Courtney-Smith-Chapters 4-6

 I really like Smith's approach to finding a free sound in the voice. I love that his goal is to help the singer find freedom and I love how he uses scaffolding to do that. His perspective on chiaroscuro is fascinating and something I'd never really considered, but it makes a lot of sense. I've noticed in my own warm-ups that when I focus exclusively on breath I do get a darker sound and when I focus on a speech-like quality I get more brightness or twang. As a teacher, I love the way these exercises strip away so many layers so that I can hear the core of their voice. My biggest question/concern about the system is how long he spends on each step. I'd imagine he only spends part of a lesson on each step otherwise I think students would get very impatient. Where he teaches at a college, students might struggle if he spent too long on these inventions and didn't dive into rep early enough for them to learn what they needed to. I think that for me, as both a teacher and a student, I would need to always keep in mind that it doesn't need to be perfect to be better. With this system I could easily see myself getting hung up at one step in the process and not moving forward, despite his focus on creativity. I do love that the activities are so simple and that they allow a singer to experience success early on. It is so much more motivating for a student to experience success and then build on it than to constantly feel discouraged.