Observation #6

As is apt to happen on Friday, today was a movie day.  After a long and successful week at Festival, the girls watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs".  But as much as I would have loved to take a break and find out why there is a movie about meatballs, I instead got to have some great teaching moments with the girls on their Solo and Ensemble repertoire.

Maura and I worked together with two girls today.  Both were in 7th grade, and just starting their solo singing "careers", however they were in two very different places.  The music Mr. Armstead assigned also reflected the differences between the two girls.

The first girl sang a very pretty and simple song about nature.  She had a very breathy sound, and struggled to make it to the ends of phrases.  She often had to breath in the middle of words.  After all of the master classes we've been watching for the mezzo candidate, I tried to keep in mind what I did and did not like in their style.  We kept her singing, and allowed her to sing each time we discussed a goal.  I also reminded her before she started singing of all of the things we were going after.  When all was said and done, there were four goals.  But we started with one: breathing.

1. It was very surprising to me that she knew virtually nothing about the breathing apparatus.  She was breathing completely in her shoulders, but had no clue that breathing should be happening lower.  This surprised me, especially because Mr. Armstead has such a solid grasp of choral technique.
2. The second goal Maura and I gave her was crisp consonants.  She grasped this pretty well, especially after I demonstrated.  My intention with the consonants was not only to make her understandable, but also to find more core in her sound.
3. Maura spear headed the next goal: holding notes for their value.  The young girl struggled to understand note lengths at first, but with a quick explanation she was able to achieve this goal.
4. The fourth goal was in response to an issue that developed as she added more breath and core.  She quickly found her chest voice and began trying to shove everything into it.  Maura and I modeled space and floatiness in a chant voice, which she then echoed.  This was very successful.  Once she began singing, it was much improved.  Of course, there is always further to go.

The second girl seemed much further along in her singing.  Mr. Armstead assigned her a piece with a larger range which was much more rhythmically complex.  Maura and I struggled with the syncopations at first, but mostly because of our piano skills, not mental musicianship.

This student sang with a fairly well supported and focused tone.  The most remarkable thing that I experienced with her was her conception of range.  While my fingers tried to grasp the music at the piano, Maura worked on warming her up.  As they went higher, probably around an E or F at the top of the staff, I heard the girl say, "I can't sing that high".  I turned to her and said, "Sure you can".  She responded, "I can?"  She was honestly surprised.  We then did some vocal sighs to engage the higher parts of her range.  I found it so funny that she just believed me.  I told her she could sing it, and then she could.  We worked on the song, and that was all well and good.  But for me, the most important part of that lesson was that one moment.   I am a teacher (kinda almost), and, if I'm doing it right, my students will trust my opinion on their voices, sometimes more than their own opinions.  That is a wonderfully terrifying realization.