Maggie - Lesson & VRH - 11/2

 This week's voice lesson(s) went really well and I feel like I'm making some good progress. We worked on quite a few exercises that help me find the "dome" of my sound and the "blade" of my voice. In other words, grounding the breath energy so that the sound isn't coming just from my head but from my entire body as well as that breath energy being stronger. In the past, I had a teacher that was attempting to basically get rid of my shift into the lighter mechanism of my voice in my higher register and were wanting me to drive/force the higher register out. This was painful, uncomfortable, and made my voice feel weak (I know I should've said something but it's really scary to disagree with a voice teacher) but it was very relieving to have that quickly debunked by my current teacher this week when I finally just let my voice shift and we both loved the sound I was producing. We also worked on my jaw tension a little bit, but with the work on the breath energy has naturally been followed by the release of tension in my jaw as well as other tension that might have been occurring.

This week in voice recital hour, there were some pretty incredible performers. Huge shoutout to Carissa, Karin, Emma, and Simon for their absolutely incredible performances! I really loved Abigail Geertsen's performance of "If I Loved You" from Carousel. She was singing with a beautifully forward and resonant sound, I could almost feel her sound vibrating through my whole body. I could tell she was taking very supported, deep breaths that were enhancing the great ring she was producing. I remember Brynlee turned to me and said "It's incredible how big of a sound can come out of such a small woman" and I don't know a better way to say how impactful and strong her performance was! She was incredible!

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