Practice 2/7 and 2/8/17

Last night: I spent another ~2.5 hours in the practice room. I went in with the intention of only doing 30 minutes, but next thing I knew it was past midnight by the time I left. Anyways, I spent a lot of time working on what we did in my lesson that day, trying to find release while working on the feeling of suspension. I got pretty frustrated about halfway through because I felt like I couldn't release into a fuller sound without my vibrato getting very beaty, but I tried really hard not to push with the breath and get impatient. I took a small break, and after listening to a recording from the MET with Kristine Opolais (whom I normally am not a huge fan of), something sympathetically released and I was able to sing almost as freely as I had when I had auditioned for USC. It just took me 1.5 hours to get there.... What's also frustrating is that I feel like whenever I find this released singing, I don't know how or why it happened, so it feels like a lot of luck is involved, and that drives me crazy because I feel like I can't replicate it. But I guess the only thing I can do is try to recreate the circumstances in which that happened.

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Started out the day with sticky mucus.

• Lesson 2/7/17
• don't overfill with the breath; if anything, it helps if you feel only half full. 
• "jaw recedes"
• listen to MET instagram Rusalka with Kristine Opalais; something about how open her sound is (even if it's a little breathy) helped me to open up
• watch tongue tip
• "nyam" get really chewy with it once you've figured things out
• really really fat tongue!
• "um yawning is a welcome change" 
• "many" with yawn. (I actually loathe this exercise with a fiery passion.) 
• "sob"
• watch that the pharynx above the mouth doesn't close up
• Be very very patient with the breath
• consistent breath flow
• After about an hour of warm up, I feel released; I just feel like my breath isn't as efficient (flow phonation) as it could be. Otherwise, I feel much more released than I did a couple days ago. 
• leaning upper back against the wall helps

By the end of my practice session (~1 hr. 15 min) I felt like I had found release, but there was inefficient airflow, so it felt like I could only sing two measures at a time. I started experimenting with the suspension feelings before I had to leave. 

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.