Maggie - VRH&Voice

I had my voice lesson on Monday (10/2) with Thomas and we covered Sono Unite A Tormentarmi by Scarlatti. We did some humming warm-ups which I always enjoy starting off with. It's an easy exercise on the voice, is very relaxed and creates that open space in your mouth (if done correctly, of course). We also did a few exercises to help with breath energy and a couple registration ones as well. I'm going to be honest with you all, I am terribly insecure of my higher register. I've suffered quite a few injuries that inflicted and even paused my singing for a while and I am beginning to notice that my lack of confidence after those years is affecting the strength I have in that upper register. As much as I would like to say that the blame only falls on my insecurities, this is not the case! My breath energy and support plays a role in this as well. When working on Sono Unite, we sang it phrase by phrase and spent quite some time on those higher notes, working my breath energy and finding ways that work for me to really push that sound and breath up and out. By the end of the lesson, I did feel myself already make so much progress which I am very proud of. I know mentalities and techniques that will help me let the breath flow easily through those notes, but now I need to work on that confidence to really get it moving. 

The person in voice recital hour who really stood out to me was Aimee Newson who sang an original song accompanying herself on the piano. The first thing that really impressed me is the fact that she was written to go first and the moment we started, she had just walked in and immediately went to the piano to perform. I mean, that was pretty awesome already because I would not have been able to do that. Despite probably feeling rushed, Aimee gave an incredibly heart-felt and beautiful performance. I loved the clear, bright sound she was producing. The original song definitely fell in the pop genre but I could still hear the space in her mouth and no nasality in her tone: it was all very forward and clear. Not only did we get to hear the progress she's been making with her voice, but we also got to experience how creative and beautiful her mind is in just this one song. It brought so much to the performance!

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