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.