Since my lesson on Monday, I've been struggling with figuring out where my tension is coming from and focusing my resonance. I went through what was on my lesson recording, and I spent some time on the floor, allowing my back to release as I breathe.
I sang while I was on the floor, and I noticed that I had a tendency to accompany my higher notes with additional subglottic pressure in addition to tightening the back and "punting" air as I ascended in pitch, especially with leaps and upward scales. I got pretty frustrated when I realized that I couldn't effectively sing in the higher part of my range without punting. Admittedly, this made me pretty upset; I kind of feel like all of the work I did over the summer has been for nothing. Like I got thrown back to square one all over again now that I've got to unwork all of the tension and bad-habits I've developed.
After taking a small break, I spent a good amount of time to allow my back to release, and upon standing my singing was a little better, but I felt things get edgy and everything still felt pressed. So I focused on singing very lightly so I didn't have to worry about breathing as much, and I sang shorter phrases, allowing time to inhale calmly.
I modified the floor exercise to a standing position since lying down made me feel like I was choking on my tongue. I stood with my back against the door and allowed my arms to hang from the door frame. In this position, I was just as aware of my breathing, as well as my tendency to engage my shoulders/breathe high.
One thing that I've been noticing during my practice: I keep trying to work with the vocalizes that are recorded in my lesson, but I find that I can't seem to balance clarity in my vowels and staying released in the tongue. I get really edgy and singing becomes tiring and uncomfortable, and this is especially noticeable on my closed vowels, where I can't really get away with opening my jaw as much. I've been experimenting with the "diagonal grin" we did in my lesson and morphing that [i] vowel into something I can still do with my lips released, but it's going to need more time, I suppose.
Also, the grin is difficult because once I do that, I find it really hard to release my face afterwards, and then my singing becomes really tight. All in all, I just got frustrated today, and I'm sure I just lost my patience by the end of the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment