Sam Meredith Lesson Summary 4/1

I felt well prepared for my lesson. I was warmed up and I feel as though I've been practicing pretty effectively over the last little while. We started the lesson by doing some descending arpeggios. I sang the top note with a more heady registration and gradually made the transition to chest voice with each successive note. I sang all the notes in the exercise on a primal [^]. It was pretty hard sometimes making the transition from head to chest. It was difficult to maneuver without a huge glitch in it. Next we did some ascending arpeggios. I sang each note in the arpeggio twice singing [a] once and [e] once as well. We discovered that when I got to the higher notes in the arpeggio there was some slight constriction of the pharyngeal wall. Cindy told me that to get rid of it I should try to just monitor the space in the back rather than trying to direct my pharyngeal muscles. Another suggestion that Cindy made as we continued in the exercise was to not make the top note of the arpeggio the goal of the exercise. After that we did descending scales on [e] starting with an unvoiced [w]. We went pretty high on the keyboard. It was tempting to brace and force the higher notes out at first, but I think as we continued I got better at not bracing and just letting the voice do what it wanted to do. I thought it was a really well designed vocalize and one that I really want to continue to use in my own personal vocalization. Next we did did some ascending arpeggios on [bp]. We did three complete arpeggios (going up and coming back down). On the first two arpeggios I was to just [bp] on the bottom note of the arpeggio and then sing all of the notes on the third arpeggio. That was supposed to help me ensure that there was not constriction in the pharynx and no change in the position of the larynx. I improved as time went on, but to help me get more out the exercise we ended up doing as many arpeggios as I could in one breath and randomizing which arpeggios I actually sang on all the pitches. Even after that there was still some trouble with me trying to sing the notes rather than just let the notes happen. After that we took a look at some of my repertoire. We started by working on 'psyche.' We sang through the song once and then reviewed. I was still having trouble staying open, coordinating breath, and just having enough energy in the performance. Cindy encouraged me to try really engaging the muscles of my face. I rounded my lips out in front of me, activated my zygomatic arch and tried to add more animation in my eyes. Even after doing that it seemed like I just had more breath energy than I did before. After that we tried another tactic and Cindy encouraged me to imagine that my fist was an apple and to pretend throughout the whole song that I was biting into it. It made it so I really had to concentrate on engaging the muscles of my face, otherwise my cheeks collapsed and my lips rounded around my apple/fist. I really want to continue to use these tactics in the practice rooms and I think it's likely that my breath coordination will improve as a result. Once Lizzie arrived at my lesson we worked on 'le bachelor de Salamanque.' I was really glad we got to work on it today. There is just one phrase in the song where I had trouble maintaining energy and giving the phrase enough buoyancy. We did an exercise to help me manage that phrase better. We started by just singing the rhythm a few times on [bp] on an easy, speaking-range  pitch. Once I was able to do that easily in one breath, I added the words in. Once that was going well I added the pitches on to the music. Once I was able to maintain the idea in my mind that I just need to have more energy and realize that muscularly nothing new needs to happen for each successive note regardless of vowel or pitch. That's something that I think I need to utilize in pretty much every piece I sing ever. After that we worked for a few minutes on 'the golden willow tree.' For the few minutes we worked on it Cindy just had me concentrate on making the song believable. Before we could do very much work, however, the time came for the lesson to end. So, really getting into the text is something that I really want to focus on that in this song in the near future. I really feel happy about the progress I made in my lesson today. I'm really excited to implement some of these new practice strategies because I think they will really help me sing and interpret my songs a lot better.