Supervised Lesson
Record 4.11.14
We started with talking about the 6 points of balance in the
body, because we hadn’t talked it about it thus far. The most important point that I made for him personally was
that his front ribs needed to be a bit in front of his hips (his hips tend to
jut forward)
Then
we started our warm up with a descending 54321 exercise on the start of a
yawn. I told him he needed to go
straight from the start of a yawn into singing, with no pause in between. That seemed to help his sound a bit. We got to a higher pitch level, and he
said that he started to feel that he was reaching for the notes, and he didn’t
like that. I pointed out to him
that the yawn feeling would really help with that, because it causes the larynx
to go down. So we continued, and I
reminded him to keep up the yawn and to keep his ribs forward from his hips.
I
stopped because I noticed his yawn was sort of jaw jutting downward, instead of
up and back. I pointed out that
when I yawn, my top two teeth sort of show. That was supposed to help him get that bottom back instead
of just down. I described it as
top teeth coming out to attack.
We
kept going with “ba” on a descending 54321. I had him change to “boo”, I then had him switch to “bee”,
because I like the sound he gets on that vowel and had him try to get that
sound on “boo.” I had him switch
back and forth between those vowels.
I asked him what he was thinking about in that switch, and he said he
was figuring out his mouth shape.
I suggested that he try to maintain the tongue position for both vowels,
with just more lip rounding for “boo.”
In listening back, I don’t think he was really keeping his tongue
position the same.
I
reminded him to keep his ribs in front of hips, head balanced, and mushroom
cloud breath. I had to remind as
we kept going on “boo” to have a silent breath/mushroom cloud, which helped his
sound a lot. I tried to be really
insistent with my reminders, more than I am normally.
The
next exercise we did was “ba” on 1___ 5___ 31. After a couple of tries, I told him to sing the low note in
preparation for the high note (using the fingering on piano analogy). He really seemed to connect with
that. I had to remind him to keep
using his silent breath and keep his ribs in front of hips.
He
stopped and told me that he was trying to think about what he wanted his high
note to be before he got there, but it’s really difficult. I thought that was awesome!! Cindy suggested that I give him more
time between each exercise so he could think. She also suggested that I play 531 before he even
sings.
In
continuing with the exercise, I noticed he was getting lighter and lighter to
achieve the goal, which I thought was a good result. I liked that as we continued, the tone was consistent from
top to bottom, which hasn’t happened before. He said that he felt that he switched into falsetto for the
last one, which I didn’t think was a bad thing.
We
then switched to “kee” for the same exercise, and I challenged him to have the
same jaw on “kee” as he did on “ba.”
Instead, I changed my mind to baa then eee on 1531531. I thought he did a pretty good job on
keeping his jaw the same on some attempts, but not all. I challenged him to try keeping both
vowels more similar in timbre. We
switched to having “bee” first, so I he could get the timbre of the ee in the
aa.
Then
our lesson was interrupted by Brad Summers! The end.
Reaction:
I thought this was the most successful lesson yet! Each lesson gets better and better with
Philip. I feel that my ears are
opening up and hearing things a bit better, and it really helped to have Cindy
there, so I know I wasn’t missing anything obvious.
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