Final Blog of the Semester!

This semester has been a really good semester!  I have learned a lot both in voice lessons, studio, and vocal pedagogy!  The final week of practicing I really worked on minor details and also having all my pieces memorized.  I am really happy about how my grades are this semester too.  I am so thankful for you Dr. Hepworth, you really inspire me!  Hopefully everyone else had a good week of practice and good luck on everybody's finals.

Lesson 6 with Curt

This is our last lesson and Curt has really made alot of progress during these six lessons!  We worked on some warm ups using forward singing and working into our head voice.  I told him to think lighter and it is going to feel a little weaker when you sing.  That seemed to help him make it into his head voice.  I also told him that you got think natural and not push when you sing into your head voice.  We also worked on Amazing Grace and worked on the diction again with the r's and legato singing.  He did a great job and I am really proud of my friend Curt!

Lesson 5 with Curt

This week in lessons we sang our first song and that was My Country Tis of Thee.  We worked on diction especially with the r's because Curt wass having a hard time with r's because he was using the retroflex r or midwest r alot.  Curt was telling me he likes to listen and sing to alot of country and I think that could be why this is kind of a little problem.  As we practiced the song Curt got alot better with the r's and was flipping them and making them silent where need be.  I also showed him some excercises like a duck a duck a, which helped as well.

Lesson 4 with Curt

This week we worked forward bright singing again!  I told Curt to show a little teeth when singing higher and also I explained to him what his soft pallet is and how you want to keep that high and you go up in your register and to keep the pitch from sagging or going flat.  He is working really hard and I can see a major difference in tone and how he sings!  He is doing a really good job!

Lesson 3 with Curt

This week in lessons we worked on more of the same warm ups and then introduced a couple more to help legato singing and connectivness.  We used the hand in our lesson to make a kinestetic tool for singing and it really helped bring out the legato singing as well as making the dipthongs and words connect.  We also worked on our posture and I helped him to not tense up when he sings!

Lesson 2 with Curt

Curt is really progressing!  I am using different warm ups to help him sing a little brighter and more forward and it is coming along pretty well!  I am using alot of sng-Ah, i and oh warm ups and also some sirens.  He is working really hard and improving alot!

Week Twelve of practicing

This week I worked on memorizing Heavenly Grass and also I am keeping on working on matching the vowell and dipthongs throughout I Wonder as I Wander.  It seems to be getting alot better I just have to remember that is what I need to do.  I have been running through all my rep and going over any spots that are troublesome or need a little work on.  Overall it was a good week of practicing and a very productive and good weekend!  I got my research paper done and the binder is almost ready to go, I just have a few more adjustments to it!  Hope everyone else had a good week!

Observation 4 Adrian Campos

When Observing Adrian I was just so impressed with his tone and how he sings.  He has a really nice baritone voice.  I noticed he was struggling also to get in his head voice and pushing more than not thing about the lighter and less forceful way of sing into your head voice.  I think also having a the mouth bigger and the soft pallet higher will also help Adrian with the head voice.  I though he did a great job with the diction in his italian piece.  I observed that memorization was hard for him a little bit and I would say that if you take chunks at a time or a phrase a time and build upon it you will be able to memorize quicker.  Also another way is to write the words down from the song and then sing them in the rhythm of the song.  I also noticed that some of the consonants where not as clear and a good excercise for that would be a duck a duck a or today today today because that gets your articulator moving you tongue and also helps with flexibility and agility.  Overall it was a really good lesson to observe!

Observation 3 Katie Hansen

When observing Katie Hansen I was just astonished of how mature sounding her voice is and how professional it is.  Her vocal tone is like butter it is very pleasant to listen too.  One thing that I noticed with Katie is how much her mouth is open the whole time and I rarely see her soft pallet go down which I though was awesome!  The one thing that struck me was modifing E vowell to an I vowell when it gets higher in the register I know that I have been working on this too in my lessons and in practicing as well.  I though Katie has improved so much in her chest voice range because I know that is especially hard for ladies and it hard for men to use there head voice.  Another thing that I thought was incredible was her breathing in the space was amazing.  It gave me goosebumps evertime she did it!

Observation 2 Eric Klima

When Observing Eric I was so impressed with his diction for Italian and German.  I also noticed is sound is alot more resonant.  I did notice some tension in the neck or even maybe in the shoulders with moving back and forth which maybe a sign of tension and worry or habit.  I also though he did a great job using the legato and was connecting every word or phrase together in the songs he sang.  I was seeing some pushing in the voice a little bit when it got high in the register and in order to make sure you are not pushing you got to think lighter and a more not as heavy sound like you are bowling and just rolling the ball very slowly but still following through and not letting go.  Overall I thought Eric's lesson was very good and it was incredible to see so much improvement in the lesson as well!

Observation 1 Jill Stara

When observing Jill I saw a huge improvement with her mouth space from observing her lesson and in studio it was incredible and to hear so much more resonants was also incredible.  I was very excited about that!  It is so different when our soft pallet collapses when we sing it does not sounds as good.  I also observed some clipping with the dipthongs like like and also on some two syllable words.  A way to help that would to elongate them to the next word or phrase.  I also really enjoyed tonal emotion as well when she sang because it felt like the mood of the piece.  I would say one thing to work on is going from the musical expression to also the facial expression of what the text is about and how to portrait that in a story.  I thought Jill did a wonderful job and has improved so much!