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.