Our initial vocalization exercises consisted mainly of exercises to bring the head voice down and then to create a sense of body. We do an exercise where I start in the high register of my head voice, slide up on a, then descend singing o on a 5-4-3-2-1 pattern. I can work this exercise through my whole range which opens the body and creates a sense of consistency. One of the other most successful exercises uses the same vowels, but slides an octave up from a to o, then moves down by step back to the tonic. I use this time to practice allowing the sound to open up and sink deeper in the body as I move higher in my range. This was more effective once I was able to get out of my head and focus on something other than everything happening around my voice.
We spent the lesson working on Schubert’s “L’incanto Degli Occhi.” One of the big focuses was working the runs slowly. I tried singing them at half tempo on staccato sounds and on “deedle.” Each of these stabilized the runs and helped me to connect them in a way that didn’t require laryngeal movement. My jaw was stuck for most of the lesson in a way that made it difficult to differentiate between ɔ, o, and a. The second this was pointed out to me, I was able to find a more relaxed position that allowed for more soft palate space and allowed my lips to adapt as necessary to create these vowel sounds which at that point were more open. I will focus my practice of this song on slowing down the runs, clearly identifying and performing vowel sounds, and releasing the jaw.
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