Practice 12/29/16

So, here's a recap for the last couple of weeks. Leading up to juries, I managed to get bronchitis, so I spent a lot of time coughing pretty violently, and my voice got pretty tired from it. (The fact that I got through my jury without hacking my lungs out or coughing at all is pure luck.) During that time, however, I was still able to get some practice done (gently, of course), as long as I practiced during a time when I wasn't having a coughing spell.

After about five days into the break, I got better from bronchitis and have been pretty consistent with my practice over the break. I have been noticing some weird things in my singing. A weird squeezing whenever I ascend above a C5, and an edginess in my voice. There was also the feeling that I couldn't get out of my throat; the sound felt like it was eminating from my folds, and not outside of me, like it usually does when it feels/sounds like what I should be doing. 

I spent about a week trying to figure out what it is that I was doing that wasn't working, but I think a lot of it was just a lack of patience. Also, I decided to switch up my practice schedule, which I think really helped. Rather than starting practice in the afternoon, I would start around 10-11 a.m. (I got really lazy and slept in a lot this break...) During school, I have noticed that my best singing days were the ones where I began vocalizing/aligning the voice earlier in the day. 

Some things that really helped me get out of my odd vocal funk:

• Lessons 2/26 and 2/27/16
• plug ears occasionally. Get accustomed to both the sensory and auditory feedback. 
• Don't set the tongue. "Dare" the larynx to go up, rather than forcing it down with the root of the tongue. (This sounds a lot worse than what I'm actually doing.) 
• focus on the good
• space between back molars
• the breath gesture is depth. Not making the depth. 

I did a good amount of stretching my upper body while gently easing myself into vocalization, and that helped a lot as well. 

• Inhale the vowel you want to come out
• If your throat opens up as you inhale after singing, that means you were closing down to make sound. The only difference between singing and inhaling is the direction of the airflow. 
• Lighten as you ascend. Don't get impatient with the sound. 
• Use the [n] or [m] hum on a single pitch and ease into a vowel to get out of the throat. 
• [nim nem nam nom num]
• Tracheal tug exercises; ground yourself with the breath, not the root of the tongue. 

Lesson 12/3/16

I was very sleep deprived before this lesson. As usual. I really really need to get my sleep schedule together sometime. That would be very nice. 

• Lip trills 1-5-1-5-1-8-1
• 1~8~1
• hug the fat man 
• Don't be too relaxed. Be energized. 
• the throat is a microcosm of the body. Release in the breath/body=release in the throat
• keep things simple; siren doesn't have vibrato. 
• "yawning" 8-7654321
• exaggerate shoulder tension to juxtapose with release
• "many" 123-234-345-456 etc. 
• Think in opposition to the tension
• Don't make the pitch. 
• Be less sing-y. Just stretchy phonation feeling. 
• [ng] [a] + crazy face 5-4-3-2-123454321. 
• have a pointy [ng] (not spread) 
• Think of having energy to release, rather than dead and released/lazy. 
• [fi fe fi] 56-45-34-23-1. Think of pleasant things. 
• don't think of long. Think of up. 
• esp. for tired days. Better to think of buoyancy than forcing energy.
• [a] 1538531538531538531. 
• bounce on bottom/top notes, and think of the middle notes as just cues to wiggle
• extend the exercise. Use [o]. 
• sing out of your tear ducts. 
• "achoo" 1-1-1-1-8531
• "ro-cking" 1-3-5-8531
• "raj-yaj-yaj(ng)-king" 
• slow down this exercise to think, rather than do. Don't make anything happen with the muscles. 
• go through [e] on the way to [i]
• the jaw doesn't help. everything is internal. 
• dummy on bottom, genius eyes. 
• eggshell exercise (with [u] external) [u o a eh e i] 
• feel the vowels change at the lips
• check tongue engagement (under the jaw) when changing vowels/pitch
• WATCH A-O JOINT BALANCE.
• [i e a] 1234543212345678987654321
• when you stop singing, if you tongue releases, you were grabbing. 

During the lesson, I was a little frustrated because my tongue kept on engaging, but by the end, I felt like I was beginning to re-grasp what it was like to sing in a released manner.