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...

 Kimberly Black -very tender sound that fits the song well -consistent vibrato -nice and bright in low head voice John Maloy -really different from last VRH but so good still -you can see the vibrato in his chin sometimes which is really interesting to me -bright and full -had some nice ornamentation in the da capo

 This week my voice lesson went really well! We went over the opening four-six measures to practice not taking a gassy breath. Dr. Hart had me lean over while standing on one foot. This helped my diaphragm put in the proper work to expand what felt like almost to my knees. The notes weren’t very ping-y in this position but once I stood up, my body was used to breathing that deeply and focused that it replicated the same sound. It was awesome! I could feel that the breath expanded not only out but backward and down. I began to practice this same stance and also a sumo squat with my other pieces and it created the same pattern in all my other songs! In VRH this week, Amelia Kearl asked if we could give her feedback on her piece! She had such a playful air about the song and really drew the audience in with just her face. Even though it was in Italian, you could really feel her lackadaisical attitude towards love and men. Her high notes really rang and had good forward placement strai...

 For VRH, I want to highlight Kimberly Black's performance! Her vibrato was so beautiful, and her attacks on each note were clear and balanced. The low and high notes were treated the same, with the same air support as the last. Her posture was straight, and I didn't notice anything that would restrict her air flow. I could not sense any tension in the throat, and it sounded like her larynx laid low for most of the performance! Overall, it was a very good performance, and I absolutely loved Kim's voice on "When She Loved Me". For my lessons, I was not feeling very well, and I unfortunately had to cancel it. Outside of my lessons, I have been working on "Lady of the Harbor", and my Italian piece, "Porgi Amour". I am working on understanding the meaning behind the lyrics, and putting myself "into the character" of the story. I think I am doing a very good job, but feel like I could show a bit more. Because I have been more focused on me...

 I really enjoyed Amelia’s performance. She sang very smooth, and the movements were done so well! Her voice was so agile and still had breath behind each phrase. I also thought she performed well, she really got into the song and did so good! This week in my lesson I sang through a few pieces in preparation for juries. We worked a lot on relaxing my mouth and jaw. We also worked on breath and there are a few long phrases that are still really difficult to get through, so Cindy recommended working the phrase backwards. She told me this weeks ago but I just applied it this week and oh my gosh it is working so well. I wish I did it earlier! 

 This weeks VRH was awesome, as always. I was a big fan of Madelyn Hamilton's performance of "Calm". I knew this song and was a big fan of it already, so I was stoked to hear her interpretation. I really thought her energy was good throughout the whole piece, because oh boy does it require some serious (maybe even manic) energy to pull this one off. This assisted the rhythm, as there were a few places where she stumbled but for the most part she kept up with that blazing fast patter. I feel like her sound came into her own mostly on longer notes, and was a little understated in those fast text sections. Keeping an open mouth and consistent breath flow despite many fast consonants would be a lifesaver for anyone in this situation. My lesson was a good one, Thomas and I did some interesting exercises, and it was an off day due my being sick. One such exercise that I thought was interesting was we did a downward 5 note scale in my mid to low voice, and Thomas instructed me t...

 In my voice lessons this week, we have started preparing for juries by primarily focusing on the songs I will be presenting. There was a lot of work on my breath energy this week to improve the focus of my sound. We've been using the analogy of letting my breath lead the sound rather than follow the sound which helps me visualize the ease and flow of my breath very well. Since I know my music pretty well at this point we've also started to perfect the performance and musicality aspect as well, especially in my art songs. I am a face acting girl all the way so we worked on having the same emotional energy in my voice and musicality as I do in my face. The singers this week were amazing and I very much enjoyed Emma Diesen's performance (as I always do). I have to say, for such a little woman, she sure does know how to produce big sound. Her voice has this beautiful, rich timbre with ease in her resonance and you can tell, as an audience member, that she's singing with co...

 This week I have felt really anxious and very on edge for a myriad of reasons. Today in Voice Recital Hour, John Malory performed his original song, “Run River Run”. It made me feel completely at peace and like I could ease into the song and more into how I have been feeling. It really made me ponder on what we discussed yesterday in class about how music can heal us, especially the way we sing. The way he sang not only was a beautiful performance, but especially in the second chorus, he gets a little raspy up high to express the emotion of the song. Just as Dr. Brott described on Tuesday, he was willing to sacrifice some pretty to help you feel the song’s text a little more without hand gestures or lots of movement. The stillness almost had more impact than if he had big, boisterous gestures. This performance inspired me to not only sing my repertoire well technically, but more than anything, make it mean something to someone. In my voice lesson this week, Laurie had me lay on a ...

 I enjoyed Emma’s performance of Hold On. She really connected to her breath and engaged the entire time, and that was evident through her legato and resonance. I was also impressed at her low notes in the beginning, they seemed easy and not forced. She did so good!  My voice was not 100% this week in my lesson, so we warmed up a lot and focused on relaxing exercises. I then chose to work on Monica’s aria, which is not an easy song and definitely not a great song to sing while all phlegmy. So it went ok, I got through it and then we focused on making certain phrases easier. To do this, we broke down each phrase and went slowly, starting at the last note and over time adding notes. Massaging my jaw helped me remember to loosen my jaw and tongue, and I also was reminded to sing more open. 

 John Maloy -multi-talented king -very bright sound -super consistent vibrato -loveee the cresecendos on the start of phrases (in voice specifically, but also mirrored by the harmonica) -gorgeous flip into head voice and back -really clear understanding of dynamic contrast -sometimes backs off of the notes when they change, may just be stylistic though, as it isn't all the time -nice use of belt in the second chorus where he used head before and then back to head for the second half -This was a really awesome performance that was very emotional but well-put-together as well. I love that he is performing his own music and I genuinely think he could be a singer-songwriter or go on a singing show and do really well. I was quite impressed.

 Today, I will be highlighting John Maloy's performance. He sang an original song, and it was so good! While singing, he played guitar AND harmonica. The control he has over his voice and vocal shifts is amazing. His falsetto was beautiful, and the attacks to each note were well-balanced! John's posture was aligned in a way that opened his body up. Because of this, his voice projected very easily. Including this, I could not sense any tension in his throat! His performance was so fun and cool to watch, and he sounded absolutely amazing.  In my voice lessons this week, we sang over my memorized pieces, and tackled more in-depth on a few pieces. I felt a little discouraged since I struggled to memorize all of my pieces. The past few weeks had been extremely busy, and a lot of events are going on in my personal life, so I had a hard time trying to get everything done. I was asked to grade myself, and I did based on my improvement throughout the semester. I think I have worked ver...