USU Pedagogy 3630 - F23

 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 ...