USU Pedagogy 3630 - F23

 I appreciated this week's lesson. Since then, I have been practicing the vocal exercise introduced in the lesson, which was the following. On "ee," we ascend/descend on a 5-note major scale. Immediately following is an ascending 8-note major scale on "ay;" the 9th is sung on "ah" and a 9-note descent  on "ah" concludes the exercise. In lessons, it seemed like my throat was constricting, which Thomas pointed out. Being aware of the goal of the exercise (to open the throat), I have been making noticeable improvements on this exercise, and I feel like it is helping me to improve my overall vocal technique. I have also "re-included" the first movement in the Brahms song cycle in my routine practice in preparation of juries in case the panel insists that I should have 6 songs to present to them. Also, I thought the masterclass gave me a lot to practice from an acting standpoint. I have felt stuck on the acting of "a per sempre...

 Mallory McAlister sang "I have Nothing" by Whitney Houston wonderfully! I love it when someone with diverse genre abilities sings with all of the tools on their tool belts. What I mean is she has freedom and spin in her voice, as well as that solid belt, along with the agility to go on those soulful runs. She showcases all of that in this song, for a visceral and emotional performance. There were a couple places where I could feel her breath running out underneath her, but I assume that just comes with the nerves of performing it for the first time. Overall, a moving and fun performance. My lesson was good this week. I've felt not 100% vocally for several weeks not, and I'm finally starting to feel a little better (though still not all the way there). Similarly to last week Thomas advised me to use my full voice and that would help my voice to recover, and also to sound better for my jury. There was one point where I didn't realize he was trying to get me to angr...

  Mallor McAlister - I Have Nothing Whitney Houston -Such a fabulous tone for this song -nice stylistic drops on the end of phrases -gorgeous mix and also the chest voice parts are just so good -lots of passion -a couple strained notes but overall really nailing it -words are really understandable -stylistic runs and vibrato choices were great -kept key changing higher and she kept up with it an slayed -sometimes lost the energy coming down after the highest notes but quickly picked it up again in the next phrase

 In VRH today I observed Mallory McAlister. Very unique voice, lovely and enjoyable to listen to. She has a good foreword placement and great diction. Great clarity in high notes. Wonderful emotional connection and a great connection to the audience. Overall I loved this performance.  I did not have a lesson this week. 

 This week in VRH I observed Kimberly Black sing “When She Loved Me.” She has a beautiful, deep, rich tone, and a good shimmer and spin on higher notes. The larynx was relaxed and the soft pallet lifted throughout but especially on higher notes. She had wonderful facial expressions and emotion behind the text, and extremely clear diction.  I did not have a lesson this week. 

 This week in VRH I observed Savannah Miller singing “No One is Alone.” She had a good foreword tongue position and very clear diction. She has a nice foreword sound which is appropriate for the musical theatre style. She didn’t use too many gestures to get her point across, she seemed confident in her ability to communicate with the audience. She also had a nice ring on her “ah” vowels.  In my lesson this week, we worked on stamina and running through all of my repertoire for my recital and preview. I went through each of my pieces in order and we went through notes after each set. It was just polishing movement and breathing spots and emotional clarity. 

 This week in Vocal Recital Hour I observed Aimee Newson sing “Run Away to Mars.” She had a beautiful balance of chiaroscuro throughout the whole piece. Her tone was generally richer and darker than brighter. She is a music therapy major and has a strong therapy doc presence about her. She had a great emotional connection to the music and was wonderful at sharing those emotions with the audience. And she had a clear tone that did not include a lot of breathiness.  In my lesson this week we talked about connecting to the music emotionally, especially on the pieces that are not in English. I have been having a hard time connecting to the music and part of the problem was that I need to really memorize the English translation to know what I am actually saying and communicating. We worked on interpreting the French pieces and the Germain piece and connecting the English translation to the original text and conveying that in my singing. 

 In VRH this week I observed Emma Joy Diesen. Her tone was very clear, and she did very well switching between registers. When she was singing in her lower registers, she used her formants well to still get that ringing resonance even though the notes were lower. She had a great speech-like quality which was appropriate for musical theatre. In addition she had a good ring on her upper register “i” vowel.  In my lesson this week, we talked about switching registers and fingering all while keeping the resonance. There is a melisma in Ach ich fuhl’s that had been particularly challenging for me when switching registers on an Eb. So we practiced chunking it out and feeling like I have a direction I am going in the run. 

 This weeks voice lesson went really well and I was very pleased with what we worked on! We ran through the pieces I'll be presenting at my jury. The two art songs went really well, but we did work a little more on the breath energy in the upper registers of the pieces because I tend to fall just a little tiny bit flat when I'm in my passaggio. Mostly because I still get scared or confused about where to place those notes in my registration so I back off the voice/sound when that's the exact opposite of what I should be doing. Later on, when I was singing the musical theatre pieces, he suggested an analogy where I imagine my top teeth are much bigger than my bottom teeth to create the space I need but still keep my jaw loose, and it worked! So when I've sung the art songs in my personal practice, I've applied that analogy and it's helped a lot with my placement, breath energy, and therefore intonation. Referring back to my habit of backing off the voice when I...

 I was really impressed by Kimberly Black's performance of "When she loved me" from Toy story. This song has always been a real tear jerker, and her characterization of the song really brought that. I noticed that she had great spin in her voice the whole time, and really showed how far she has come over this semester (even though she was already really good when she started). The only thing that I could possibly say is that maybe she could played with dynamics more to bring out some of those emotions? She sounded beautiful the whole time, so maybe she could even sacrifice some of that for the drama of the text. My lessons this week were good. There was some miscommunications about times, and I'm recovering from being sick, but overall things went well. The biggest takeaway for me is about actually how to sing when I'm sick. As my vocal folds are swollen/irritated from coughing and whatnot, my temptation is to protect myself by coming off the voice. I'm learni...