Nauvoo, Illinois

Some of you may not know that I was a Performing Missionary for the LDS church in Nauvoo, Illinois. It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life and played a major role in the person I am today. One of my favorite things that I did in Nauvoo was the Pageant. It consisted of a core cast of main characters, and each week there was a new family cast to work with. Families would come to Nauvoo for two weeks in which they learned their parts the first week, and performed in the second. I loved watching the families grow closer together through this process. This is an opportunity to place yourself literally in Nauvoo the Beautiful and act as if you were really there in 1844 building Zion! I get goosebumps just remembering it! If you're interested here's the sight! http://www.nauvoopageant.org/ Auditions for the main characters are in January!

Auditions!

Guess what!? All of you have perfect songs that you have been working on to take to the Broadway Review audition in Orem. Scera is holding auditions in January. You can find the information here: http://www.scera.org/contents/view/auditions

Also there will be auditions for The Secret Garden at the Hale Center Theater in Orem. There aren't any details on when quite yet, but you can check haletheater.org periodically for more information. Let me know if there are any other auditions that I should know about. See you all at the recital!

Classical Focus

I just thought that I would send out a heads up on my plans after Christmas. Everyone is getting better and has developed a lot of confidence, so now I want to buckle down a bit and focus on singing classically. It will help everyone loosen their tight jaws and closed off throats, and it will help everyone avoid straining their vocal chords. So that being said, purchasing a classical vocal book may be necessary in order to read the notes (I'll let you know later if you need one or not). I'm hoping for the next recital near the end of the school year everyone will have a polished Italian or German song to perform. I'm so looking forward to hearing everyone perform next week!

Worried about the recital?

For those of you who are nervous about singing in the recital in a couple weeks, take heart. You're all about 10 times better than this guy.

Head Resonance

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break and found time to practice! This week we're going to work on head resonance.

HEAD RESONANCE

Why?

To add brilliance and ring to your tone.

How?

Use "SLS"

1)"Support" with good posture and PROPER BREATHING.

2) "Lift" palate by: Smiling gently inside your mouth (inside smile), gently raising upper molars towards brain, and exercises for relaxed throat (The palate lifts very gently in the mid-range like the beginning of a yawn. The higher you sing, the higher your palate lifts and the further your jaw drops).

3) "Spin" the tone: The mental concept is that the tone will spin from the chest, up and over the soft palate, to the top of the head and into the forehead. The higher the note, the more the tone spins into the head.

4) Good vowel placement and diction: All words are sustained on the vowels. Sing from the center of one vowel to the center of the following vowel (sometimes I practice singing my songs without the consents so I'm focusing on the vowels). Diphthongs are to be sung on the sustaining vowel just until the ending of the word or just before going to the next word. The vanishing vowel should only use 1-10% of the word. Consonants should be sung crisply, without interfering with good resonance or the purity of the vowel.

This week I would like you to pay special attention the these vocal exercises:

weeeeeee (you should feel your nose tingle easily with this one)

ng-ah (try to keep the resonance that you find from the "ng" as you blend into the "ah")

Ahh

Beautiful Moon (pretend that you have a golf ball in your mouth when you sing "oo"

It is easy (focus on the "e" vowel as you descend on the word "easy. Don't let yourself close and tighten your throat. Stay relaxed through the whole exercise)

Here's an example of someone speaking with a lot of head tone.

Keep practicing!

Audition Etiquette

Since a lot of you are going to be auditioning for Beauty and the Beast, I thought I'd give out some pointers to follow when you go to audition.

1. What to Wear

• Avoid strong designs, t-shirts with words or pictures, and bold colors.
• Don't come in costume, but wear attire that may suggest the character you are auditioning. Don't get carried away, I would lean toward a plainer outfit that doesn't draw attention to itself.
• Girls, avoid high heels. Comfortable flats are usually best.
• Above all, make sure you are comfortable, yet professional.

2. Before Your Audition

• Arrive 15 minutes early. You'll want to have plenty of time to fill out any papers, so you aren't flustered right before you audition.
• Remember that from the moment you enter the area, you are being assessed. The audition doesn't just judge a person's talent, but their personal character. Is this person gabby? Nervous? Self Conscious? Cocky? Needy? A person who shows up to auditions and sequels with excitement every time they see someone they know depicts an actor who may be hard to work with or in need of constant attention throughout the show. So be quiet while you wait for your turn.
• While you wait you can listen to music to help you calm your nerves, close your eyes and visualize yourself doing your audition, or any other quiet exercise to help you relax.

3. During Your Audition

• You want to appear as professional as possible taking up as little time from the judges as possible.
• Walk in the room with confidence and smile. Act like you enjoy being there.
• Introduce yourself briefly. "Hello, my name is ______, I will be singing ________ ."
• Look at your accompanist or person with the music to let them know you're ready.
• Take a small moment (1 sec). to establish your character. Find your focal point and set the stage mentally. Judges like to see the physical changes that take place in that moment as you shift from you into the character.
• After you sing, hold your character for just a couple seconds. After that, come out of your character and make eye contact with the judges. Say "thank you" and leave. Don't dawdle hoping for any compliments or feedback on how your audition was.

4. After your audition

• You can stick around for maybe 2 minutes to make sure you don't need to stay for anything else.
• Don't be gabby with everyone else. Be respectful to others who are trying to relax and prepare mentally for their audition.
• Don't dawdle. Leave quickly as if you're needed at another audition.

THEN TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT AT VOICE LESSONS!

Good luck to everyone auditioning!

Relaxation of Vocal Mechanism

This weeks focus is on relaxing your vocal mechanism.

Why?

1) Any tension within the vocal mechanism will distort the voice and rob the resonance.

2) Absence of tension frees the vocal chords so they will vibrate naturally.

How?

1) Open and relax your throat (when you yawn feel your larynx drop open and your throat open)

2) Loosen your Jaw (lift your palate with the "inside smile". That will trigger a loosened jaw)

Note: I want you to imagine a "C" inside your nasal and oral cavities. The larynx needs to be dropped to the lower curve and the palate needs to be lifted to the upper curve of the C. That will give you plenty of space for the sound to resound. Don't forget to keep good air pressure with your breath support. Keep applying proper posture and breathing to a relaxed throat and jaw.

This week I want 7 minutes of yawn sighs and sirens. I also need you focus on the warm ups "Ahhhh, Noah, va-ve-va, beautiful moon, and it is easy".

Proper Breathing Technique

In the past two weeks we have been focusing on proper breathing technique. Here's a bit of an elaboration on what I have been teaching. This information comes primarily from the Music 104 Group Vocal Instruction Course Packet/Songbook by Diana Johnson at BYU-Idaho.

PROPER BREATHING:

A. Why?

1. It's the foundation for proper singing (supports production of continuous, controlled singing tone).

2. It makes it possible to sing meaningful phrases and expressive nuances.

B. How?

1. Use LOWER ABDOMINAL BREATHING:

a. Inhale by allowing the lower abdominal muscles to relax and the ribcage to expand. Don't lift the chest and shoulders when taking in a breath.

b. You should feel a settled or low breath. If the inhalation was taken properly, the breath will feel settled, meaning no breath pressure in the upper part of the chest and against the throat. You're breath reservoir extends from the chest down to the hip bone.

c. Don't allow your chest or ribcage collapse or fall as you release air

2. Breath with an open and relaxed throat (you're breathing should be quiet).

3. Budget Breath

a. Release breath with proper retention. Don't release too much air with the tone (think about the balloon example).

b. Try not to go below have a tank of air (or you begin to lose rib cage expansion).

4. Breathe in correct places

a. At punctuation marks

b. Natural pauses (where you would naturally pause if you were speaking a phrase)

c. Never breathe in the middle of a word.

For the past couple of weeks each student should have been spending an extra five minutes doing their hissing, ha ha-ing, and shhhhhing exercises. The purpose of these exercises is to feel your lungs connection to the diaphragm. As you take in air, the diaphragm should lower to let air into the lungs, then it will slowly push the air up and out of the lungs at a constant rate. You can feel it a lot easier if you lay face down on the floor. The key is to stay relaxed and let your tummy expand. If everything is breathed in through the chest, you will have a very unsettled feeling.

Recital Information

Ok, just so you all know, I'll be teaching voice lessons next week before Thanksgiving. In the future, I will not be holding lessons if the Nebo school district isn't holding school.

I hope you're all as excited as I am for our very first recital! Everyone is working really hard and I know everyone is going to do great! The recital is going to be at my house at 6:30 Dec 16th. It will probably be a little over an hour and I would like to have a few refreshments afterwards. We'll figure that all out later. For now, just save the date and time!

P.S. If you have any conflicts please let me know.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Emily's Entertainers blog. I'm hoping this will be a helpful place for students to come to and get a more thorough understanding of what they are learning in their private voice lessons. I also want this to be a good source of finding out about different auditioning opportunities in the Utah County area. So feel free to check the blog periodically to keep up with announcements and learn more about the components of singing. Also don't be afraid to post comments and ask questions. Hopefully this is a helpful tool and I can be good at keeping it updated. Thank you all!