We started with an ascending [i] 12345678987654321. The low sounded really good. The ascent sounded a little pinched, and I could hear air escaping with the tone as I hit each note on the descent.
Cindy told me to stay more forward. The high improved when I kept the low more forward.
*My tongue got wobbly with my vibrato on the last note so Cindy told me to imagine the end of the phrase would go back up. Just a little upward inflection. This removed tension immediately. No idea why. Good trick!
We changed to a sliding [hu] on ascent and then descending on [i]. Which she quickly changed to [e].
After asking me to report about the two lowest notes (I couldn't give her info when she asked) they improved a lot. Just being asked to be aware of them changed them a lot. The top note is so unfocused. There is a lot of rasp in the tone. In the D# the sound hit a glass ceiling. The notes above sounded better, but the D# felt caught. That zone is problematic for female singers. She wanted to get the same high sense from F and E to D#. We went up to F and went down by step to Bflat. This would be a good one to do at least once a day.
Next we did [a e a e a e a e] on 133558810108855331. I was narrowing in all directions as I went up. Cindy told me feel like I was opening as I ascended. The tongue cannot depress to create more space. Feeling like I was about to yawn helped a lot with this one. The only way to open the throat is to not do anything. There are no muscles that open the throat, we can only relax the muscles that close it. We added a sobby sound to the exercise which improved my sound a lot. I had a lot more openess in the sound. Although the sound was deconstricted at the top, the resonance was not right yet so it sounds thin. We decided to go up an octave and a fifth the next time. 133558810101313101088553311. I had to keep moaning in the top range. That really seams to help a lot. Cindy told me to practice this a couple times a day.
Next we decided to work on Alma Mia. I wanted help making sure that my onsets were clean and clear and under control! Haha. Just kidding. Just quoting, you know, that acne product thing. Anyway, I wanted to make sure my onsets were immediate and full. Cindy told me all I had to do was feel the sensation that I have been singing it already, and then I just open my mouth and there it is. I was worried that my sound would be nasaly after the humm. Cindy made fun of me. We spoke [m] and [a] and she showed me how easy it should be. When I sang "Alma" it was drifting towards the [l] sound. Cindy emphasized that I had to sing [a] seven times (for seven pulses on eight notes) before I could close to [l]. We got into a discussion about nasal resonance. I was saying I don't like the sound, and Cindy said too bad, and then we realized I just needed to open my mouth more so that the sound wasn't so trapped and squished.
We continued on through the piece. I can hear the line being interrupted by air. I commented on it in the lesson! Go me! Cindy told me to blow some snot. The sound was not angled quite right. She said my resonance is just not quite classical - the cheeks and upper face was too flaccid. I brought my resonance forward, woke my face up, and opened my jaw more to try and find it. We raise the cheeks to raise the soft palate, create the dent between the molars, and narrow the lane for the tongue to move in so that the tongue is in a higher posture. The sound improved a LOT after that. Like wow! I'm really happy with where my sound was after that little convo.
I hit a rough patch transitioning from high to low. Cindy said to approach the note as if I were singing a fourth higher. I need the lift and height of the high to transfer to low. We transposed the line up momentarily to feel what it needs to feel like lower. I think it helped! I can't hear because Cindy sang at the same time as me. But from there on things were much clearer.
I had a leap from G4 to E5 and had a bit of trouble getting up to it. Cindy said an irrelevant muscle caught hold. I am just to sing the G, and then not DO anything different for the E. It went better after that.
I asked Cindy about my low and high register and how they match. We'd been working a lot on developing the head voice lower in my range, and I had stopped switching into a mix. I just tried to hold on to head voice as long as possible. Lately, Cindy has been asking me to let my voice switch over when it wants to. I wanted to clarify that this 180 turn around in direction was because I have now developed a good mix and can relax about letting some chesty mix into my sound. She said it sounds good and I can stop worrying. Yay! Cindy said that the transition just can't call attention to itself. Difference is ok, it's disconnect we don't want. We are "sanding out the bump" between the two.
In the B section I kept running out of breath on this certain line. Cindy pointed out that I have longer to breathe than I am giving myself. I took my time to breathe that time. I still couldn't quite make it through. Cindy showed me how to caress the notes and make them more musical - which not only sounded better it made breathing SO EASY!
*We move into the sound when we're running out of breath, we don't pull away from it.
On the repeat of the A section, we tried to add in a trill. I took a shot at it, but it will take some work for me to get there. I'll have to experiment with it. I also need to go back and explore more options for ornamentation.
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