Today was my last voice lesson with Brianna for the semester. We began with tongue trills in a 54321 scale pattern, and then progressed to the octave. Brianna had me imagine that I was shaped like a pear, and that the air moved all the way down to the bottom of the pear, and I felt the release there. While I was doing these exercises I felt some nice depth and space, and also a release in my lower back. I really tried to have a pleasant face so I would avoid the crazy eyes. I thought that I did a good job.
We then moved on to "th"ee 54321, with the same approach and thought process. Once Brianna felt like I had reiterated that release and depth in my body she moved on to the descending octave. These felt really free. I was trying to thing of different emotions to portray, so that it might help me maintain energy, and I think it worked for the most part.
After we finished those warm-ups, she had me try [li, le, la, lo, lu] 534231271. This exercise has always been really hard for me to stay in that simple place, and I've recognized in the past few weeks, it was because I wasn't keeping my soft palate up. During today's lesson it was so free, and moved easily. I think this is because of the work I've been doing on keeping the soft palate raised in all my singing.
After about 15 minutes, Ali arrived and we ran through all of my songs.
We began with En Sourdine. I told Brianna that I was planning on choosing to sing it for juries. As I sang through Brianna was really pleased that for the most part, my crazy eyes weren't there. She said that I did a great job with depth in my body, however I felt like I could have done a better job. She did comment that the internal space wasn't always consistent. I made note of that and moved on to sing C'est L'extase. I felt a sense of more release in my lower back and breath during this song, there was also a better consistency of the inner space. Brianna said that this was her favorite song, but she wanted to hear the rest before she made a decision.
I then sang Mandoline, and I felt like I was much more animated in that one. I also felt more energized than last week, especially through the triplet ascending phrases. They felt much more free and happy then last week. I had worked a lot on visualization this past week in my practice, and I think that it really helped me to maintain a sense of release and energy in my body.
We then moved on to Pupille amate. This song is always a challenge, but I learned some important things to remember for juries. Every time there is a fermata, I need to take that moment to reset or release everything before I move on. I think this will help me maintain a low larynx, and consistent depth/release. Brianna noted that it was much better tempo wise, and that she could tell I had done a lot of practice on it, especially on not dwelling on the last note of each measure.
We then sang through En Sourdine again, and it was drastically better the second time. Brianna said that she didn't see my crazy eyes come in once. I felt that I was much more connected to my breath, and that I was emoting and connecting to the text better. We both agreed that this piece shows off all the hard work and practice I've been doing this semester. And hopefully it will show my progress in juries.
Brianna told me to just remember to emote and have fun, and to continue to do what I've been doing this past week, because she saw a lot of progress from just even last week. I'm excited to sing tomorrow!
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