Practice 10/31/16

Today I woke up feeling a little sick, with the back of my throat a little tender from reflux and my naso-pharynx feeling a little inflamed (the way it does when I get sick). However, as the day went on, I began to feel better.

I'm also discovering that my best singing days happen when I wake up early-ish (around 8 or 9am) and begin practicing around 10 or 10:30am. It's just a trend that I'm noticing.

For the first half of the day:

• Follow Lesson 2/27/16 and 2/19/16
• lip trills--they're typically released, so think "like that"
• watch upper lip: tends to stiffen
• little ball of air just behind your upper teeth and resting on the blade of your tongue (front tip to center of tongue). You don't want it to fall out, but you don't want to squish it either. 
• Don't force back of throat open at all!
• consistent breath flow
• focus on what you liked!
• allow jaw to swing open.

By the end of this practice session, I felt pretty released, but I never got to my optimal place. That being said, I attributed it to the fact that my voice never had time to really warm up at this point. 

As the day wore on, my technique kind of fell down the drain, so after Choral Scholars rehearsal, I went back to the practice room to work some things out. I started out feeling pretty tense, like the back of my throat was closing up. It was much like that sensation I've described before: feels like singing through a brick wall. It wasn't that bad, but it was getting there, so I definitely wanted to stop it. 

Evening session:

• Lesson 2/27/16 (for ~10-15 minutes), then 10/7/16.
• I tried to find release, but for the first 30 minutes or so, I struggled to find it, so I went to the floor and spent another 20 minutes following along, but allowing gravity to weigh down on me to help me release. Followed the 10/7/16 lesson on the floor. 
• This helped me to release the back of the pharynx, my neck, shoulders, etc. I became more aware of extraneous movement in my body. I move a lot in the practice room, but I never noticed that I was so (unnecessarily) fidgety. 
• Think of vertical AND horizontal release (aka side edges of the tongue are fat too)
• The bright vowel "ride the side edges of the tongue."
• Once I felt comfortable with the release in my body, I went back up, thinking about how released I felt on the floor and allowing my tongue to be fat in my mouth. Thinking about a) even breath flow, b) released back of the neck/throat, and c) fat edges of tongue really helped. These are the things that, if I remember to address them, help me find my more optimal resonance. 

My only downfall with finding good release (especially at night) is that I get too eager to sing and then I over-sing. Oh well. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit of a faster process...