My last lesson

My last lesson for the semester was pretty short. We really just went through my rep. I need to work on a couple diction issues on An die musik, and continue practicing O cessate to make sure that I don't go all nasaly and stuff. I am actually feeling really prepared for juries, which is actually a really weird feeling. I have everything memorized, and I know all the right notes and everything so I'm really just hoping that Dr.H and Dr.Lofgren pick the songs I want! It has been a pretty successful semester, and I'm really happy with the progress I've made. I'm finally starting to get vibrato a little bit which is super exciting. Maybe someday I'll have a real singing voice after all!

Aubrey's LAST lesson!!

Well, this was probably our worst lesson ever. Depressing, I know. We hadn't had a lesson for like 3 weeks or something like that from me being gone for convention and her being sick and stuff so I figured it would be a little rough, but I didn't think it would be that bad. Right off the bat I was irritated before we even started because she told me earlier that day that she'd lost her music. I now know how Dr.Hepworth and Dr.C and all the other professors feel when we don't come to lessons and class prepared. Luckily, she found it so that was good, but I could tell right away that she didn't really want to be doing this lesson. I told her that we were going to start with lip buzzes and she rolled her eyes and she didn't like even remember how to do them. Right then I got in panic mode a little bit. So we did some lip buzzes and after that we were going to do some sliding I's on a fifth. I had her do couple sirens before so she could remember where her head voice was. Then I changed my mind to do some of the sing ah talking and then sing ah singing. In hindsight, I really did not manage this lesson very well. She was lost from the start so I should've took things way slower. I just really didn't expect her to like forget how to do everything we talked about. After we did a few sing ah sing ahs  we did some mI on a sliding fifth. She did okay with the sing ahs. She would start out in the head voice and did a pretty good job talking in it, but once she'd have to go sing it she would tighten up and there just wasn't any resosnance and it was just all tight and pinchy. As we were going up on the mI I started telling her to think lighter because I thought maybe that would help her get into the weak feeling head voice, but it really just made her sing quieter which I really should've saw coming. I told her to get a lot of space in her mouth and do the head voice and I told her to get the buzziness in her nose. But she STILL tried squeezing her chest voice up as we ascended. So I just stopped with that and went to the sing ah. I told her not to open up to the ah until she she got a nice buzzy feeling in her nose. She was feeling the buzz until she opened up and then she said it felt tight. I told her that she needed to have a nice open throat and  a raised soft palate. I tried doing this thing that I saw Dr.Lofgren doing in one of his lessons. I had her do a siren starting on a note, but that really didn't work at all. She really hates dropping her jaw so I had to keep reminding her of that, and when I had her do puppy whimpers she still wants to use her throat to muscle up the sound but we got a few good ones in at the end. Then just to do a couple more warm ups we did some I ahs up and down five and she did okay with it. I know she doesn't like Is so I just let her do some ahs so she could get her jaw dropped. We started on the song and she was singing it incredibly nasaly and her vowels were really bad. Also, she was not really using her head voice at all. I wanted her to tell me what she thought she did right and wrong. We decided that she had good phrasing and we came to the conclusion that she was using her chest voice on the high parts. We also said that she wasn't opening her mouth very wide throughout the song. We also touched on a few of the vowels that she needed to fix. There is a couple spots that there is an a, c, e, f and we worked on it a whole bunch of times and she just could not get it into her head voice no matter what we tried. I told her to sing it like an opera singer and she mostly just sang it louder, but it did make her open her mouth more. We talked about thinking skinny when she got to the high notes and to hold her hands in front of her like a tepee and I explained because that will remind her to lift her soft palate. I had her read through the text in a head voicey sound and she towards the song she just started talking like normal. The last page she was just pure talking through her nose in a really nasaly voice. We went through the song for the last time and she actually did really well singing through it. She got in her head voice most of the times she needed to. Then we were finished and I apologized for having the last lesson so far away from the others because I really think that just caused a lot of problems for this one, but oh well. I think that if we would've had a consistent lesson time every week we could've acccomplished a ton more things. I think she did learn some stuff, but I don't know if she'll apply it to her everyday singing or not. She's stuck in the pop sounding world! But I told her she'd learn to love her head voice someday just like me :)

Aubrey's fifth lesson

We started with lip buzzes like usual. I didn't really want to spend too much time warming up because we really hadn't been working on her song too much, and we only had two lessons left! Then I had her do a couple sirens and some puppy whimpers. She has a really hard time with puppy whimpers for some reason. She just tries to do them with her throat and it is the weirdest thing. No matter how much I explain that she doesn't need to do it in her throat and it's all in her head and nose, she just doesn't like to grasp that concept. I explained to her that what she was doing was just making her vocal folds slap together and she gets a really hard sound coming out, and I know she can feel what she's doing is wrong. Every time she does get it right she hates the way the buzz feels in her nose so I don't know if that has something to do with it. Then we started doing the sing ah in a talking voice and then singing it like she did with Dr.Hepworth when we visited her a while ago. She really doesn't like to open her mouth up very wide and it traps a ton of the sound in. We tried doing sing-ahs down five and I told her to keep the buzz in her nose and when we went down that helped her keep the buzz a little better. I can't even count the times I told her that when she's using her head voice it's going to be weak. Then we did I vowels and we're constantly having to do sirens to feel her head voice. We did sliding I's going down a fifth and she did really well with that. She said it felt weird and I took that as a success. Then we went up five on an I and right away she started trying to pinch it off with her throat so we had to keep doing sirens on an I. I felt like she would start out with her head voice but as she ascended she would switch back into her chest or just try and squeeze the sound off. I tried having her do an ah vowel because I thought maybe it would make her feel a little more open. It wasn't really working. So I tried doing the thing where I had her sing like a 5 year old and then 15 and then like she was like 20 or something and then like she was 80. Epic fail. I don't know why I said 80 first of all, and second of all it just did not work like I thought it would. I was hoping that it would make her open up but it really didn't, and then I did it and I just sounded like a flipping idiot. But oh well. We started her song and I told her to think like opera singer and hooty before her entrances just so she doesn't forget about the head voice. First we just spoke through the rhythm of the song to be sure that she'd get all the note values correct. I told her to really over exaggerate her words and to connect some of them. Also, I am a terrible accompaniment player. She was singing very pinched so we spoke through the words in a hooty voice. There's an arpeggio in her song that's a, c, e and so we did some I's on it and she got in her head voice a little better after that. She was still singing very closed mouth so I had her put her hands on the sides of her face and watch in the mirror to be sure that her jaw was dropping. She got through the rest of the song really well. We fixed the word fly on the f5 because she was spreading out the word a little bit so I told her to make it taller. Every time we had to start the song we had to talk through it in a head voice which was getting a little irritating to me, but she'd always get it if we'd do that. She wouldn't get it at all if we didn't do that first. I told her to start switching into her head voice at an a4 so that she'd have an easier transition into the high notes because she wouldn't switch until she'd get up to about an d5. She did really well with that train of thought. Side note: It doesn't sound half as good on a recording as it did in real life. And I hate listening to myself on the recording. It gives me the creeps. Anyways, we ran through the song again and I had to remind her a few times to go into her head voice. She started out really well, but as the song went on she kept wanting to use her chest voice. It was definetly the best she ever sang it though. I tried to just really assure her that her head voice sounded really beautiful because I could tell that she was hating the way things were sounding. That was easily the best lesson we had, and I think she liked that we actually got to work on the rep versus just doing a thousand warm ups the whole lesson.

Observing Ashley Hecht's Voice Lesson.

For my final observation from one of Dr.Lofgren's students, I observed Ashley Hecht. She is a Spanish Education major and this is her first semester of voice lessons ever. Ashley is a petite, soft spoken soprano, and she wanted to take voice lessons for her own personal enrichment. As it was with Brett, the door remained open for the entire lesson, and she didn't seem phased by it at all. She was sick the past couple weeks so this was the first lesson her and Dr.Lofgren had in quite a while. They began with going up five on an I vowel and then back down 5 on an ah. She was having difficulties staying on pitch as they ascended, but felt pretty comfortable in her lower range. Since she was having trouble finding pitch he had her slide up on on the I and then open up on the ah. She really wasn't opening up at all, and she was barely producing any sound. Dr.Lofgren took that as an opportunity to talk about posture. He pointed out all the spots in your foot that form a "tripod" and told her to align her body into an ears over shoulders over hips position and she should be standing so that all the weight is on her skeleton and she shouldn't be having to do hardly any work. Then they began to discuss breathing and he kept telling her to feel like the breath is sinking down low in her body. She seemed kind of confused, but after a bit of trial and error she began to get a low breath. He had her do yung yung yo up on an arpeggio, and she was barely opening her mouth, but he didn't seem to concerned with that and had her look in the mirror to watch her breath. They continued with the yung yung yo and he wanted her to concentrate on setting up her breath with the ng sound. After doing that for a while she started going up five on a ho sound and on the fifth one she did ho five times and went back down. He told her that she was breathy before and doing stacatto can  help get rid of some of the breathiness. He told her that she was starting to sound better, but I didn't really think it had improved any. If it were me, I would've had her do sliding I's or even just I's on a five pattern so she can feel something of a buzz and little more forward of a sound. She started doing ya up and down five, and she wasn't getting a very low breath and the energy of the sound was pretty much dead. Dr.Lofgren had her do a z sound up and down five and told her to do the ya with the same amount of energy that she had for the z and she did a lot better after that. They kept going up the piano and he would tell her to get narrow and thin at the top and to make sure she's in her head voice and it's nice and light. The higher she got, the tighter and squeakier it was and when they stopped he told her that and he said that she just needs to keep the energy behind it. I think there was a few more things wrong than just the energy though. I know that she needed to open her mouth up more, she needed to open up her throat, and she needed to bring the sound forward because she didn't have any buzz. They started on her first song which was an Italian piece. The tessitura was really pretty low for a soprano, and the highest note was an f5. She sang through it once and it was very breathy and I couldn't hardly hear her because her mouth was so closed. Dr.Lofgren asked her about diction in a couple places and he told her that she needed to get some energy under the sound because it sounded pinched off. Then he whipped out some sheet that had to be from the "Overtones of Bel Canto" book because it was the same type of warm ups he did with Brett. They did some oo-ah-oo and uh-eh-uh sounds and he told her to leave everything open and relaxed and let her tongue move to form the sounds. They went up to about an f and he asked how it felt and she replied that it felt tight. I was kind of questioning if she was really in her head voice, but Dr.Lofgren didn't mention it. He would play a note on the piano and tell her to start on that note and do a siren down. She was doing a pretty good job of opening up for that, but she was still running out of air. They started on the song again and she started to open her throat up more and her sound was fuller, but it only lasted for a little bit and she closed up again. Dr.Lofgren told her to trust herself and it will be there and she needs to use more breath. I didn't exactly know what he meant by that, and I'm not exactly sure that she did either. What I think he was trying to get at was that she was just scared to let the sound come out, and even though I thought he was kind of overdoing the whole breath thing, she really did need to get her breaths under control because they were pretty weak and high. The part of the song where it gets the highest, they took it down and octave and after singing through that they took it back up the octave and he told her to sing with the same openess that she did in the lower register. She was still pretty closed up, but they were out of time so they were going to come back to it next week. One of the big things I noticed in this lesson was that after she'd do something incorrectly, even after he explained how to fix it, Dr.Lofgren would kind of get lost, and he wouldn't really know what to say or do next. I think his style of teaching for her lesson might have worked for some people, but I'm not sure she was really comprehending much of anything he was saying.

Big girl voice.

Well, the semester is finally winding down. Even though I say finally, it really doesn't even feel like it's the end at all. Actually, I wish it wasn't. Man, I would give a lot to just have two more weeks of just free time..not classes..just free time so I have time to accomplish everything I want to do exactly how I want to do it. Ohhh well though, I guess it is now time to engage crunch time mode. I sang An die Musik in recital yesterday, and it was easily the best I've ever done. I feel so much more confident since I'm beginning to figure out how to get my throat more open and produce a fuller sound. Today in my lesson we just ran through my rep, and we started with O cessate di piagarmi. As soon as Dr.Hepworth mentioned it I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed it before, but there's a part where I tend to get really nasally. That is going to be one of my main practice focuses this week because I'm pretty sure that's the song I'm going to sing first for juries. We sang through An die Musik and fixed a couple diction errors, and I figured out my entrances again since I totally blew some of them off yesterday and made up my own. (Thank God for Mr.Phil) Then we did Love Has Eyes where I always mess up the turn because it's in a really dumb part of my range that I hate, but I am hoping that with time it will get stronger and then I can stop complaining about it. At first I thought that song was really easy to sing, but now I get kind of tired towards the end of it so that is kind of weird. Next we sang When I have Sung My Songs, which I really haven't liked to sing ever since Austin did it on recital a few weeks ago. He owned me, but it's fine. I really need to work on my counting a lot better on that song, and really add some musicality to it. That is something that I just need to do, it has nothing to do with my technique or anything like that so that should not even be a problem, but oh well I will fix it. Also, I need to work on connecting the words a lot better too. Finally, we ran through So In Love which is definetly my second fave after An die Musik. You know, I think I actually might do An die Musik for my first song for juries because I just really love it. But this can be discussed at a later time. Anyways, So in Love is totally the funnest song to sing ever basically because I love musicals and it's awesome. I am feeling very apathetic at the moment, so if this post seems to drone on that is probably why. I think I am going to get some coffee now. That is all, goodbye.

Observing Brett Dorcey's Voice Lesson.

I definetly was looking forward to doing my first observation with Dr.Lofgren because him and Dr.Hepworth have such different personalities. Brett Dorcey was the person I chose to do my male observation on with Dr.Lofgren. His primary instrument is tuba and voice is his secondary. This is his first semester of voice lessons, and he is a tenor. His lesson was at 9:30 in the morning, so warming up was a must for the beginning of their lesson. The first thing that was took me by surprise is that they had the lesson with Dr.Lofgren's office door left open. I thought this made the lesson seem slightly informal, yet Brett seemed to be very relaxed with it. The first thing he did was a few light sirens then they began singing knee on sliding fifths emphasizing the I sound. He was getting a very bright sound by doing this, but I did notice that he would set his mouth into the shape of the I vowel before he would sing it instead of just letting the sound come out. As he was doing the knees, Dr.Lofgren reminded him to relax his tongue, jaw, and face. I was kind of surprised to hear him say something about the tongue because he's never addressed it in choir that I can remember. After that  he got out a book called "Overtones of Bel Canto" by Burton Coffin. The first exercise they did was up five on woah, down five on a yeah and then switch to a woah at the bottom and add a messa di voce at the end. In this book, for each vowel sound it gives you a number and that number says how open your mouth should be when you sing that vowel. For example, a 3 would be hardly open, and an 8 would be open quite wide. He had a lot of control over the messa di voce, but was producing a pretty dark sound. Dr.Lofgren had him sing a couple knees again and told him to keep that bright, forward feeling when he's doing these exercises. Next he did yeah-woah-yeah where he was reminded again about how he needs to keep space in the mouth and to keep a forward feel. Woo-yeah was next, and this time Dr.Lofgren addressed which vowels sound dark, the oo, and which were bright-the yeah. He told him when he gets the right combination of light and dark then he has found the chiaroscuro which is something that Dr.Hepworth addresses quite often. He then did an I sound through a pucker which was very swallowed at first. Dr.Lofgren told him to feel like it's bouncing off of the hard palate which brought on a brighter sound right away. I had to laugh a little bit because after that Brett made a comment about how that felt weird. Dr.Lofgren started to laugh as well and told him that weird is good, and that was the chiaroscuro. As he was doing the puckered I sound his soft palate began to drop and Dr.Lofgren explained to him that that was why his sound was getting a little too nasal. He had him pinch his nose and sing woah which I understood right away because I have been trying to work on that as well in my lessons with Dr.Hepworth. Plugging his nose will force him to project the sound from his mouth versus his nose which causes hyperfunctionality. The lesson was about half over at this time, and I was kind of surprised that they hadn't even worked on any rep yet, but I got the impression that Dr.Lofgren is more of a teacher that focuses on exersises and technique by itself versus integrating those lessons into the student's repitoire. They began to warm up his high range with something that I am pretty sure works fairly similar to the sing-ah exercise. Brett put his arm up to his mouth and literally put his mouth on his arm and go up an arpeggio on an mm. Then he had him put his arm up to his mouth and he went up on an oh and then moved his hand and changed to an ah sound. There was a little bit of the lesson left, and they finally pulled out his rep. Brett is working on Mozart's aria "Dalla Sua Pace" from Don Giovanni. This was by far the most interesting part of the lesson for me. Right when Dr.Lofgren said get out your aria I was confused because since it's Brett's first semester of voice lessons, and he is obviously still trying to get a handle on some basic technique, I didn't think he should even be working on an aria. He asked Brett if he looked up the IPA yet, and he hadn't which I thought maybe he should've got a little slap on the hand for that because I know that he's been assigned that song for at least two weeks since he wasn't in attendance at his last voice lesson since that was the one I was supposed to originally observe. Dr.Lofgren just said okay and had him sing da da da on the notes and rhythms. Brett really wasn't prepared for this song at all so Dr.Lofgren sang through most of it with him. He told him that this song was going to call for a lot of catch breaths and he warned him that there was going to be a lot of octaves at the end that he was going to have to negotiate. He explained the text for the last line, and had him sing through it, reminding him the whole time to keep the sound in his nose. This was the most interesting part of the whole lesson to me...he warned Brett not to spend too much time on this piece because he'll develop bad vocal habits, and it's a real work out vocally. He urged him not to do too much in one sitting, and just do a part of it a day until he got it learned. This just really blew my mind because why would he assign him something that he has to warn against working too much on it or he'll hurt himself? I'm sure he has other songs that are much less taxing, but I just was really hung up on the fact that he was singing this song that is probably for an advanced singer. I definitely was opened up to a whole other style of teaching from this lesson. They are much less personal than a lesson with Dr.Hepworth is, and it almost completely consisted of vocalizing. It seems like Brett was more uninterested in his lesson versus Adrian and Amanda who were very engaged in theirs. I am looking forward to see if Dr.Lofgren's teaching methods differ for when he's teaching a girl.

Best lesson ever!

At the beginning of my lesson today I brought in my voice lesson student to see if Dr.Hepworth could get her to sing in her head voice because I could not figure it out. Well, of course, from the get go she was singing spot on in her head voice. After we got that figured out Aubrey left and we were just going to run through all my rep. When I was practicing last night I kind of thought I had a break through, but I wasn't really sure so I told her. We started with O cessate and it was the best reaction ever. Right away I started singing in my big girl voice and I saw a look of like surprise cross Dr.Hepworth's face and she looked like she wanted to stop, but we kept going til I finished the song and she was super proud of me. When I was practicing last night I didn't make my break through til like the end of practice so I was getting kind of tired so I only ran through a couple of parts of songs after that so I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep it up. Much to me and Dr.Hepworth's delight I kept singing correctly all through An die musik and the rest of my rep :) It felt sooooooooooooooooooo freaking good to know that my hard work is really starting to take shape, and that I figured it out all by myself. Well, of course I would be absolutely no where without Dr.Hepworth, but without taking the time by myself and playing around with my voice I still be stuck where I was a year ago. I was so proud of myself at how happy and excited Dr.Hepworth was. That was one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment ever. What I figured out was how to open the back of my throat. I thought if I did that then it would be too dark of a sound, but it felt so full that I had a pretty good feeling about it. This week I'm going to work on memorizing my rep, and I'm still missing some pronunciations on An die musik. Now I need to start focusing on consistency. When I had practice with phil it wawsn't as good as it was in my lesson, but my voice was getting pretty tired because I had went through practice, choir, and a voice lesson. I'm really excited for the direction I am heading in, and I love feeling like I know what I'm doing. Good things are happening, finally! It's so weird because just like last week I was feeling super discouraged, and now it's a complete turn around. Consistency consistency consistency! That is my main goal now.

Aubrey's fourth lesson...

I am just all over the blog world today. Just got done with Aubrey's lesson, and I am going to be completely honest. I am so frustrated. She can't find her head voice anymore. I've tried i's, sirens, puppy whimpers, sing-ahs, mrs.doubtfire voice.....I don't know what else to do :( it's like she can get it on the middle notes a little bit, but once we get to a d or higher she switches right back to muscling the sound with her throat. I can tell it's so uncomfortable for her too. She was getting pretty frustrated today too because she knew she was forcing her chest voice too. I just feel really panicked because we only have two lessons yet and we haven't even made it through the whole song. I had her sing through it on an i vowel and it really did not accomplish what I wanted it to at all. So we spoke through the rhythm and she got a good grasp on that. I was wanted to make it through the song so I told her just to try her best to get the sound to come from her head voice rather than forcing it up with her throat. I started kind of playing the accompaniment with her, but she didn't really know the notes so I just played the melody, plus I was kind of messing up a lot anyways. I gave her a link to a video to watch just so she could find out how it sounds and how the melody is supposed to go, but I don't think she really listened to it. Ugh, I just don't know what to do. I've tried telling her to think weak to think from her head, to not use her throat, to keep in mind that it will feel weird and uncomfortable, but I just can't figure it out. I don't know what to do. I keep making up all these stupid little things for her to think when she's trying to find her head voice, but they are not working! I am just going to google ways to find your head voice and see if I can come up with anything there. I am pretty sure that the bottom line is that she's just scared of her head voice, but hopefully we can face that fear before the next two lessons are finished.

poor Adele.

Well, I just got finished with my voice lesson annnd it was less than wonderful.It is just not a good singing week for me. It's because I'm on the rag, but that is just annoying. Can I say on the rag on my blog? Well, I'm going to.  So I've been noticing this week that I have a lot of tension in my jaw, and it is pretty much kicking my butt. For warm ups we just did some buzzes and some i's. I have been getting my mouth set up before I actually sing the i vowel and that was messing me up. We practiced just saying i like you would just speak it and then I sang it correctly. My tongue is doing all sorts of weird things in my mouth these days, and I know exactly what it is. Dr.Hepworth said it best: "you're trying too hard". I think I really just need to let go and kind of just let the sound come out instead of trying to focus on all the minuscule things. I know that you have to focus on the little things in order to get the correct sound because, after all, it is the little things that count. But, I just focus so much on one thing that I don't even think about the other things and the proper sound is going to come from doing all the correct things in conjunction with each other, not just keeping my tongue forward, or having a bright sound. I need to figure out how to just bring it all together. I kind of view it as like spinning gears. I don't know if this is totally insane, but this is how I see it. I'll be working on something and I'll have a really bright sound because it's all pushed up in my nose, but then the gear is only like inching around instead of spinning smoothly because my throat isn't open and my tongue is way to far back and all that good stuff. That is just some weird thing that is in my head. This week when I practice I'm going to spend a lot of time with my hand in front of my mouth so I can feel if the sound is where I want it or not. I'm also going to really focus on my tongue. I do a lot of shaping my vowels with my jaw rather than my tongue which is going to be a really hard habit to break. Using the tongue so much just feels really foreign, but it's going to make things so much easier eventually. The diphthongs in So In Love are really putting up a fight, but once I get my tongue under control, I should be able to tackle them without a problem. Oh, and then we also did this weird extroverted and introverted lion face thing which was pretty much hilarious, but it's really nice for relaxing your face and neck muscles which I really need to do. So there is my life this week.

yayayay

Okay so for my last voice lesson I had an hour long one to make up for some missed lessons. It was so nice to have all that time, and we got through all of my rep which was also super nice. We started with So In Love from Kiss Me Kate which was the one that I was least prepared for. I worked on it a little, but I wanted to wait til I watched the movie before I worked on it a lot. We went over where to breathe and how to make some of my vowels sound. At first run through of the song I thought it was supposed to be like a sad song, but then I found out that the lady is actually kind of like a masochist and she likes to be hurt. That kind of made the song a little more interesting to me, and that will make the character a lot more fun to play, I think. I believe we did When I Have Sung My Songs next. This song is just really hard to me for some reason. I think it's because I watched Renee Flemming perform it on youtube and that just kind of was not a great plan! English is definetly harder to sing than like my German or Italian pieces. It's much more difficult to get an open throat on this song which we fought for for a long time. I can figure out how to raise my soft palate, but it's just doing all of it at the same time is what's causing a problem for me. Love Has Eyes was next and this one actually seems to be pretty easy for me to sing. We just worked out some breathing spots and a couple of places to ritard at. The hardest part in this song is at the little sideways s thing. I can't remember what it's called right now...but it is RIGHT ON my passagio and it SUCKS! It is the most frustrating thing. I just cannot get my registers to connect. I have done sliding i's up the yin yang and I just cannot get it to work. We did O cessate di piagarmi and I think I just know that song so well that it just naturally comes out easier. Then we did my absolute favorite song An Die Musik. I am kind of screwing the German up majorly I think. The parts where I'm supposed to pucker with an i vowel are not so easy. Breathing is another issue I have with this song. There are quite a few parts where I'm switching from my head to my chest voice and that just gets my breathing all out of wack. I think once I get a little more of a hold on my register changing, holding out the phrases will be easier as well. Lastly, we talked about me doing the honors program which got me super super excited. I have to pump my gpa up a little bit, but I'm super confident that by the end of this semester that should be no problem. Seriously, I was so proud of myself when Dr.Hepworth brought it up to me. It just makes me feel like all my hard work is starting to pay off, and that is seriously an amazing feeling.

Aubrey's Third Voice Lesson.

After this lesson I felt really excited because I thought we made a break through, but I just got done listening to the recording, and it just sounds like a train wreck to me. We started right away with lip buzzes and talked about breathing and she did just fine on both of those. We did some i's to try to find the buzz, but for some reason she just cannot stand doing them. I am pretty sure she is just trying really hard to do it from her throat. She told me she'd been practicing the Mrs.Doubtfire voice and she has a pretty decent grasp on how that feels and along with  doing sirens she knows how the head voice is supposed to feel. She just doesn't like to connect it with her singing. We did some sing ah's because I was hoping that she'd be able to get all the resosnance in her nose and be able to hold onto it into the ah, but she had a hard time even holding the ng through all five notes. She still was just trying to muscle up the sound too. Then I asked her how she felt when she was doing that and she said she felt like her throat was closed so I pretty much just stopped with that. When we were doing i's I tried making her spread her mouth out real wide to get a really harsh i sound and to show some teeth. I had to look like a freaking idiot the way I was showing her how to do this and I don't even know if it worked. She sings so hypofunctionally that I think it's just really uncomfortable for her to sing in her nose. The best part of the lesson happened when we were doing I think i's and I was telling her just to sing from her head. To me, that makes sense, I think it made sense to her too because I would tell her to think really light and that she couldn't use her throat at all and to think of keeping her soft palate raised and then all of a sudden she just did it right! And I asked her how it felt and she said amazing it was so easy. That was like the coolest feeling ever. We got it a couple more times after that and we were getting a little low on time and I wanted to introduce her rep to her so we stopped with that stuff. I picked out Greensleves by Philip Kern and To the Sky by Carl Strommen. I played and sang a little of both for her and kind of hinted that I wanted her to do To the Sky because I just really like it...that's probably not allowed, but it's just really pretty! So she picked that one and we started singing it. She right away went to her chest voice and was breathing in weird places so we just talked about phrasing for the rest of the lesson. I feel like we are not doing near enough singing. I feel like I am just way over explaining stuff, and I never stick to my lesson plan because something will happen and I'll go in a whole opposite direction. I also feel like I can't play enough warm ups on the piano. The only thing I know how to do are five pattern things. I think I should really know more than that, and I probably do but I just don't know it. It's so hard tailoring a practice to somebody else other than myself.  Like when I practice, I already know what I want and need to work on, but then getting into someone else's head is a whole other ball game. I'm still really glad that we made the one break through we did, and she tells me that she feels like she's learning a ton so I guess that's good. I guess I'm just a little disappointed after listening to how that lesson played out.

Aubrey's Second Voice Lesson (finally!!)

So after far too many days of me and her both being sick we FINALLY got another lesson in. I was pretty sure that we were going to basically start all over again so I didn't have any rep prepared for her to pick out. We're going to work with that for the next lesson. We started out with breathing since she has a really tough time grasping the concept of a low breath. She gets it sometimes, but other times she just tries too hard I think. After lip buzzes we started doing some i's because she has a pretty hypofunctional sound. The main focus of our last two lessons was bringing the sound forward and finding the buzz. She seemed like she was kind of lost the whole time when we were doing i's, and she said she didn't like them. I told her to make it sound ugly and gave her examples, but she was just really holding back. I changed the vowel for her so she could do some ah's and o's. I noticed that she also really needs to open her mouth and shape her vowels. I had her go in front of the mirror and told her just to overexaggerate everything. When I explained to her that in the ah vowel she should feel a little dent at the top of her jaw near her ears when she opens enough and then she began to comprehend. We switched back to the i vowel and she still just wasn't getting a forward sound so I kept saying bring it forward. Then the worst thing ever happened. She said she didn't know what I meant and I just kind of drew a blank. I figured either bring the sound forward, or put it in your nose would be plenty easy to understand, but apparently it isn't! I tried making her do really nasal i's but she still was doing them way in the back of her mouth and just coujldn't grasp it. Since I had no other idea what to say to her, I told her that I would just have to do a little bit of reading and research so I could answer her next time. I think I am definetly going to have her do puppy whimpers, which we did a little of but obviously not enough, and we're going to do some sing-ahs so she can feel the resonance. So we switched back to an ah and o vowel just going up and down on a five pattern and I looked at her to see how her vowels were being shaped and I noticed her sternoclineomastoid muscle was moving up and down as she would ascend and descend. So I stopped and asked if her throat hurt and her voice was tired. She said yes. She was forcing up her chest voice. I FIGURED SOMETHING OUT. I was like kind of excited when I made this discovery because I went through/am still fixing the same exact thing. So I explained to her what was going on and we did some sirens so she could feel her head voice. Then I thought this plan was just ingenious but I don't think it really helped...I was having her talk like Mrs.Doubtfire and an opera singer and stuff. She just like tries to do it with her chest or something, I don't know I haven't figured it out yet. I super stressed that her head voice is going to feel super weak and weird, but we're going to keep working with it. Once she can grasp the concept of bringing the sound forward and putting it in her nose I think that will make the head voice a little less scary. She had to sing the Star Spangled Banner that night though and I didn't want to totally mess her up so we stopped with that and just went over some super basic theory stuff just to be sure she knows what to expect when she gets her song.

Don't get sick.

So my last voice lesson was my first one since NATS. Between being sick and having to go to Lincoln for NMTA it was a hectic couple weeks. I hate getting sick because I feel so helpless when I can't practice and then I feel like I don't get anything done. But since NATS is over and I'm on a heavy dosage of vitamin c and cough medicine I think it's time for me to just relax and do what I need to do. I got two new songs in my lesson on Friday (which actually was a make up lesson from last Wednesday). One is So In Love from the musical Kiss Me Kate which is really going to challenge me when it comes to using my lower range. I'm really excited about it though. I LOVE MUSICALS. My other song is Love Has Eyes by Sir Henry Bishop. During my lesson we worked on the german in An Die Musik. I seriously love that song. It is just so pretty. I really think the german is going to be tough on me to get a grasp on, but I'm gonna try my hardest. I think I'm just going to have to listen to it a lot, and hopefully the pronunciations get stuck in my head. At the beginning of my lesson we talked about my voice lessons I'm giving for vocal ped right now. It's so funny how everything ties in together. I can just remember so easily when I was in my student's situation. One of my main focuses right now when I'm practicing is keeping my soft palate raised, and having enough air speed when I'm singing in my lower register. I love this semester though! Seriously, I like actually love practicing and going over my stuff. I just feel good about things, and I'm starting to gain a lot of confidence I knew that I've always had, I just never knew how to access it. Hopefully, I continue to improve! I am kind of worried about just hitting a plateau, but I'm pretty sure I have the right mindset to accomplish what I want to.

Lesson before NATS

Once again I had a pretty dang good lesson! The best discovery I made was when Dr.Hepworth said to put my tongue like a spoon. When I think like that it really gets my soft palate to raise and the sound comes out so much easier. The day before my lesson I sang O cessate in recital and I thought it went pretty well. I got a lot of comments from my peers about how much I've improved, and that was  pretty good feeling. I was really tired this week from singing the alleluia a thousand times this week, but I was still feeling pretty confident for NATS. As I kept on practicing through out the week after my lesson my voice was just kind of bi polar. Sometimes I can figure out exactly what I'm trying to do and the sound is great, but other times I just can't get it to work like I want it to. I feel like I'm really starting to figure things out though and I think these next couple weeks are going to bring some good things. I'm really hoping so anyways. NATS went okay. I know I could've done a thousand times better, but it was my first time ever so I guess I'm just proud of myself for making it through the whole thing alright. The judges gave me a lot of comments that I figured I'd hear, but I'm guessing we'll talk about that in my next lesson so I'm not going to go into that too much on my blog. I'm pretty excited with the things that have been happening in my lessons. Every time I make a stride it just motivates me more to keep working harder, and eventually I'm going to get where I need to be. I have a lot of hope for that.

Observing Adrian's Voice Lesson

I am really glad I chose Adrian to observe for my male from Dr.Hepworth's studio. His lesson was almost opposite from Amanda's. Adrian is a sophomore tenor, but his primary instrument is euphonium. He has two semesters of class in voice, but this is his first semester of private voice. They started out with some warm ups and Adrian was reminded right away to make sure he was breathing "below the belt". He was taking more of  a clavicular breath and after being reminded he started concentrating on it and began breathing correctly. They started out with the ee vowel where Dr.Hepworth urged him to put it in the nose. When they began doing the ah vowel Dr.Hepworth told Adrian that he needed to drop his jaw more. She showed him how to do it and explained that you should feel indentations on the side of your jaw. Adrian did this, but instead of going on he explained that when he drops his jaw that much it clicks on one side. This actually concerned Dr.Hepworth because she explained to us that a clicking jaw could be a sign of TMD which stands for tempromandiublar disorder. This happens when there is an excessive amount of tension held in the jaw which could lead to the very painful lockjaw. She told him to keep an eye on it, and it may be something he might even want to see a doctor about. I noticed that when Adrian would breathe he would use his whole body to get the breath. He would kind of move up to his toes when he'd breathe and after he'd get his breath he would move back to his feet. I imagine that this is just because he's uncomfortable taking the low breath because he hasn't been in a good habit about it long enough yet. As they got higher he kept wanting to put the sound in the back of his throat, but Dr.Hepworth kept telling him to put it in his nose. When he would get the sound forward he had much better intonation. As he was ascending Dr.Hepworth told him to think skinny. He seemed to be getting a little frustrated so Dr.Hepworth stopped and explained to him that it's going to feel really weak. Then she brought up his euphonium. When he ascends he can't use too much air pressure or the sound will crack, and it's the exact same with his voice. She told him that the higher he gets he needs to have a lower jaw and use less force, and the sound will come out really easy. After explaining that he got all the way up to a high F. Adrian just said it felt weird, but that was fine because at first, doing it correctly is going to feel really weird and weak. Adrian sings mostly in the back of the throat so bringing the sound forward is really going to help him. They started on his first song. I noticed that he was having a little bit of trouble finding some of the notes so Dr.Hepworth would sing along. One of Adrian's big obstacles he's trying to overcome is finding a focus point instead of looking at the ceiling when he sings. She had him focus on one point to fix that problem. As he was singing she kept repeating to open his mouth, bring the sound forward, and open his throat. Adrian said it just felt really weird, so she explained to him that it sounds a lot different to him than it does out loud. She had him put his hands over his ears, in front, and behind him so he could hear all the different ways he could sound. Again she brought up his euphonium lessons, but this time it was to talk about phrasing. She asked how he would play it, and she said that's the same way you need to sing it. She explained that there are a lot of connections that can be made through band and singing. He went through his other song once, and she told him that he needs to take everything they talked about and become consistent about it. She said "being a good  musician is about consistency." They talked about how to use Naxos so he could hear his songs and use that as part of his practice as well. It was really interesting going from Amanda who for the most part knows the big things she needs to do to Adrian who is just learning everything. Dr.Hepworth's patience was amazing, and Adrian never gave up either. I can tell a huge difference from Adrian's voice now from when we had class in voice together last fall. The making connections between his euphonium and voice was brilliant. That is where Adrian is really comfortable, and being able to make those connections are going to make things a lot easier for him.

Aubrey's First Voice Lesson.

Well here's to round two!...It was sooooooooooo much easier this time around with Aubrey. It was a lot easier to stay kind of on track with my lesson plan and I felt more in control because I actually knew that the things I was explaining to her were right. Well, I hope anyways. She was really excited right off the bat to take these lessons which made me really excited! She's my cousin so I know that she loves to sing. She went to Newman Grove for high school where she sang in the choir all four years. Now, Newman Grove is a super small school and their choir only consisted of maybe like 15 people tops. Aubrey was a soprano, and I knew she was pretty much the voice of the choir. I was kind of worried that she was going to come in with a mentality that she already knew how to sing, and would be a little resilient to my suggestions. However, she had a really open mind which was awesome. At the beginning of the lesson I asked her what she thought she needed to improve on and she said her tone. Looking back I wish I would've asked exactly what she meant by that. I'm guessing she meant just her tone in general because she is definitely more of a hypofunctional singer. She is really breathy, and as she ascends the breathiness just increases. She said she can read rhythms and knows the basic theory stuff so that'll make things easier once we get some rep worked into our lessons. I think I'm just going to bring some super basic theory stuff like note values and dynamic markings to the next lesson just to be sure. When we went over breathing she was taking really high breaths, but after I explained to her that she needs a low breath, and she can get that by breathing and her stomach comes out she caught on pretty quickly. It'll take a while for her to be comfortable with it, but I'm going to be sure to address it at every lesson. We talked about the tongue and did the kitty, ducka, today, and tongue trill exercises. She had no problem with the tongue trills, but the kitty, ducka, and today proved to be more difficult for her. Then we did some sliding ee's because I wanted her to find out about the buzz. Since she was so breathy I told her to try and make herself sound nasaly and to bring her sound into the nose. She felt really uncomfortable with that, but I know from experience that it's really weird to start doing. We worked on the e vowel for a while and added in the oh, oo, and ah vowels. She wasn't really dropping her jaw or shaping her vowels so we talked about that for a while too. I had her do some puppy whimpers to get that feeling of buzziness in the nose. She feels very uncomfortable, but can definitely tell a difference in the sound. I'm so glad I decided to teach a girl now because I feel a lot more confident. I think the next lesson I might introduce some ideas for rep to her, but for the most part we'll just go over the basics again.

Break throughs in lessons!

So during my last voice lesson I had another break through yay! We were singing through To a Wild Rose and Dr.Hepworth was telling me to let the sound out of my mouth. She kept telling me to throw it to the wall, and somehow all of a sudden I just had this awesome, full, really nice sound come out! It was super weird and it felt really really good. I'm really not exactly sure what I did to do that, but I was able to do it a few more times after that. It was really exciting to have a sound like that, and I was really just more shocked than anything. Since I've been practicing after that lesson it's been kind of difficult to find what I did. Sometimes I can do it again, but sometimes I can't. I'm not letting myself get frustrated because I know if I do that then it just won't happen again. I'm feeling really anxious about NATS this coming weekend. I feel really confident with O Cessate Di Piagarmi, and especially so since I'll be singing that on recital this Tuesday. However, To a Wild Rose is making me a little nervous. Holding the high notes just  freak me out. Dr.Hepworth told me I don't have to hold them the whole time, but I don't want to take the easy way out. If I'm going to perform the song, I want to perform it well and by doing it the right way. But I've still got a few days to figure things out, and I know it's going to be a really awesome learning experience no matter how things turn out. Now I just have to pick my outfit out! If I don't sound good then at least I know I'm gonna look good.

Amanda's Lesson--Vocal Ped

For my first observation I chose to watch Amanda. She is a senior soprano. The first thing they started with were the lip buzzes. The first major difference from her lessons and mine is that she did a lot more warm ups than I usually do, but her lesson was at 9:00 in the morning and mine is in the afternoon pretty soon after choir. The next warm up they did was sliding ee vowels. She was having trouble finding the buzz because she recently got her tonsils out and she can't feel it anymore. In order to have her feel the resonance, Dr.Hepworth had her put her hand in front of her mouth. This allowed her to feel it bouncing off her hand so she knew that she was doing it right. This came into play a bit later in the lesson when she couldn't find the buzz and so she put her hand up while she was singing the song and it helped her bring the buzz back into it. After she felt it for a while she took her hand away so she could hear what it is supposed to sound like. Dr.H explains that after she does it right for long enough then she will just be able to hear what it is supposed to sound like versus feeling it. After she was warmed up, they went right into her songs for NATS. After singing through a bit of her first song, they discussed where the right places to take breaths so she wouldn't lose the resonance. The biggest comments Dr.Hepworth was giving her were to keep the sound forward and she kept asking her how it felt. After she sang her songs that were in foreign languages they went over some pronunciation. Another thing they touched on was the character she needs to be for one of her songs. Dr.Hepworth was quick to get up and give her a great example of what she needed to do. The last big thing they touched on was how she needs to get more nasality in her lower register which helped her lower notes become fuller. Overall, I was surprised at how different, but yet still similar to my own voice lessons they were. Some of the things they focused on were a lot of the same things I am working on, but some of the ways they solved things she was having troubles were different than I would've needed. Like the hand in front of the mouth I have done in my lessons before, but we haven't talked about hearing the resonance versus feeling it too much. I think one of my favorite methods Dr.Hepworth uses is being positive with everything she says. She was never short of shelling out a compliment, but if there was something that needed help, she would never make negative of it. She'd just explain how to make it better. I am looking forward to observing Adrian's lesson so I can see the contrast from a girl's lesson to a boy's.

Nolan's first voice lesson......

Holy. Crap. That was the hardest thing ever. I suck. I had a lesson plan all figured out, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do and what I wanted to say and the lesson started and I just lost my mind. I realized as the lesson was going on that I didn't have things in the order I wanted them on my lesson plan. Since I was jumping around I was getting lost and confused. We started with breathing and he didn't know how to breathe with his stomach. I guess I just anticipated that people would know how to do stuff versus having to explain it a thousand different ways. But good grief that's what teaching is all about, and I know that. I guess I just wasn't as mentally prepared as I thought I was. Also, I really really really really REALLY wish I would've chosen a girl. I didn't even think about that til it was too late. I know that most singing techniques are the same for boys and girls but it's just so much harder to deal with head and chest voice because I'm really unsure of when he's supposed to use what. Especially since he has no idea what the difference is. I had a tough time trying to figure out his range but I think that will hopefully get better once we try out a few songs and see what he wants to sing. It is so much different from actually singing yourself to telling someone how to do it. I'm trying really hard to not get frustrated, I just feel like I don't know what I'm doing. I know the right things to do, I guess I just don't know the right things to say. I don't want to say this, but I really hope that I can do this. Like the whole teaching thing. I want to more than anything, and I know this is the first time I've even tried anything like this but I just feel like it went awful. For the next lesson I'm going to have a more specific lesson plan and I'm going to make sure it's in the right order so I don't feel so lost. I had a really tough time trying to figure out the right warm ups to do too. I guess I'm just going to try and prepare even more for next week and see if that will help at all.

o cessate

Well in my lesson today I first had to have my weekly therapy session. I just really wish I could change my mind set so I wouldn't get so down on myself all the time. I don't know what my deal is, I'll just have to keep working on it. I'm starting to manage stress better now so this must be phase two of that. We changed my songs for NATS today from Vergin Tutto Amor and Fair House of Joy to To a Wild Rose and O Cessate Di Piagarmi. Vergin Tutto was always my go to comfort song but I am just having the worst of times trying to switch from my head to my chest voice. Today was the first time I sang O Cessate with accompaniment and it actually went really really well. It's in a much easier part of my range to sing in. I really need to work on my vowel sounds and keeping my soft palate raised. I also have been so worried about getting my notes right I really haven't looked at the translation too terribly much so that's going to be one of my main focuses this week. I really want to interpret what I'm singing. Especially after watching Dr.Hepworth perform in studio the other day. She had amazing facial expressions and even though I had no idea what the words she was singing meant, I felt really involved in her performance, and I'd like to captivate people like that too. I am also super glad I dropped Fair House of Joy and switched it with To a Wild Rose. I always loved Fair House because it's so pretty, but I just don't have the strength for that one yet. After I figure out how this whole head voice thing works I want to get my lower register to be able to connect with it so I don't have to worry about my voice breaking every time I try to switch registers. My main concern with To a Wild Rose is that I feel like my voice is to heavy. Especially on the last awake when I have to hit the f for a whole bunch of counts. It's just not pretty and floaty and beautiful. Soooo I don't really know, but yeah. I feel like this is a really long blog and so I'm going to stop right here I think. Also, I have a sore throat right now. Boo :(

Head Voice.

Well I had my most ground breaking lesson the other day. I finally figured out what a head voice is! I really thought I had it figured out, but I think I was using more of a mixed voice than anything. I really don't know, but whatever it was, it was weird. SOOOOO now I know what it's supposed to feel like for sure. The only thing is, is that it's really hard for me to find it. I can't just jump in and start singing. I have to do the fake opera singer thing and find it and then I can get going in it. I know it's only been a couple days, but it's especially hard to find during choir. Solo singing seems so much easier these days than ensemble. Maybe it's because I just can't hear myself and I don't want to over do it and hurt myself because I think I'm a little fragile right now. I'm learning a TON in vocal ped right now and I think that is really going to help me in taking care and improving my voice. I really like the songs we have picked out right now. And I am SO excited to get a musical theater song :) :) :) :) That is my FAVORITE!! So as of now I'm pretty much just going through the literature and getting accustomed to the songs, but most importantly I just want to make sure I don't lose the head voice that I have so conveniently found. I am just going to try very very hard to not get stressed out. So everything will be just wonderful. And they all lived happily ever after. The end.

Second Year. Operation: Optimism

Well here we go again with the blogs. I'm pretty sure I'm late on this one because I kind of forgot so oops. Well I have a strangely wonderful feeling about this year. I am just coming in with a completely open mind. I love the songs we've picked out so far and I am so prepared to work my butt off. The main thing I want to work on is being able to switch from my chest to head voice smoothly. Also, I am still having problems with getting tired and fatigued after singing for a while so I am apparently not doing something wrong. I am guessing it is probably something to do with my tongue so I've already began doing the kitty and ducka exercises. I am ready for this year so let's do it whooooo!!!

The end.

Well, for my final blog I just wanted to throw a big enormous huge thank you to Dr.Hepworth. I can't even begin to stress on how much help you've been this semester. I would be nowhere CLOSE to where I am right now without you. You've given me confidence, knowledge,a support system, sanity...just to name a few! I am just so optimistic as to what the future is going to bring. I know that I have a lot of negative things to say, but I promise I'm working on building my confidence up! Also, knowing where I was just a few short months ago to now...I just can't get over it. I now understand how the flow of things work around the music department here, and I can assure you I am here to stay! Well, as long as it takes to get my degree anyways....But thank you SOOOOOO much for everything you've done for me. I can't wait for next year!!

Jury whoo

Well, I thought I had more blogs than I really did, so surprise to me! Let's see here, I had my last lesson today, and I think it was a really good one. I have my jury tomorrow, and I am actually feeling surprisingly confident about it. The only thing I'm really worried about is my words. I know that I'll probably have some issues with a few notes and breath support, but I am actually excited to perform and show how much I've improved. Also, my shoes are freaking cute so I'm really excited to wear those too. I'm still trying to get used to the buzz. I think I am pretty much getting the hang of it, but I just have to make myself like the sound! I know I will eventually, but it's just such a foreign and new sound to me right now. I've really noticed a change especially these past few weeks. My voice just has a whole new quality to it, and I am really super excited to see where it will go these next few years.

Almost done!!

Well, as the semester gets closer to the end, I find it much harder to find motivation. But, having a super good lesson yesterday really helps. Recital actually went very well. I just need to focus on what I'm doing and everything comes pretty easily. Yesterday during my lesson, I was actually finding the buzz. That was pretty exciting. I've been doing a lot of 'e's during practice and just getting it really all up in my nose. It feels really wrong, but it's a lot easier to sing so it must be right! Now I pretty much just need to memorize my rep and I should be good to go for juries. The improvement I've made this semester is still blowing my mind. I am trying to keep a really positive attitude now and just wait for the improvements to keep coming. My biggest thing I want to work on now is figuring out when to sing in my head voice and when to sing in my chest voice. It's like right around the a, b, and cish area that my voice just gets a little confused, but I'm pretty sure that just practicing will clear that up. Summer is in sight...YES!!!

square one.

Well, I'm finally getting better after being sick, but I feel like I'm right back where I started this semester. I'm afraid this is a vicious cycle. I can't afford to get sick and have to recover and then start all over again. Also, I'm terrified of singing in recital next week. Generally, I'm quite the confident girl. The way I carry myself, the way I dress, the work I do....I love everything about that. However, when it comes to singing, that is just my downfall. I expect so much of myself that it's just impossible for me to please myself. I don't know if it's just from being sick or what, but I've been getting tired after singing for a while. I guess I'm just getting frustrated or something. Not really a good time in the semester for that to happen but I'll work it out. I guess I just need an attitude check and to freaking stay healthy. Hopefully I can pull it together here soon. Gosh I am such a negative Nancy. Oh well though, I shall try and fix that.

Yay

So last week I had to sing in studio and I was really super nervous because that was the first time a lot of those people had ever even heard me sing before. I decided to sing "Vergin Tutto Amor" since that piece seems to be the one I'm most confident in. I was really nervous for some reason, and Mr.Phil even had to tell me to calm down as he was playing the intro. But the song started and I made it through just fine. I kind of forgot everything I learned all semester at first when I started, but after I got into the groove a little bit then it all started coming back. For some reason, I just really crave everybody's approval so I was pretty anxious to hear what everyone was going to say about it. Luckily, everybody's comments were really nice and the criticism was very constructive. That gave me a lot of confidence going into this week. Of course, good things are never going to last as long as you want them too, and I got sick again this week so that's always a pain, but I'm going to start doing a sinus rinse thing and I think that will help an incredible amount. Now that I'm starting to catch on to the buzz thing a little better, my main problem is switching from my head voice to my chest voice. It's at right about a B where I have to change and it's kind of like my voice just breaks there. I don't really have any idea what to do about it, but it is very frustrating. With juries and singing in recital looming upon me, I really want to kick it in gear with this stuff and just have it all figured out, but I know it takes time and it's not that easy. I am super excited for this time next year though, I just can't wait to see how much I've improved because the difference I can tell in my voice from just the beginning of this semester to now just astounds me. So I must be doing something right!

Sick week.

Well, last Friday I came down with a stupid cold and it is still going on, but luckily it is finally winding down. It was the stupid cough and plugged nose kind of cold so I didn't get into the practice room very much this week, but I did work on some listening and literature. But today in voice lessons I did get some singing done and the buzz came easier today than usual. I've really been trying to apply everything I learn when we're rehearsing in choir. That seems to be helping me quite a bit as well. When I am actually singing with a buzz the sound seems to flow easier than before. Ever since I started lessons this semester, singing just seems to be a lot of work! <--Not a complaint! But I just find myself concentrating on where my tongue is placed in my mouth or if my jaw is dropped, or how the air is flowing. I think I made a really good realization today in lessons when Dr.Hepworth told me to feel the air moving like down my nose. I could literally feel that and I could envision the air moving kind of if that makes any sense? Also, I learned a new way to manage my stress today by breathing in colors. Very much appreciated.

You're the best Dr.Hepworth :)

Buzz buzz.

This week I focused a lot on my Italian pieces. One of the big things I worked on were trilling my rs on pitch. I also hammered down a few rhythms I was having a few difficulties in Vergin Tutto Amor and Tu Lo Sai. I also got a new song this week which is just an English song called "To A Wild Rose". I like it a ton better than "If Music Be the Food of Love". I really don't know why I don't like that song, but it just annoys me for some reason. It's really awesome that Dr.Hepworth let me kick that one out of my repitoire because a lot of teachers would just make you suck it up and sing it anyways. I still really can't figure out the buzz thing. The thing that confuses me is I think I know when I have it, but then other times Dr.Hepworth will tell me that I'm doing well, but I can't feel a buzz at all. Is it supposed to be like really apparent or what? This buzz thing is driving me up the wall! And I know I'm supposed to find it by getting my tongue out of the way of my throat but I cannot freaking figure it out. I'm hoping someday it will just click and all my problems will magically vanish. April 20th is when I have to sing on recital and it is looming closer and closer. I think I am going to sing "Vergin Tutto Amore", but we shall see.

Tour week.

We had choir tour this week and I was really surprised at how well my voice handled it. Usually, my voice would be shot after two performances, but we did five total throughout the two days and I'm really tired, but it's not even from singing, it's just from lack of sleep. That's a really good feeling for me because I can finally tell that my voice is getting much stronger. Practice has been going well, I've just been going over my songs, and I think I'm starting to get a pretty good feel for them. One thing I think I need help with is warm ups. I guess my question is if there is like a certain order I should do vocalises in or how many I should do or maybe even learn some new ones. I'm still trying to find the "buzz" also. I just don't think I know what I'm looking for. I've tried experimenting, but I just cannot figure that out. Since midterms are over I have a feeling time is going to just start flying. It's going to be my time to sing in recital before I know it. I am still terrified, but we will cross that bridge once we get to it!

Breakthrough!!

Finally, a blog that won't be full of complaints! I had a really good week yay! Ever since I got switched to soprano two in choir, everything just seems a lot easier. Today in my lesson we made it through all of my songs, well kind of since I really don't like "If Music Be the Food of Love"...But today was the first time we really actually worked on singing through my repertoire and it felt really really good to feel like I was actually accomplishing something. My next order of business that I need to tackle is figuring out how to find the buzz. I'm really starting to catch on to the whole dropping the jaw thing I think, but I just can't figure out what exactly it is I need to do for the buzz. I suppose it will just involve a lot of practicing and a lot of experimenting. Nothing I can't handle though. I'm starting to get sick with a scratchy sore throat and a head cold sort of thing, but it's in it's infancy yet so I'm hoping that I can kick it to the curb before it will really start affecting me. Tonight is my first choir concert as a soprano so I'm pretty excited for that! Things are finally starting to click and it is super awesome. Let's just hope it stays that way!

Frustration station.

So, this week sucks. Well, I take that back. Today sucked. At the end of last week Dr.Lofgren moved me to soprano 2 in choir so that I can actually get some practice singing the way I'm supposed to. The beginning of the week went really well. I could already tell that was helping me, and it was a lot easier to experiment with my voice when I already know the songs we're singing. So, in choir I was feeling really confident. When I went into the practice room by myself it was a bit more difficult, but I still felt like I was making progress. Until today. I don't know if I was just really tired or what, but in choir I just could not sing. I don't know if I forgot what I've been doing or what, but I was just having troubles getting my voice to stay constant. It kept cutting out, and even though I was drinking water the whole time my throat just felt so dry. It didn't really hurt, it just felt weird.I figured I was just tired, but when I went to the practice room later I was still having troubles. I warmed up and started singing my songs on an e vowel, and the sound was coming out quite a bit better, but it just felt different. I wasn't doing something right. I have no idea what though, and it's really really frustrating. I hate not knowing what I'm doing. And another thing that is driving me nuts is the way I sound. I used to have  an actually quite pretty voice, and now it just sounds awful. I feel like my sound is so like heavy..I don't know if that's the right way to describe it??? But, I just want to sound nice and floaty and beautiful, and all I feel like I'm doing is getting a stomach full of breath and belting out some sound that is supposed to be singing. I don't know if it's just because I'm trying to find this new voice that I never knew I had, or if somehow I just ruined my voice and it will never sound the same, but it's really frustrating. I feel like I have so many obstacles in my way. I'm not going to give up...definitley not my style, but I want to gain some sense of confidence and I am just having the hardest time doing that. Boo. I need so many chai tea lattes and a bubble bath right now. I feel like that would solve a lot of my problems.

Holy Beautiful Day.

First off, I'm way off on my weeks so I'm just not going to title these by week anymore. Second off, it is like the nicest day in February EVER, and I wish it was like this every single day. Third, I just got done with my lesson, and as usual, I feel a million times better leaving it than entering. This week I actually felt pretty alright because I was kind of getting into the groove of practicing. One thing that I never told Dr.Hepworth during my lesson because I just kind of thought of it right now, but the one thing that holds me back when it comes to practicing is I get really self conscious. I do a lot of things in my dorm room, but I need to get into a practice room more often. I just don't want people to hear me.....yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh that's really dumb, but something that bothers me. My other problem this week, that is no secret, is that I just get so freaking frustrated. I just want to be good.  I totally understand that you have to practice to get better, but I'm just not used to it. I'm not giving up hope at all, once I set my mind to something I WILL do it. I just hate feeling so far away from my goals. Everyone keeps telling me just to sweat this semester out, and once I get into the swing of things it's going to just feel awesome. I just worry. Ha, what's new though? Okay. Positive attitude from here on out...no promises on that one, but it's a good thought. So my practice regimen for this week is to sing my songs on an "e" and work on some tongue excersises by saying today, kitty, and I forgot the last one so I will need to ask Dr.Hepworth about that. OH, and I'm not going to get all flustered this week either. Good luck to me!

Week Three.

Well, this week was pretty frustrating because I was sick basically the entire week with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Today's Thursday and I'm finally starting to feel better, but I just have the left over scratchy, annoying throat. I've been stocking up on water and orange juice though, so hopefully that helps! For practicing this week I really just played through my songs to try and get the tune in my head, and worked on the languages. I got another song added today in my lesson, and it's another Italian called Vergin, tutto amor, so that will be a challenge. That's fine though because I really like pushing myself, and pretending like I know how to speak Italian is pretty fun :) I definetely know that I'm going to start taking really super good care of myself from here on out because it's really frustrating not being able to work on my songs like I want to. I'll just keep focusing on my languages though, I imagine that mastering that is just as hard as getting the music down. So, here's to getting healthy for next week!!!!!!!!!!!

Week Two.

This week my challenge was getting into a practice room and starting to figure things out myself. I've never really gone about actually practicing by myself so I felt pretty silly when I first started practicing. My assignment was to just start learning the Italian for Tu Lo Sai and to kind of get the feel for the music in If Music Be the Food of Love. Both of them are very different pieces from what I've ever had to sing before. It's good though, I like a challenge. My voice was pretty tired all week, but the cold never seems to help my voice out. I am still absolutely terrified to sing in the recital at the end of this semester. I just need to not think about it. I'm hoping that my voice gets much stronger before then. I'm guessing it will, but the what ifs just kill me. I just don't want to do bad! I need to get into a little better groove of practicing by myself. I am going to start experimenting a bit with my voice and start to see what works and what doesn't. Let another week begin!

Week One

Well, I've never blogged before, and I've never taken voice lessons before, so this could be a very interesting semester. My first lesson was slightly overwhelming. The biggest news was when I found out that I'm actually probably really supposed to be a soprano. I haven't sang soprano since my seventh grade year in junior high show choir. All through out high school I pretty much was the alto section. Nobody else could ever find the notes so I always sang really loud so the alto part wouldn't get lost. Never would I ever of guessed that I'm actually supposed to be a soprano. I used to think high notes were a curse, but now I'm finding out that they're actually quite fun to sing! I'm still not really convinced that I'm a soprano at heart, but that would totally make sense as to why I had so many vocal problems in the past. It was because I've been singing in my chest voice all these years, and never learned how to use my head voice. So, I'm really excited to discover, and hopefully figure out this new part of my range. I also found out that I'll have to be singing in a recital this semester. The thought of this absolutely terrifies me. I used to love singing in front of people, but I just kind of hate my voice now. I just don't want to get up there and sing my song, and have everyone in the audience be like wow what is she doing up there. But that is me just freaking out I suppose. Last thing we did was figure out what books I'm going to be using and I ended up getting a book of Italian songs and arias for the medium high range, and a standard vocal literature book for mezzo soproano range. It's a lot to be thrown on all at once, but I can most definetly handle it, and I'm really really excited!