Patrice- Smith- Ch. 13-14

 Better Late than Never Smith Ch. 13-14

Here are some things that stood out to me in these chapters.

How to remain a healthy singer! Hydration, hydration, hydration. Do not smoke, do not scream, avoid smokey bars or places. Do not use drugs. Diet and exercise, be healthy, but not extreme. Get your voice checked when you have concerns. Take care of yourself when you are sick- do not sing, hydrate hydrate hydrate. Be caution with prescriptions that may cause inflammation to the larynx. You will have a nontraditional lifestyle, and that will be hard. Mental health is and will continue to be something to manage. Gain confidence, but stay humble. You can have success. You are the only one who can sound like you. Your voice is unique, have confidence in that. Keep learning and growing. You've got this.

Patrice- Smith- Ch. 10-12

 Better Late than Never Smith Ch. 10-12

Here are some things that stood out to me in these chapters.

Chapter ten was about performing and the difference of practicing and "playing the game". This chapter was  all the things that make singing emotional. Techniques to help with legato include: vowel definition, vowel substitution, what to do with french vowels, how to work with consonants, how to work with shadow vowels (sing them when needed and when not to sing them). Other techniques to "play the game" include: diction (don't over-pronounce, but makes sure it is understandable (aurally and emotionally)), musicality (adding different dynamics, especially on stagnant parts or parts with runs), dynamics and how to sing softly (THIS NEEDS TO BE LEARNED, if not, soft singing will not be done with the correct technique), and singing staccato with legato. There are some things that need to be dealt with in different ways, such as: wide intervals, stylistic differences, or singing in nonclassical styles.

Chapter 11 is about finding your own path. This includes choosing appropriate rep. I have found finding appropriate rep for myself has at times been difficult. When I first started, I had never sung any classical music so I picked song that I thought sounded nice. Turns out, I needed a simpler french songs. but the more and  more that I have sung the more complicated my songs have become. I have become more confident in my rep choices and it has been cool to see my personal progression. Steps to learn rep: study the text, speak the text, speak the text in rhythm, get the pitches in your ear, sing it. Remember you are an actor as well as a singer!

Your voice is yours. But because of there there are thing that can be difficult to manage. You need to take responsibility of your own singing choices. You need to know how to deal with directors and conductors. There will be times you need to say no and know how to say no. Know what you are willing to do and what you are not willing to do and how you will compromise. Be prepared, generous, know when it is appropriate to mark and when you should sing.

Patrice- Smith- Ch. 7-9

 Better Late than Never Smith Ch. 7-9

Here are some things that stood out to me in these chapters.

Spontaneous combustion has to do with the onset. I found recently that once I am on a note, my voice is very consistent and stays- but I need to make sure I am ON the RIGHT note, not slightly sharp, or slightly flat. An exercise that help with spontaneous combustion is five detached [a]'s. Releases are not cutting off the vocal folds, rather just stopping the phonation while the air flow continues. The wobble helps with flexibility of airflow. It stretches your vocal folds long and thin and then releases them to become short and thick. How to get high but not with drugs? Mix chest and head voice, start low, perfect the techniques with your students before they try them on their own.

Patrice- Smith- Ch. 4-6

Better Late than Never Smith Ch. 4-6

Here are some things that stood out to me in these chapters.

Qualifiers of speech: projection, line, defined vowels, on the whole instrument (using the whole body). Simply speaking simply is eliminating the complications of speech and enables the most pure and simple vocal expressions. Different phases to simply speak simply are: one, vernacular speaking; two, speaking with projection; three, speaking with line; four, speaking with projection and line on pitch; and five, refining the vowel. Remeber- bring the tongue forward! The bass of the tongue can become an issue. Free-flowing air will help with falsetto. Muscles need to be disengaged. Here are ways to master free-flowing air: one, downward sigh; two,  siren; and three, descending five-tone scale. How do you balance it all?  The extremes don't work every day. Classical technique is a great foundation for any kind of singing. Warming up is to help the voice feel relaxed.

Patrice- Smith- Intro-Ch. 3

Better Late than Never Smith Intro-Ch. 3

Here are some things I pulled from these chapters.

"The Naked Voice" is to represent authenticity and the purity of one's actual voice. Singing should be like breathing and speaking. Make sure you understand how your instrument works. You do not want a passive resonator, but an active one. The sound of our instrument will change from day to day because our bodies change from day to day. Sing in a wholistic way- that is with your whole self and body. Speaking is so natural and we don't think about it, but we think about singing. Sometimes you need to teach in such a way that students begin to think of singing like speaking, that is, think less. Don't sing/speak the way you think you should, but the way you do. Breathing is the essence of life. The more simply we think about breathing the better we do it. We need good body alignment to breath correctly. The word support can be counter productive. Teach free flow of air and to feel the sensation of flow instead. Releasing the air includes releasing the abdomen muscle. Release all you air all the time. We do not need to control our breath, our vocal folds regulate the airflow.

Patrice- McCoy- Ch. 8

  Better Late than Never McCoy Ch. 8

I kinda talked about this in my chapter 5 post on resonance. Registers are neat to me. Depending on how the resonance sits in one's body and what register it resonates can determine voice type. When I was reading about the woman's voice and classical versus belting I was intrigued. I thought about when I sing the two different styles and how I need to shift my registers or approach note differently depending on the surrounding notes. Recently I have found I better know how to sing in different registers and bring a register up or down depending on the need of the style, sound production, and my needs as a singer. The modes were interesting as well. Depending on how the glottis forms depends on the mode and register. I  love knowing how the body works and functions. I find it helpful in my personal sound production.

Patrice- McCoy- Ch. 7

 Better Late than Never McCoy Ch. 7

Vocal health has never been a huge worry of mine personally, but I do have some friends who have struggled with some pretty major vocal health issues. I do know I can be better at taking care of my voice when I am sick. I definitely have had times when I should not have been singing but did anyway. (The main issue there is my underlaying fear of disappointing people, haha.) The disorders were very interesting to me. Was their a brief moment when I thought I had some of these disorders? Yes. Yes there was. But I think the biggest thing I want to take away is if there is a major issues I or one of my students is having and it lasts for more than 2 weeks, GO GET IT CHECKED. It is better to be safe than to be sorry, especially regarding the voice when one is a professional singer. I liked the conclusion. DON'T PANIC! The voice is resilient and if we take care of our voice, we will be ok. However, I still think it would be cool to get my larynx scoped.

Patrice- McCoy- Ch. 6

  Better Late than Never McCoy Ch. 6

Analyzing the voice was really cool! To see spectrograms of what I hear was very intriguing. I recently recored a solo for a song and watched the solo be edited. It wasn't a spectrogram to be specific, but it had a similar reading. I was able to see some habits of mine that aren't helpful in my singing. These are habits I have been told about, but to physically see it happening was really interesting and helpful. I could see how consistent my vibrato was, the shape of my vibrato, my onsets and offsets, and my pitch accuracy and consistency. Through looking at a spectrogram-type of recording I learned a lot about my voice and my habits. I think analyzing the voice in different ways with different senses will help me be a more effective teacher. I can use sound to hear what my students are producing, touch (when appropriate and consented) to feel the movement of certain muscle, and sight to not only see how their body is reacting, but to visually see the sound they are producing.

Patrice- McCoy- Ch. 5

  Better Late than Never McCoy Ch. 5

Resonance. Man this can be an issue! I remember one time I was in a choir and the director had each of us sing a scale. I didn't realized he was trying to see how smoothly we shifted from one resonant space to the next and I was very obvious in one of my shifts. I often think back on that experience when the topic of head and chest voice comes up. I didn't realize how many shifts a single voice has. Formants were a bit confusing to me- but, if my understanding is correct, certain vowels are standard resonator in certain harmonic sets. The singer's formant was pretty neat to read and talk about in class. The think I found incredible was how resonant the voice is. Didn't realize that a voice can literally out-sing an orchestra, and that is just because of the resonance and the Hz the voice produces. I would love to dive more into the singer's formant to gain a better understanding of it.

Patrice-McCoy- Ch. 4

  Better Late than Never McCoy Ch. 4

The intricacy of the larynx is INCREDIBLE. However, because of that intricacy it is easy to overthink and try to control every bit of the larynx and one's vocal folds. In my mind, the purpose for this chapter is to understand how they larynx and the folds work, then an instructor can know what to teach or focus on to have the larynx and folds work properly. Knowing what the body is doing when certain sounds are made (like onsets, offsets, and phonation modes) is crucial in teaching. But it will be not help in telling the student to fix their aspirated offset they need to make sure they stop the air all the way and not let air pass through an open glottis. We cannot consciously control each muscle in our larynx, so know what it is doing and know how to adjust in other ways is crucial.

Patrice- McCoy- Ch. 3

 Better Late than Never McCoy Ch. 3

The part that interested me the most in this chapter was breathing methods, especially the differences between breath support and breath control. Support is a pulmonary function and control  is a laryngeal function. Breath control is determined by the efficiency of the regulation of airflow through the larynx. Breath support enables production of beautiful sound, breath control allows those sounds to last to the end of long phrases. I think these two concepts get mixed up in my brain with my own singing, so I would like to understand them a bit more and focus having the right control along with the proper support. I feel like the root to a lot of strained singing is improper breath control and breath support. That was the most interesting part of this chapter for me.

Annika-VRH-September 23

 

September 23, 2021

Kat

• So much more power in your upper range compared to masterclass

• Breath support was better

• Still need more emotion

Amelia

• Breath support was great

• Emotions were very easy to see and read

Alyssa

• Diction, attitude, support are all great

• Really fun acting

Sierra

• Very accurate pitches

• Wish I could see more emotion!

Ethan

• Very emotional

• Well supported

Braeden

• I can feel your emotion--so good

• Voice is so soft and soothing but still strong

• Love the falsetto

• Growl!!

• Strong belt

Kylee

• Strong, relaxed belt

• Such a beautiful upper range

• Very controlled riffs

Kaden

• Diction is amazing and so clear

• Emotions and acting are very easy to read

• Very well supported

• Vibrato is stunning--very even

Logan

• Great breath support

• Nice open mouth-- lots of sound

Tim

• Support and emotion were there

Nalani

• Tone is sooooo clear

• Facials and body movements tell the story

• Diction and articulation is very clean

• Sound is very supported