Today was an INCREDIBLE lesson for Abby! She got to a whole new level of understanding with the new things we introduced today!
We worked on:
1. Pop box
2. smoothing our pop box/ adding dynamics while maintaining the placement
3. character
4. Self evaluation
Pop Box:
Today we continued our work on our Pop box - continuing to make Abby's voice more commercial sounding. I had her explain and show me examples of our pop box - and what it sounds like and looks like when we don't use it. She nailed it! She's so awesome!
Smoothing/ adding dynamics:
To build on our pop box, today we worked on smoothing out the rough edges left behind when we cut words off, and sing things through our teeth all the time. We wanted to add some dynamics to our song by adding a few longer words, and making our placement a little bit less staccato - without losing everything the pop box adds to our sound (brightness, quickness, better pitch).
Character:
We are continuing to work on adding character to songs that aren't musical theater songs! We are doing this to make sure Abby is comfortable adding movement to songs that she doesn't feel like she can dance to. We will slowly add specific performance choreography - or things she can use over and over in pop songs that will enhance her performance. For now we just want her comfortable adding movement that makes sense to her while maintaining everything else we have worked on. A lot of times when you start adding something new as far as performance techniques or actions - the placement and work that has been done on their voice is either forgotten or used at a much lower level. We're making sure this doesn't happen.
Self evaluation:
Today we started Abby's self evaluation part of her lessons. This includes us filming her after videos - watching them together - and Abby pointing out things she wants to steal from that performance (things she did great!) and things she wants to add for the next time that we film it (what she can improve on!). After Abby pointed both of these things out - she has to explain why and how it will enhance what she's doing. It really helped Abby understand what she was doing today - which helped her do it all even better!!!! It was so wonderful!!!!