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 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.