The Techniques Work!

I ran into the parents of one of my students today. This kid happens to be my favorite student. She's actually my favorite kid, period. We would get more done if she wasn't so giggly, but the important thing is her progress. Despite the fact that she tries to give me electric shocks by shuffling her feet on the carpet and then touching me, pushes the buttons on my electric piano, and has tried to poke holes in the insulation over my windows, she is absorbing the material. Her mom told me that when she hears her singing now, she hears passion in her voice.

My point is, these are good techniques. They work if you work them! Students who take lessons with me learn to approach singing with a different mindset than they would expect. I asked her to tell me ways in which she thought she was making progress. I was afraid maybe she wasn't getting enough out of it, and I wanted to make sure I was the best teacher I could be.

I was happy to hear from her that she is no longer singing directly with her vocal cords. This probably sounds very strange to someone with no training. How can you possibly sing without vocal cords? You need them to create the sound, but not to make the sound. She assured me that her abdominal support was helping her support her vocals. She's been getting up over high notes more often, because she is remembering the importance of using the lower abdominal muscles. I have told my students that for singing purposes, the lower abdominal muscles are the most important muscles in the body.

What we have to tackle now is her enunciation. I never would have believed it before I taught it, but the way you enunciate when you sing drastically changes the quality of what comes out. Her tendancy is to sound a little bit nasally. I noticed when she sings, some of her consonant sounds aren't happening. So the syllable isn't completely closed. The effect is a sort of muddled sound. So now that she has the basics down, we can tackle the more specific details...if she doesn't electrocute me first :)