Kristen Fairbourn, Lesson 1

Voice Lesson 8/26

 

Warm ups:

-ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 “dumb mouth” don’t worry about sounding good. Released, relaxed jaw. Don’t think about sound and vibrato. Start at G4 and go up to Bb4. Only go down to an F# below middle C (starting from C at the top and descending to F#). Purpose is for jaw release, so you don’t need to go high or worry about sound. 

 

-Siren/fire engine (no vibrato) only after breathing exercises. 

 

-lip buzz: start every vocal warmup that way. 

 

Breathing exercises: let out all the air, than inhale and hold it, then double time exhale it out. 

 

-bring a belt to lesson. 

 

-clarify count breathing???

 

-lay down on the ground, soles of feet up, hey hee hah ho hoo. Back melting into the ground. Larynx has dissolved, not working in the throat. Work the inception point of the diaphragm. Work diaphragm area all the way to your back. One hand at the top of diaphragm, other hand at the throat to remind it that it doesn’t need to work. First time: slow. Second time: faster. Third: ha ha ha ha, hey hey hey hey, he he he he, ho ho ho ho, hoo hoo hoo hoo.

-the first time I tried this, she said the hee and the hoo were good but the rest were from the throat.

 

-still on the floor OR in a “sumo wrestling position”: take air through a “k”. Clarify: you want an imploded k? I was just doing a regular “k” sound, exhaling, not inhaling.

 

-1 3 5 8 8 8 5 3 1 ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey. He he he he he he he he he he. Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho. Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo. Do a “fresh face” in between each one. You screw up your face or look down and then look up with a happy, surprised face right before starting into the exercise. She told me to “nail the high note” and move the other notes more forward to tune them up. Can go up to a high C only completely warmed up. Really fast, just pop it off.

 

-Throughout the lesson, she had to remind me not to lean on my right hip.

 

-Start on F5. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. Last two notes: fee fee (just releasing the rest of the air). Start soft, on top note grow to fortissimo, then back do mf, then down the rest of the pattern. Can take a short catch breath before “fee fee”. Move up by step for the next round. I heard a bit of squeezing and scratchiness that might have come from lack of support when I was singing softer. Start at a pinpoint of sound, then swell to forte, then go down mezzo forte, then swell again and go down the pattern.

 

Tomorrow: go through exercises and listen to music she sent, scan and send all the rest of my music to her.