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.
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