Practice 9/11/17

Lesson 2/7/17 x2

Middle voice is worst. Tension of tongue around larynx is sore. Feels like a veil is on my sound.
In my attempt to figure out what I could possibly be doing, I read over old practice blogs. I had tagged some of the more recent ones with conditions that I was feeling (Tongue Tension, Breathing, etc.), and I decided to read over my blog for 2/7 and 2/8/17. This helped so much; it helped me to find what worked for me in the past. Super grateful that I have these to look back on.

• "hmmm" hum through nose really helped to release tongue. 
• Do not MAKE sound. 
• Feel like the hum is between the eyes. Think more "nose sound," rather than singing through nose. 
• Chewy. 
• Really pay attention to the things Cindy has to say here. I didn't write everything down in this blog, because everything was very helpful. 

After about an hour, I figured out some sort of release that allowed me to sing without feeling like I was trapped in my own body/throat. The tension was so bad that I thought something must be wrong, but it was just tension. I have to reestablish that feeling of release in my body now, because it (sadly) feels a little foreign since it's been so long. 

Practice 9/10/17

Lesson 7/2/16

earplugs

• Think "sob", but watch (internal) frown. (Helps breath)
• [u i, o e] in same space for vowels. 
• Don't be "careful"
• sing before you finish inhalation 
• ("ya ya" --> "(a)yaya")
• Don't move too early to consonant. 

Gave up about an hour in. Tongue is almost sore from being so tight. I'll come back to it with a fresh mind tomorrow. I have been trying so many different ideas, but I think I just need to mix things up and surprise myself at this point. I know I'm overthinking something, but I'm not sure what. But I KNOW it has to do with my tongue. I'm trying too hard to make a physical thing happen, which I know is something I shouldn't be doing. I just need to convince my body to trust me. 

Practice 9/8/17

Lesson 7/18/16

The throat/pharynx below the jaw is REALLY tight. Almost feels like beginnings of vocal tension dys. again.

• Try imagining the root of the tongue isn't connected to anything: There's not any constriction of space surrounding the tongue. 
• Low voice/middle has been the worst. Really tight. Tongue tension has been really bad. Feels like a curtain over the voice (which sounds alarming, but I'm pretty sure it's just really bad tongue tension.....). Feels like everything is stuck in the throat. 

Practice 9/4/17

Lesson 8/31/17

Before lesson: tried to figure things out without recording. 

• On "nyam" [a] should feel like nasal, but it's not?
• watch for lazy soft palate on [mi e a]; it gives illusion of forward resonance. Also esp. watch in tongue as well the lower voice. 
• Use earplugs: really pay attention to "breathe-->sing"
• notice how everything lifts when you inhale. Sing along that contour. 

Practice 9/1/17

9:45 AM

Some residual phlegm on folds, but I think that's just dehydration. Causing some scratch in sound.

• Start low (no higher than G4)
• taking concepts from Lesson 8/31/17:
• gently release soft palate upwards; key is gentle
• be aware of root of tongue and tip of tongue
• watch [i] for purity, as well as [u]
• stay ground (use whip/belt/rope for pulling)
• be patient. start quietly.
• watch chin, and temporal muscles.
• gentle panting for scrape-y onsets
• sometimes thinking about tongue is too much; so think release space between molars AND front canines (so sound doesn't fall back)
• on [i]: release blade of tongue.
• back molars release (of both palates... hard/soft)
• experiment with different vowel order/patterns

Still some interference in larynx. Perhaps tongue? (Probably tongue.)

Practice 8/26/17

Lesson 2/26/17 (x2)
8PM

Much chest congestion is going away. No more post nasal drip! Still VF a little phlegmy.

• Earplugs; I noticed I would grab yesterday
• nasal passage is refreshingly clear tonight. Wish pharynx was just as clear...
• don't think too much about your pharynx
• notice scratchiness as you descend
• focus on the good!
• alternate nose/mouth breath
• imagine how you want things different, and request it. Don't overthink and force.
• Nasal-pharynx seems really released today.
• imagine an open glottis
• remember to be holistic in your sensory awareness
• "like that"
• be aware of the feeling of a "roof" --> esp. behind nose. 

Practice 8/24/17

10 PM

Lesson 2/26/17

Voice a little swollen, but post nasal drip is slowing. Just more tracheal irritation and chest congestion, which leads to coughing. I'm very glottal scrape prone right now.

• release the entire tube
• breathe-sing; space shouldn't really change
• release back of pharynx/tongue/jaw
• E5+ --> head shift only
• Watch airflow that it isn't leaky as you descend or open to vowel. 
• start with something, like [v, th]
• watch snarl...

Practice 8/21/17

Lesson 2/26/16
11:46 AM

Have a cold; migrated from fiery nasal cavity to scratchy/mucus-y throat.

• released back molars AND root of tongue
• includes happy cheeks
• QUIET panting
• be aware of any subglottal pressure when singing.
• watch A-O joint release
• establish the "tube"
• if things are too "muggy"/swollen at the VFs, then don't sing there! Sing above it!
• if swelling is bad, don't try to make airiness go away. if it's a thing that must happen, let it. 
• use panting to make sure you don't fall back

Practice 8/18/17

Lesson 2/26/16

• Molar space (even on [u])
• don't "poop" air
• establish released "tube"/pharynx all the way up behind nasopharynx AND below jaw.
• panting to notice where pharynx is released or not
• "beep":don't be afraid to be small
• NOTICE space, but don't necessarily sing into it. 
• Think forward and up.

Practice 8/10/17

Lesson 2/26/16 (x2)

Voice has been feeling a bit too "leady"--base of tongue tension + zero breath support (feels like always gasping for air)

No earplugs this time. 

• really focus on sensation
• watch descending scales; there should be no breathy [h] delineation for each note.
• notice in "ya" 54321 that pitch change happens in "same place" with no laryngeal help to separate notes
• don't make vibrato. Go for simplicity. Don't make a sound. 
• jaw/tongue independence. 

Practice 8/1/17

Lesson 7/31/17

Voice feels a little abused from oversinging/reflux/allergies?

• Start with many SOVTE, like lip buzzes, [th] [v] [u]
• experiment with idea that breath is accelerating; not necessarily more volume. Start normally and allow it to move somewhere.
• watch that you're allowing the line to FLOW as one, rather than having it fade in/out between pitches. 
• watch jaw is independent of tongue

• Watch if sound "moves" in face when descending. 
• [th] 54321, not "bouncy." Think more legato. 
• "oy" 54321-123454321
• don't sing in your space for the vowel. Sing in front of it. 
• **Use "yodeling" [a u a] 1-8-1 to discover your isolated CT. Good for use above E/F5+

Practice 7/24/17

Lesson 4/18/17
(Earplugs)

• release back soft palate
• everything in front of dimples
• don't force
• start vocalization gently/simple.
• corners of mouth yearn for each other
• "no jaw", but allow to open
• open pharynx --> the breath also doesn't "explode." It is grounded. 
• all sound is above the mouth
• watch that chin doesn't get stuck down
• "nyam--ah" 54321-54321
• vowel open on top. not with jaw.
• watch subglottal pressure; feeling of suspension of breath.
• space in BODY, then thread the needle.
• you have to balance generosity of air and too much air
• **No sense of breath "drying out" the folds as you sing; it goes above; the space for higher pitches (all pitches) is above the nose
• don't get lazy as you descend.
• "when I" exercise: allow lips to move from active to inactive.
• onsets will never scoop up (especially with consonants)
• if getting stuck in the throat, think more nasal/in front of dimples. 
• **Really monitor back of tongue/roof.
• A-O joint flexibility
• even breath flow
• jaw is very released/open
• Think Nebrebko or Sierra
• watch that back of pharynx is nice and soft.
• still keep in mind "front of dimples."

Practice 6/17/17

I haven't been posting things here lately, but I have a whole bunch of notes in my practice journal that I'm going to post here.

Lessons 2/26 and 2/27/16

• earplugs
• easy, quiet onsets (soft)
• think of very edges of folds vibrating -- no body
• Don't "make" a sound happen.
• Breathe through nose and become aware of NO sensation in pharyngeal muscles/space.
• the pitch starts at the unicorn tip of horn.
• can also do "bite the apple" breath.
• Watch that onsets are soft and easy
• **You feel NOTHING in back of throat or at glottis. 
• use little vocal capital during warm-ups
• feels cool air on front half of roof of mouth
• focus on the good. NOT getting rid of the bad
• vowel uniformity
• jaw hinges/swings open
• think ascend as you descend 
• even breath flow as you ascend
• you feel NOTHING in soft palate
• tip of tongue against bottom row of teeth

• Breath should be casual; don't make a breath be anything. 
• when you open your mouth, air just comes in. 
• it's never "all or nothing"!

Practice 4/26/17

There's been some weird gravel in my voice lately, and it's making me a little concerned; there is no restriction on my range or anything like that, but this weird gravelly sound will come into my voice (esp. in my middle range) that I have a very hard time getting rid of. It sometimes causes weird glottal scraping as well. A part of me thinks that it's because I get lazy as I descend sometimes, and things don't stay as high as they should (i.e. soft palate and base of tongue), but I'm not quite sure.

• Start really quietly. searching for clarity, not volume. 
• This really helps to monitor breath flow as well. 
• The gravel is more obvious on brighter vowels. 
• Note: The gravel is different from "airiness" that I sometimes get. 
• Bite the apple: energy on top row of teeth
• Earplugs in
• Nadine Sierra: watch how she opens her mouth; it's so loose and free. Molar space. 
• it feels like a bit of a stretch in the jaw, but it feels good in the voice; just need to become accustomed, perhaps?
• swings back; hepls to think of pacman.... Even if you don't open up like that in actuality.
• tip of tongue is released

Still struggling a bit to release into the voice without excess squeezing or airiness. Trying to find the balance is a bit hard.... 

Practice 3/29/17

Lesson 2/19/16 Warm-up

• root of the tongue wants to default to a heavy, weighty feeling. 

Lesson 3/28/17

• lip trills with toaster shoulders
• "may oh my I" 8531
• about to yawn
• legato does not mean slur
• "I'm bathing" 1-8531
• m/b line up
• loose chew, mouth/lips
• maintain height as you descend
• "gai lai" 5432123454321
• preceed with two "g" touches. 
• "ai ai ai ai ai" 1358531358531

• happy, quiet "ah"
• don't make depth. Even give it permission to be shallow if it wants. Don't make anything happen. 
• noticing a "sand-papery" sensation/sound.... 
• 
  

Practice 4/21/17

I felt really good yesterday vocally, and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I had started warming up as soon as I woke up. That's a common trend on the days that I feel best about my voice, but it's just hard to be able to do that when waking up early is such a struggle. 

I've been having this weird default to gravel/scrape in the voice, and in my most recent lesson, we discussed having proper vocal occlusion, which is something I hadn't really focused on before, because I was worried about squeezing shut.

Lesson 2/26/17

• Use the nasal consonants to flip into vowels. It should be in the same place or above, now below. 
• The breath flow shouldn't increase in pressure when you open up. It should be the same, focused. 
• The breath should never be obstructed by the articulators.  
• Pay extra attention as you descend; don't get lazy and let the gravel in. 
• When you're feeling low/gravelly, it's better to err on the side of "nasality." Esp. for mezzos. 
• When you want to scrunch up the nose to get this nasality, think of doing it on the inside instead. Nothing on the outside should be influencing the inside.
• Opposition in the breath gesture and the sound. 
• Imagine the bottom of the breath gesture to be drawing the jaw down, and the top of the breath gesture is where the pitch comes out through a tiny hole. 
• You sing with a point over a big space; you don't fill the space. 
• corners of the lips "yearn" for each other

Lesson 2/27/17

• imagine the pitch starting in the unicorn horn tip. 
• watch that onsets are clear/no extra effort/breathy. 
• think "nasal" as you decrescendo/descend in pitch
• Experiment with placement of said unicorn horn tip if things are still too gravelly
• really released nasopharynx
• you'll have space in the back of the throat, but you're not going to fill that space with sound. 
• Take your time smelling the roses.
• The quiet, high exercises will never work if your jaw is stuck closed. 
• Make some honky nose sounds to become more comfortable with being that forward

Lesson 4/18/17

• horse, falling down through 5-1. Dropping arms.
• "blap blap blap" 8531 
• No pooping out the air; similar feeling/sensation of vibration as the horse. Very masky. 
• "nyam nyam"5432123454321
• eyes should not be closing as you do this
• add fish breath
• Think of Lynn Helding breath/mouth shape. 

Practice 3/27/17

I caught myself clenching my teeth a lot this weekend, and I've got quite a bit of lingering "soreness" in the root of my tongue because of it. Spend the first couple minutes of my practice just stretching and trying to find release in the neck. I've also been noticing how my jaw tends to default to jutting forward at times, so I've been trying to be more aware of that.

Lesson 2/29/16 ~13 min.

• Jaw is down and back
• watch onsets
• don't push the sound out; just let it fall out
• watch even airflow
• "depth is breath gesture [not shape]"
• uniformity throughout the range; if you feel something shift in the pharynx, it's probably not right. Use the breath to set up the tube; the tube stays the same even as you add pitch
• Onsets. Really work on those. They've been a little uncoordinated lately. Use sob with panting. 
• watch tip of the tongue
• don't try and "fix" things. Notice the good things and reiterate them. 
• lighten as you ascend. 
• posture
• really supple mouth/cheeks

Lesson 7/18/16 ~9/10 min. 

• "a-a-a-a-achoo" on sob before starting vocalize
• allow the mouth to open if it needs to. Pay attention to what it wants. 

Did some additional arpeggio work; 

• as you ascend, don't come off the voice. Just think of your tube. 
• vowel is in the thought. 
• fast [zi ze zaa----] 12345432-12345432-12345678987654321
• wobble exercises

While singing:

• Watch that you don't spread when "biting the apple." 
• molars are up and easy--when you inhale for about to sneeze, imagine the cool air brushing past them. 
• Watch the tube
• WATCH ONSETS. Sob! 

Practice 3/22/17 and Lesson 3/21/17

Voice actually feels pretty decent this morning. Must be the rain.

Warm up: ~10 minutes

• "nyam" 54321 
• completely released lips, space between back molars
• happy quiet ah, but don't try and /make/ your soft palate raise. Just let it be. 
• feel cool air on hard palate just behind front top teeth
• feel release in nostrils
• "ya" 54321 
• stay in lower range of your voice to get accustomed to complete release
• light/easy for higher pitches
• "yes sir" 8531
• precise/buoyant pitches. Watch that you don't slur. Legato is much simpler than "singing through"

Lesson 3/21/17

• "v" 1~8~1 
• siren-like
• use the pressure created from the semi-occlusion to relieve subglottic pressure
• wide in back
• "th---they" 87654321-35-87654321
• "yes sir" 8531
• "kitty kitty cat" 54321
• stay light on the higher pitches, and allow speech-like quality on bottom pitch (not from added breath pressure)
• [be de be de] 8531
• completely released back molars
• you can do happy inhale, but remember to stay released everywhere. Millimeters make a big difference!
• "nyam" 123454321`
• use the [n] to find the highness of the tone
• [fi fe fi fe fi] 564534231
• don't poop out breath
• big nostrils
• "my oh my" 8531
• child-like
• buoyant, no slur

Practice 3/20/17

Hey! Less allergies today. Voice still felt really weird over the weekend; like something was swollen. I also feel like my default to singing these days is really "leaky" with the air, so I need to work on that. Referred to my practice blog for 3/17/17.

Lesson 2/26/16

• Do some stretching of the ribcage
• bite the apple + happy breath
• molars triangle
• watch breathiness--don't try and /make/ it go away, but expect it to. 
• soft palate stays up as you descend
• energetic release of the tone
• cheeks are really released--the space on the inside is super soft just behind the cheek flesh. 
• keep thoughts happy though
• constant space between molars
• top lip is released
• be "singing" the pitch before you're even finished inhaling
• soft palate stays up even as you descend
• vowel is a thought
• watch posture
• release tip of the tongue
• REALLY bite the apple
• don't think of forcing the folds to adduct. They'll do that on their own. 

Lesson 2/28/17

• fat tongue
• release temporal
• don't make depth; depth is breath gesture
• think of the pointiness that you want in your tone. 
• feels like it's going out of a hole in the middle of the hard palate
• think "like that" whenever you have to reascend
• take your time!
• tip of tongue is really friendly with bottom row of teeth
• if the first pitch doesn't start outside of you, you're not going to end up in a good place. 
• raised molars
• onsets! Watch them. If they feel like the folds are coming together, that's not right. 
• think opposites for vowels

Spent about 40 minutes aligning the voice, but things above G5 are just not wanting to cooperate today. They get really weird and fuzzy whenever I tried to work with them, but I stopped because I didn't want to overdo it. 

Practice 3/17/17

Allergies are still pretty bad, but I've been taking some essential oils for it, and it works surprisingly well.

Referenced the practice blog for March 3, 2017.
Lesson 2/26/16 warm up

• stretch the ribcage
• bite the apple + happy breath
• don't overfill with breath
• back molars lift into skull, and there's that triangle, with the teeth being the bottom two points. the top point into the middle of the skull. You don't /make/ the "point" in the tone, but it somehow appears there in the middle of the hard palate. 
• don't be a leaky faucet
• if you can feel yourself open up in the throat when you breathe, you're closing in the first place. 
• gesture of the inhale
• millimeters can make a world of a difference!
• Yesterday, during my preview, whenever Cindy cued me to have a more open mouth, it wasn't necessarily exaggerated. It was just more released. Don't overdo it. 
• vowel is in the thought
• watch subglottal pressure.... 
• tip of the tongue is friendly with bottom row of teeth
• breathing in through the nose helps me to feel the breath right behind the top front teeth; have that same feeling when you're inhaling through the mouth. 

Lesson 2/28/17

• sometimes, there's just too much pressing between the folds. Imagine that they're barely touching. 
• imagine the point-y-ness in the pitch. Don't try and make it. Just let it happen. Look for it. 
• release temporal
• fat tongue
• release the A-O joint! if jaw feels really tense+root of tongue. 
• keep soft palate up as you descending
• release jaw for [e/i]!
• Posture makes a big difference (who knew.... *sarcasm*)
• horizontal length in the front chest, equal with the back
• prompt the soft palate, but don't try and force it up higher than you think you "need."
• prompt open mouth (like Cindy). Don't jam it down. As if you're in mid-performance. 
• prompt the pointiness in the tone, but don't make it. especially as you ascend. 

Pharynx felt very nice and released by the end, but there was some tension in the root of my tongue that I had a hard time eliminating. I put some earplugs in as I worked on my music, and I kept all of the things that I worked on in my vocalization in mind, focusing particularly on making sure that things felt released, not focusing necessarily on the sound. I just assume the resonance is there when I feel it? It's difficult to explain.