th

I asked her how she was doing. She said good, and that she was feeling healthy vocally and all that good stuff. So we started with a neck stretch rolling around in circles nice and easy like. 3 times in each direction. Then we did a bent over stretch, letting the back and neck hang down, and we swayed from side to side very gently.

Then we began with descending pentatonic scales starting on C5 on an "a" vowel. She stopped half way through the 4th scale and said she forgot to keep her mouth relaxed and open. which was a pleasant surprise! So we changed the space a little bit and continued all the way down to D3! She has a pretty strong low range, and it didn't sound like she was pressing or anything like that. very cool. I told her that I thought she still has a nice upper range as well she just needs to be confident and have more energy as she ascends into her higher register. I told her that and we talked for a bit about listening to to other singers so you can learn sympathetically and I talked about Thomas Glenn and how I learn from him and how I learn from you too. I feel like Angeles and I talk maybe a little too much... but at the same time she's always asking really good questions and I want to try and answer the to the best of my ability, so maybe its ok. We continued with ascending pentatonic scales starting on D3 on an "i" vowel. I had to stop her by the 3rd scale because she was breathing with her shoulders and chest very badly. She doesn't realize that she is doing it, so I'm trying to help her see if she can monitor that by herself. I had her put her hands on her ribs so she cold feel the breath coming in down there better instead of up in her shoulders and chest. It helped a little bit, but there was still some extra movement in her shoulders however. We went up the scale to an Eb.

I told her that she needs to have energy and confidence as she gets higher in her register. We talked about maintaining the same space in the higher register as we do in the lower register. I gave an example of singing a pentatonic scale on C3 and then on C4. I tried to show that there wasn't much of a change in the space of my mouth, and that I just had to have more energy and excitement. She asked about high notes and we discussed high notes of a soprano, as opposed to the timbre of a bass. She told me that she gets very nervous when she has to sing in front of people and that she just gets all tight and frantic. (just like the rest) So I told her that singing is about preparing yourself for success and just letting whatever happens happen. We don't wanna constrict or do anything to change the shape of the mouth. Then we did some scales together ( i thought if I sang loud with her it would help her be more brave, and it worked!) she went all the way up to an F5 and it sounded clear and resonant. Very cool