Practice 2/6/17

Root of tongue was horrendously tight this morning. Last night, I tried doing more quiet exercises to avoid my tendency to want to push with the air, as well as to help find the edge of the folds in my onsets. However, I think that led to some unnecessary tensions that I only caught towards the end of my practice when my tongue felt tired. 

Use Lessons 2/26/16, 10/10/16, and 2/5/16

• Spent about an hour trying to find release in the tongue when I finally just gave up. The most pervasive issue I am experiencing on a regular basis is the sensation that there's a ceiling on my pitch; it feels like it's a struggle to get anywhere above C5. I was hoping that by spending most of my time in the lower part of my range, where I'm least likely to tighten, I could use that as a model behavior, but I continued to struggle. 
• Then experienced some weird glottal scrape/vocal flutters? that are really obnoxious and sometimes disconcerting. 
• Trying to find release in the body, not just the area surrounding the larynx. 
• Did a lot of "achoo" things, because it feels like my nasal resonance is inaccessible. (probably contributing to the "ceiling" sensation)
• When plugging ears: any sensation/sound of edginess on the inside = tension on the outside. Don't try and make it higher than it needs to be. That can lead to tongue tension.
• Pay attention to the shape of the space and "softness" of the space inside; don't think of trying to make parts move or not move. 

Gave up and started singing "Cruda sorte" and things kind of just fell into place. Don't know what happened. I had my ears plugged. Things felt better than it sounded, but that was a start. There wasn't as much focus to the sound as I would have liked.