---
Hi all!
I just wanted to share (with a group of people who will understand) a great
experience I had yesterday. I teach at a small private studio in Chicago one
evening a week. I only have 5 students there, but they are all excited and
motivated, so I enjoy teaching them all. Most of my students are adults, but I
have one 13 year-old, who has a beautiful voice, but can be a handful because
of her adolescence (i.e. she is constantly worried about her hair, make-up,
weight, whether she's cool or not, whether she looks stupid or not) and because
she is almost violent in her urge to get things RIGHT. (She hits herself on
the head if she sings a wrong note, or if her voice cracks or she makes an
"ugly" sound.) She also is constantly jumping ahead of what I'm saying and not
listening, but sings the same phrase or note over and over again (even while
I'm talking) to try to get it right.
Last night, I tried 2 new things with her. We talked a lot about support. I
had her hissing and humming while keeping her hands on the lower part of her
rib cage and gently trying to keep the rib cage expanded. Her humming tone,
for the first time in that range of her voice, became even, so we started
singing a little. She said that the high notes "didn't feel high", so we went
on to the music she was working on. After a particularly lovely, well sung
phrase, I asked her how it felt. She smiled and said, "It was FUN." I just
about jumped out of my skin with glee. That was the very first time I've heard
her say ANYTHING was fun.
We had time to go over the song one more time before she had to leave, and I
said to her that she should have ONE goal for each time she sings a song. Her
first goal was "to get everything right and perfect." I told her that was
about 35,000 goals. I wanted her to have ONE goal to concentrate on for this
time through. So she down shifted and said she wanted to keep everything in
pitch (she sometimes doesn't pay enought attention to the shorter notes and
they go flat). I told her to concentrate on only that thing, and you know
what? IT WAS ALL PERFECTLY IN PITCH! It amazed even me. I have always
suspected that she had been too "out all over the place" in her thinking, but I
finally saw that when she just concentrated on one thing at a time, it made a
huge difference.
It made me remember why it is I teach. **Big Grin**
Lisa-Marie
URL: www.angelfire.com/music2/singermolson/Home.html
|
