Maggie Gadd - Voice Lesson - 11/30

 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'm insecure, when I finished singing the musical theatre pieces after he told me to sing it all in belt, Thomas made a comment that it's almost like I need to have permission from other people to sing like that: confidently and with my full voice. I thought that was interesting, and unfortunately very true. So, personally, I would also like to work on being the only one who gives ME permission to sing with my full voice and banish those insecurities.

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