Practice 9/15/16

So, yesterday was Brooklynn's birthday, so naturally, we went out to eat and celebrate. Funny story--I overate (what's new), and I'm still full from the food I ate yesterday (it is now 9:30am, and we finished eating at 7:30pm). As a result, I woke up with some pretty bad reflux-voice. My folds were pretty swollen, and it took a good 3-5 seconds for any sound to come out when I encouraged it.

However, after doing some approach-from-above exercises, and keeping things light, my speaking voice is now functioning acceptably. Another thing I should note is that I may have been recruiting some root of the tongue tension in my exercises earlier this week, because that area feels a little tight today, and it's more noticeable with the swelling.

• Lesson 2/26/16 for warm ups. 
• Lesson 9/11/16
• Ride on top of the air!! Not air behind the sound. 
• I'm skipping the "many" exercise, because I can't ever seem to release well on my own with that one. 
• I paused the lesson because my voice wasn't ready to move on with the recording. I decided to do more exercises in a descending pattern in the middle range of my voice (G4-C5), and I focused on my jaw and allowing the pitch to land from above. My jaw is stiffening because I realize I've been trying to position it, rather than letting it fall into place. 
• I held a pencil in my teeth and worked on finding internal space before allowing the jaw to fall open. 
• I'm noticing that anything above D5 doesn't want to open up into the resonance that I would like. And... as I'm typing this out, I'm thinking maybe because the passagio is being a beast. So, I'm going to try starting out higher (F5/G5 ish) very light, and then falling into speech-like when I go down. "why not"
• I got a little frustrated, so I lay on the floor and let gravity do its thing, and when I got up, things were a little better.... My jaw feels tight still, for some reason, and so does the back of my tongue. 

I spent about 40 minutes on vocalizes, and now I feel a little better, but I'm still struggling to find adequate resonance in my singing that isn't too diffused. The problem is, I can't find better release when my resonance is diffused, and it's difficult to center the sound while remaining released. 

Practice 9/14/16

I woke up feeling pretty good vocally. I did some fake yawns to stretch out the back of my throat. Yesterday, I noticed that once I found the "sound" that I liked, I had a tendency to stiffen the back of my throat, so the goal is to keep things loose today.

• Start small! Be light, but on top of the pitch/airflow. Just the edges of the VFs
• loose jaw
• Lesson 2/27/16 follow. 
• LOOK for the space; don't make the space. 
• Release in all directions, including forward! Don't be afraid of front resonance, but don't close off the back at the same time. 
• thumb teeth cue.
• Lesson 9/11/16 follow. 
• thumb+teeth. cool air along the entire hard palate (including the front). 
• TRUST the voice. Don't do weird positioning. Just let the sound fall out. 

In the end, I got in a good place, but then I got too excited and oversang.... Yup. Good job, me. [insert heavy sarcasm here]

Practice 9/13/16

I expected really bad reflux when I woke up, but it actually wasn't that bad. I do have a bit of a runny nose, and it feels like allergies. I'm not congested, and I don't feel any other symptoms, so I don't think I'm sick. My vocal default today is pretty low.

• tiny lip trills, with descending glides from super light to more speech-like.
• "about to sneeze" space (works better than telling myself to breathe air on the back roof of my mouth) [o] 54231. Really focusing on onset and maintaining the same sneeze space while I descending. Keeping things very light. Starting pitch around G4 and some above and below. 
• Loose lips/Novocaine jaw. Watch that you don't close down the vowel as you end the phrase. 
• Play 6 before singing to cue approach from above. 
• [li le la lo la] 534231271. Think towards [o] or something more closed. Make it more speech-like on the ending. 
• "nehng" 54-32-12-34-54-32-1. Bounce, Looseness in the consonants, but as close to nasal as possible (well, they are nasal, technically, but it's a placement thing). 
• Watch your jaw. You don't need it!
• [u-y-i] 5-5-54321. Reiterate the top note, even if it's sustained. Release into each one. Maintain same "about to sneeze" before every onset. 
• [a e o] arpeggios. WATCH that you don't punt your air. Wat 'cha doin,' girl??? Just don't! Plugging one ear makes it easier to detect/eliminate distractions so you can focus on the breath. 
• [e] very closed. 
• thumb under teeth cue. 
• ~30 min. I decided to listen to some of my lesson because I was feeling released, but I couldn't quite figure 
• Listen to Lesson 9/11/16 
• ~10 min. My voice felt pretty lined up at this point.

This was a much more successful practice, and I think it all starts with the breathing. If I can establish a good breathing cue from the beginning, everything is much easier. That, and keeping everything released and "soft," especially in the jaw and my molars. 

Practice and Lesson 9/11/16 Summary, 9/12/16

• Lesson 2/27/16: warm up
• Start really light, then go into speech. 
• Cool air on the back roof of the mouth. 
• Big opening with small sound. 
• Lesson 9/12/16: Threading the voice
• "wah": 8531358531, thumb under top tooth
• cold air on top roof of the mouth
• close to yawn
• "yawning" 8531.
• air flow is cool; the pitch lands on top of the air flow. 
• "many" 132435465768798-and down
• incremental yawn/stretch
• [a-o] 1-8-787878-5-3-1. 
• don't punch! Even airflow. 
• [ae] 13-35-58-85-53-31
• think more of space, not of sound. 
• 1353-135853-13583 [a e o e a]
• Novocaine Jaw!! or else you'll have laryngeal scrape. 
• Consonants are very close to nasal, but not. 
• consistent air flow; no punching .
• think vowels as closer to [o] or [e]
• smaller mouth opening, but larger space in back. Look for resonant space all above the mouth. 

I wasn't as released as I was in my actual lesson, but I think that's because I haven't eaten in 18 hours. When I have food in my stomach, it's easier to anchor down the air flowand not wear out the voice with additional air pressure. 

Lesson Take-Aways 9/11/16

These last couple of days I've been feeling a little off in my singing. Things felt just a tiny bit more mucous-y than usual, and I was worried that maybe I was getting sick (since a lot of people that I know are sick right now). My onsets were a little weird still, and my vibrato felt a little bit beat-y (but that's not really news at this point).

I warmed up by following along with the 2/27/16 and 7/18/16 lessons before my voice lesson today. I focused on ease of onsets and keeping things small. My high voice felt there, but I couldn't quite release into my full singing voice without my vibrato getting weird.

• Breathe with cold air on the top of the mouth; the pitch rides the airflow, and the airflow is at the level of the pitch. 
• Novocaine jaw
• all vowels live in the [o] dome
• consonants are very very close to the nasal sounds. 
• Efficiency with the breath comes from efficiency with your singing technique. 
• When the vibrato is being weird, it's usually because the tongue is bunching, and you're not getting high enough with the soft palate. 
• DEMAND CONSISTENCY AND EFFICIENCY. 

And, as usual, my voice felt awesome by the end of my lesson.