Lesson Summary/Take-Aways 10/7/16 and Practice 10/10/16

Before starting this lesson, I didn't warm-up as usual and came with a cold voice, because I've noticed that a lot of my vocal issues from the get-go are pretty consistent, so I figured that we'd work through these issues together.

Lesson Summary:

We spent the first couple minutes discussing my last Lesson Summary, and something really interesting that I learned from this discussion was the idea of having all the air in the world available to you above the larynx that's released, and there's a "river" of air beneath the larynx that never pushes its way up, but it's available for the larynx to pull from.

• lip trills on 5-1-5-1
• feel like we're releasing all of our air, but our lips are regulating it. 
• move the head around for release in the neck area as well. 
• [a] 1-8-1-8-1-8-1 
• Do this in three different neck positions. 
• It's going to sound ugly. 
• "play me" 8-7654321
• [pl] put the pressure of the air behind the [p], and when you release the explosive consonant, you release the air above the larynx, not below it. 
• When it's working well, you can feel it in the consonant, but not in the body. 
• "yawning, yelling, yodeling" 8-7654321
• You have to be on the breath to be successful. 
• Use the "y" and "ng" to help you! 
• [i] 123454321-8-1
• Go up in the same elevator shaft. 
• [i] needs to have space behind it, not just be forward. 
• [i] 1-8-1 sliding. 
• Always stay connected (like the trust fall, holding arm and leaning back)
• It feels like there's more "tension," but not in a tightening way. Like the belting exercises that Karilyn had me do to keep some chest in my voice as I ascend. Maintain/increasing sense of space in the mouth as I ascend. 
• [fa fe fi fe fa] 56-45-34-23-1
• Don't get shallow. 
• [i] The bright vowels fall out of the mouth, rather than staying behind the teeth. 
• [a] 1-3-5-8-5-3-1-3-5-8531
• Staccato
• Keep face/lips released. 
• Balancing energy as you ascend
• This exercise was difficult! My abs are so tired when I'm done with this exercise.... 
• The onset is everything, and "losing the lid" is everything to do with the breath. 

Take-Aways: 

• The idea that all the air above the larynx is released, and air below the larynx is available, but it's not let through the flood-gates. This was the main idea that helped me the most throughout the lesson. 
• Sing "agitated" music with really free-flowing tone beneath, and it's the words themselves that make it sound agitated, not the breath gesture itself. (L'attente) 

Practice: 

• The soft palate feels a little tense sometimes, especially when I go to sing "Que fais-tu." So I practicing singing it on just the vowels and allowing the music to be smooth as if singing something like "Beau Soir." (Remember, the words make it agitated, not the singing itself.) 
• Take time after the breath to establish the "reservoir" beneath the larynx and releasing above.