Today we had our last lesson and we had it earlier in the morning which I found did make a difference. Over all I know Danielle understands how to sing in her head voice and what is happening. On the other hand it is just taking time for her to have it all click and flow together when she is singing. I found myself at one point in this lesson almost telling her to just open her mouth and let words magically come out. Of course this was a bad comment as far as teaching goes and I tried to correct it. I know in my own voice experience it was hard to figure out how simple it is to sing. All you really have to do is let your natural voice ring in its natural resonators. We try to have too much control sometimes and that is exactly what Danielle is doing is thinking too hard and trying to control it, which in turns causes her tension and jaw movement. For only the sixth lesson she has made it pretty far though. I have taught her the fundamentals and left it up to her to practice and actually feel what it feels like.
With having her lesson early I tried to get her really warmed-up but her upper register stayed hit and miss for the entire lesson. The main focus of this lesson was to introduce and work a little on vowel modification, and open/closed vowels. I first explained it and then pointed out words in her repertoire that it applied to. Although it wasn't perfect I did hear her putting effort into trying to open up as the notes were higher. Just to test her a little I also just played the accompaniment for a verse to see if she could find her own pitches. She was great at doing this which proves to me she has been learning and if lessons were to continue she would develop a great voice.
Today was a good experience because she did have an "off day" but everyone will have one sometime and I am going to have to learn how to effectively teach through that. For the first time I don't think I completely crashed and burned but I know there is room for improvement. Lessons have been quite a learning experience for me and I could possibly see myself teaching them a lot more often in the future.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
lesson #5
Today we had our fifth lesson together and Danielle has been making a ton of progress. Unfortunately she was suffering from some allergies but once we got warmed up it didn't seem to effect her singing. There are still some crackles in her higher register but it is getting a lot smoother then the beginning. She did very well on the tongue autonomy exercises I gave her to work on especially the "la" one. I noticed today that between pitches she slightly moves her jaw which was cause a tiny hitch sound in the voice. To help her realize when she was doing this I had her sing while watching herself in the mirror. It seemed to help a little bit so I also had her hold her cheeks and focus on an open mouth and stable jaw. This she will need some practice on because when she focused on that she had trouble getting into her head voice and relaxing. Most of what I was telling her was to just relax and think of a wide open throat allowing the air to go up in the resonating cavities.
We worked through most of "Greensleeves" today and focused on consonants like the "d's" and "t's." Throughout the piece the rhythm is very repetitive so there wasn't a whole lot of work needed on that. There is part where she has to come in on F5 without working up to it so we repeat that a few times until she could attack it at a forte. I feel like she is learning from my lessons. I wish sometimes I knew more and could identify faults quicker but I do get excited when I realize the faults I do. It will take a few years of teaching to develop my skills, but for now I'm pleasantly surprised that I can do what I have. These lessons are probably teaching me more things then Danielle.
We worked through most of "Greensleeves" today and focused on consonants like the "d's" and "t's." Throughout the piece the rhythm is very repetitive so there wasn't a whole lot of work needed on that. There is part where she has to come in on F5 without working up to it so we repeat that a few times until she could attack it at a forte. I feel like she is learning from my lessons. I wish sometimes I knew more and could identify faults quicker but I do get excited when I realize the faults I do. It will take a few years of teaching to develop my skills, but for now I'm pleasantly surprised that I can do what I have. These lessons are probably teaching me more things then Danielle.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Lesson #4
This lesson turned out to be very successful! After the weekend both Danielle and I seemed to be relaxed which I believe was a great contribution to the success. The entire lesson was full of energy and there was great motivation throughout. Today I tried to find her head voice by introducing the "puppy whines" which I figured she would know how to do just from her childhood. I believe she is one of the hardest students I could have chosen because she didn't even understand what a puppy whine was. So with quick intervention I changed to making a police siren sound and who would have known but it worked. She was getting in her head voice no force necessary. She must have seen a lot more police then puppies in her recent days. Just kidding, but I am so excited that she has had the feeling of head voice and it gives me a lot more encouragement and motivation to get her into always singing with it.
After this I introduced some of the tongue agility warm-ups. I figured since we are starting on a solo we ought to work on articulations and forming consonants. I am going to let her work on the speed until our next lesson but I have confidence that it will be no problem for her. We then moved to some "sing-ahhs" and once again the head voice was apparent, not yet consistent, but at least trying to come out.
To start the Greensleeves we focused on the first fourteen measures and I had her sing all the notes on the "E" sound. I was able to relate her singing technique to horn technique. She would leave a tiny space in between every note and hit the note right on pitch. In my current horn lessons this is exactly what Mrs. Darahilo tells me to try doing. It was distracting while singing the "E" but once we switched to words it sounded much better. For the remainder of the lesson we worked out the breathing and vowel formation which I found to be pretty fun. I think once we can get a consistent head voice the solo will just put itself together smoothly. With the energy in the lesson I found that the time seemed to just fly by and I almost wanted more time to work on things. I am very excited for our next lesson to come.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
lesson #3
The third lesson came a little later then I would have liked but due to illness and Fall break we had to push it back. To start off the lesson we discussed what had been practiced and how she felt about it. After this we warmed up with lip buzzing and some humming. I really wanted to focus on some vowel sounds and the resonating "E" today. We did a combination for vowel sounds on ascending scales and also the "sing-ah" exercise. During this I had her hold her checks to help keep the space in her mouth and allow the sound to resonate. When doing this we found her soft pallet raised on around her passagio and she began forcing the sound. It was at this point in the lesson that I had to critically think. I've been trying to figure out what way to really get through to her with explaining the head voice but many things don't seem to work. It was odd tho that when she sung an "a" she could hit her head voice but when singing an "e" it cuts off. I am starting to think it is because of vowel modification and I will test that in her next lesson.
By the time this was done time seemed to have flown by so I didn't get as much time as I'd hope to introduce a solo. Previous to the lesson I selected three options for solos that looked like they were in her range and doable with a little bit of work. I sung through the first phrases of each song for her and let her decide. In the end we ended with Greensleeves, which I believe will be a bit of a challenge but also provides the advantage of a popular melody.
Personally as the teacher I feel anxious to help her discover her head voice and at the same moment worried about how difficult it will be. She is determined to learn I've seen some improvements already. I am getting a bit confused on how to get her head voice especially when she has troubles with sirens, but that just adds to the challenge and will be an obstacle that will help greatly in the future.
By the time this was done time seemed to have flown by so I didn't get as much time as I'd hope to introduce a solo. Previous to the lesson I selected three options for solos that looked like they were in her range and doable with a little bit of work. I sung through the first phrases of each song for her and let her decide. In the end we ended with Greensleeves, which I believe will be a bit of a challenge but also provides the advantage of a popular melody.
Personally as the teacher I feel anxious to help her discover her head voice and at the same moment worried about how difficult it will be. She is determined to learn I've seen some improvements already. I am getting a bit confused on how to get her head voice especially when she has troubles with sirens, but that just adds to the challenge and will be an obstacle that will help greatly in the future.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Lesson #2
This was my second lesson with Miss Dani Miller and I really wanted to focus on feeling the resonating feeling. To start off I quizzed her on the proper posture and what type of voice she needed to focus on singing in. She also said she tried to practice the warm up scales I gave her everyday at least once. This was encouraging knowing that she is putting effort into the lessons. We didn't get past doing basic warm-ups this lesson to really test her range. I could diffidently hear her passaggio in the E5 which indicates she is more a mezzo soprano. This doesn't surprise me because her body type gives off a mezzo soprano look with a medium height and longer neck.
I tried different types of warm-ups to try to get her to feel the resonance and what should be happening when she is singing correctly. The one that seemed to help the most was having part of her hand in the front part of her mouth. By doing this it kept the space in her mouth open and put the resonance up in her sinus area. I found it really hard to explain the head voice to her and get her to understand. She is a very heavy chest voice singer. I tried using the " talk like Mrs. Doubtfire" and " a opera singer" explanations but they just seemed to confuse her. It was frustrating I finally did get a little through when I explained it as a "Steve Erkel bunny" meaning the high geeky voice all smushed in like a bunny nose.
When we did sirens I was surprised that she just couldn't seem to do it. She would hit a high pitch that was forced and then skip down to low notes. I'm not quiet sure how to fix this but I will diffidently work on it. As a practice I did have her do "twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on an E. This did seem to help but I kept noticing her switching to just a regular E and not a high resonate E.
I plan to start a piece in her next lesson but for now just getting to have her feel a head voice is challenging.
I tried different types of warm-ups to try to get her to feel the resonance and what should be happening when she is singing correctly. The one that seemed to help the most was having part of her hand in the front part of her mouth. By doing this it kept the space in her mouth open and put the resonance up in her sinus area. I found it really hard to explain the head voice to her and get her to understand. She is a very heavy chest voice singer. I tried using the " talk like Mrs. Doubtfire" and " a opera singer" explanations but they just seemed to confuse her. It was frustrating I finally did get a little through when I explained it as a "Steve Erkel bunny" meaning the high geeky voice all smushed in like a bunny nose.
When we did sirens I was surprised that she just couldn't seem to do it. She would hit a high pitch that was forced and then skip down to low notes. I'm not quiet sure how to fix this but I will diffidently work on it. As a practice I did have her do "twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on an E. This did seem to help but I kept noticing her switching to just a regular E and not a high resonate E.
I plan to start a piece in her next lesson but for now just getting to have her feel a head voice is challenging.
Observation #4
For my final observation I observed Dr. Hepworth giving Jill Stara a lesson. Jill is in her Junior year and is working for a field endorsement in K-12 music education. She is a very talent musician on trumpet, piano, and voice. Her voice is very unique and has an over active mouth, so instead of focusing on just opening her mouth she must focus on not opening it too far and shaping it correctly. She also has great resonance which is great for projecting, although it also hinders her. She starts to be shy about how loud to allow her voice to get, and then she tries to control her voice.
The lesson was conveniently right after choir rehearsal and Jill was already warmed-up. They started right in on solos to practice for NATS competition Friday. She had her pieces memorized perfectly and a lot of the help she needed was with nit-picky little things. Jill does have great propioception, I could tell because while she was singing she would place her hands on the side of her face. You could also see her thinking while she was singing.
She sang while watching herself in the mirror which seemed to help this also. "Mush mouth" was used a lot to explain what Jill need to think of. This helped her not open it too much and keep the vowels from becoming way too bright. Another thing was hitting a bulls-eye on the beginning of words, or flicking the the words, which helped the consonants come out.
I think Jill will do great at NATS she has such a powerful voice. It was very interesting to observe a lesson with her unique voice. It really showed how you have to teach specific to the student's needs, and how they are not all the same.
The lesson was conveniently right after choir rehearsal and Jill was already warmed-up. They started right in on solos to practice for NATS competition Friday. She had her pieces memorized perfectly and a lot of the help she needed was with nit-picky little things. Jill does have great propioception, I could tell because while she was singing she would place her hands on the side of her face. You could also see her thinking while she was singing.
She sang while watching herself in the mirror which seemed to help this also. "Mush mouth" was used a lot to explain what Jill need to think of. This helped her not open it too much and keep the vowels from becoming way too bright. Another thing was hitting a bulls-eye on the beginning of words, or flicking the the words, which helped the consonants come out.
I think Jill will do great at NATS she has such a powerful voice. It was very interesting to observe a lesson with her unique voice. It really showed how you have to teach specific to the student's needs, and how they are not all the same.
observation 3
For this observation I changed it up and observed Dr. Lofgren teaching Brett Dorcey. Brett is in the process of training his head voice. He mainly sings tenor although he has a few great bass notes in him. He is going into his Senior year but voice is only his minor instrument, his major is the tuba.
To start off the lesson they worked on sirens and really focusing on the resonating feeling in the face. The next thing they did was new to me, Brett placed his hand in the very front part of his mouth and then did "humm's" going down the scales. This allowed him to feel more. For a majority of the time they worked on vowel sounds. Dr. Lofgren kept reminding Brett how much space the mouth should have for each vowel as in "1/3, 2/3, etc."
For the last ten minutes of the lesson they finally worked on Brett's solo "Fine Acts for Ladies." Dr. Lofgren allowed him to sing through the entire piece while correcting verbs a few times throughout. After they also went through and looked at the IPA for the piece.
I noticed during the lesson Brett yawned a lot trying to relax his throat. This means he was trying to force his head voice a little too much. I believe he was too focused on hitting the notes that he could not think about the weak voice he need, a prime example of what we have been discussing in class. I really liked it when Dr. Lofgren commented " Work for that lighter production" that made me feel like he was talking about a musical.
This lesson seemed very different form Dr. Hepworth's but they really worked on fine points and making the words sound good. It was more "nit-picky" I guess one would say. Dr. Lofgren is also great at teaching the tenor voice because that is what he is, therefore it is east for him to relate.
To start off the lesson they worked on sirens and really focusing on the resonating feeling in the face. The next thing they did was new to me, Brett placed his hand in the very front part of his mouth and then did "humm's" going down the scales. This allowed him to feel more. For a majority of the time they worked on vowel sounds. Dr. Lofgren kept reminding Brett how much space the mouth should have for each vowel as in "1/3, 2/3, etc."
For the last ten minutes of the lesson they finally worked on Brett's solo "Fine Acts for Ladies." Dr. Lofgren allowed him to sing through the entire piece while correcting verbs a few times throughout. After they also went through and looked at the IPA for the piece.
I noticed during the lesson Brett yawned a lot trying to relax his throat. This means he was trying to force his head voice a little too much. I believe he was too focused on hitting the notes that he could not think about the weak voice he need, a prime example of what we have been discussing in class. I really liked it when Dr. Lofgren commented " Work for that lighter production" that made me feel like he was talking about a musical.
This lesson seemed very different form Dr. Hepworth's but they really worked on fine points and making the words sound good. It was more "nit-picky" I guess one would say. Dr. Lofgren is also great at teaching the tenor voice because that is what he is, therefore it is east for him to relate.
Friday, September 23, 2011
voice lesson one!
Today I gave my first lesson to Danielle Miller. I was very excited when I started to hear some of the basic faults we have talked about in class. I started out by talking about her musical background and how much she already knows. Her singing background is not very extensive, these are her first vocal lessons. After this I went on to discussing posture and breathing. She does have a slight tendency to lean forward while she is singing. I tried to enforce the breathing off the release, and I think she caught on to that very well.
The first warm-up we did were lip buzzes and within that I talked about tension and how to relax the face. She started to do pretty well on the loosening up. I noticed that her chest voice goes around the A4-B4 range and she has trouble getting into her head voice. I tried to explain thinking skinny and focusing up in the nose area. We moved on into doing "E's" and she did feel a little bit of resonating, but it didn't stay very consistent. To try to bring her head voice out we did some "sing-ah's." Once again this helped a little but will just have to be practiced. This is really everything we got through which I felt was pretty good for the first lesson.
I found that time does go by fairly fast when there is progress being made. Having to listen and play at the same time was a bit challenging at times, but was surprisingly easier then I'd first imagined. Knowing the piano scales was a huge bonus. Without knowing piano I don't know how I would have done it. For the first lesson I possibly could have done better but I still feel good about it. After this it can only get better.
The first warm-up we did were lip buzzes and within that I talked about tension and how to relax the face. She started to do pretty well on the loosening up. I noticed that her chest voice goes around the A4-B4 range and she has trouble getting into her head voice. I tried to explain thinking skinny and focusing up in the nose area. We moved on into doing "E's" and she did feel a little bit of resonating, but it didn't stay very consistent. To try to bring her head voice out we did some "sing-ah's." Once again this helped a little but will just have to be practiced. This is really everything we got through which I felt was pretty good for the first lesson.
I found that time does go by fairly fast when there is progress being made. Having to listen and play at the same time was a bit challenging at times, but was surprisingly easier then I'd first imagined. Knowing the piano scales was a huge bonus. Without knowing piano I don't know how I would have done it. For the first lesson I possibly could have done better but I still feel good about it. After this it can only get better.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Observation #2
For my second observation experience I decided to set in on Dr. Hepworth teaching Austin Devorak. Austin in a Senior this year and studying to be a vocal educator. He has developed his head voice and sings a high tenor if not even some in the alto range. I love his voice because somehow he keeps it very flexible, as in runs and malismas don't seem to even phase him. Most of Austin's warm-up was focused on extending his range. They first loosened up with forward buzzing and then did an up/down pattern of "E-Ah-O."
Next they went on to the repertoire, in this lesson Dr. Hepworth actually let Austin choose what he would like to work on. This, I could tell, allows the student to point out their troubled spots to the teacher, instead of visa-versa. First they worked on "Clair de Lune" and focused on keeping in mysterious and letting the sound resonate out. One technique Dr. Hepworth used was for Austin to sing into his hand allowing him to hear what resonated back. This worked great and immediately after he began to sing out fuller. It was beautiful. The second piece they mainly worked on pronunciation by Dr. Hepworth saying the words and Austin repeating. They then put that to the tempo of the piece and worked on building an inner beat to keep time.
The lesson time then ran out sadly. Overall I thought it was a productive lesson. Austin knew what he needed to work on and he caught on and applied what Dr. Hepworth was telling him. One thing that I realized was how multifunctional a vocal teacher needs to be. You have to play the piano, listen to the student, sing along once in a while, and sometimes tap out the tempo all at the same time. Wow I know I will have to work on that a little, some days I'm lucky to chew gum, talk, and walk at the same time.
Next they went on to the repertoire, in this lesson Dr. Hepworth actually let Austin choose what he would like to work on. This, I could tell, allows the student to point out their troubled spots to the teacher, instead of visa-versa. First they worked on "Clair de Lune" and focused on keeping in mysterious and letting the sound resonate out. One technique Dr. Hepworth used was for Austin to sing into his hand allowing him to hear what resonated back. This worked great and immediately after he began to sing out fuller. It was beautiful. The second piece they mainly worked on pronunciation by Dr. Hepworth saying the words and Austin repeating. They then put that to the tempo of the piece and worked on building an inner beat to keep time.
The lesson time then ran out sadly. Overall I thought it was a productive lesson. Austin knew what he needed to work on and he caught on and applied what Dr. Hepworth was telling him. One thing that I realized was how multifunctional a vocal teacher needs to be. You have to play the piano, listen to the student, sing along once in a while, and sometimes tap out the tempo all at the same time. Wow I know I will have to work on that a little, some days I'm lucky to chew gum, talk, and walk at the same time.
Observation #1
My first observation of a lesson was with Dr. Hepworth teaching Amanda Marvin. Amanda has a beautiful soprano voice. She is currently a senior in her undergrad and studying to be a music educator. The lesson started with lip buzzing, skipping up and down the scale. Then there where "E's" and "Ah's" starting in the middle of her range and going up, then coming down. During this Dr.Hepworth instituted the mirror and had Amanda watch herself warming up. This helps the student with their preconception; they realize what their mouth and face is doing and then they can work on fixing the shape. After about five to ten minutes of warming up the lesson moved on to working on the repertoire.
She spent about seven to ten minutes on three different songs. At the beginning of each song Dr. Hepworth either reminded Amanda of potential mistakes or the pronunciation of certain words. After that Amanda started singing while Dr. Hepworth either sung along with her to help pitch and musicality, or listened and stopped to correct small mistakes. There was always more positive feed back then negative. I believe this encourages the student to be better and makes correcting the negative seem easier. I know in my instrument lessons, the positive always builds my confidence and makes me strive for perfection. The mood of the entire lesson was very exciting. I believe it is up to the teacher to set this mood and Dr. Hepworth does a great job at it.
Each song in this lesson brought up a different aspect of singing and preforming. There was work on rhythm, body language, pronunciation, focusing on the head voice, and even some IPA. I found many similarities between a voice lesson and my clarinet lessons. There is a basic set up of warming-up then spending equal increments of time on each repertoire piece. Singers although do have more pieces but the instrumental weekly etudes help balance that out.
She spent about seven to ten minutes on three different songs. At the beginning of each song Dr. Hepworth either reminded Amanda of potential mistakes or the pronunciation of certain words. After that Amanda started singing while Dr. Hepworth either sung along with her to help pitch and musicality, or listened and stopped to correct small mistakes. There was always more positive feed back then negative. I believe this encourages the student to be better and makes correcting the negative seem easier. I know in my instrument lessons, the positive always builds my confidence and makes me strive for perfection. The mood of the entire lesson was very exciting. I believe it is up to the teacher to set this mood and Dr. Hepworth does a great job at it.
Each song in this lesson brought up a different aspect of singing and preforming. There was work on rhythm, body language, pronunciation, focusing on the head voice, and even some IPA. I found many similarities between a voice lesson and my clarinet lessons. There is a basic set up of warming-up then spending equal increments of time on each repertoire piece. Singers although do have more pieces but the instrumental weekly etudes help balance that out.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Entering vocal pedagogy
On this blog I will talk about the start of my vocal teaching adventures. I am currently in a vocal pedagogy class and soon I will be giving a few of my own lessons. This is a new thing for me but I am excited for it to get started. I have a feeling I will enjoy it and hopefully in the future I can spread out and teach multiple students. For now I can't wait to tell of what will be a rough road ahead.
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