1. Moving from conscious competent to unconscious competent .
2. Moving from the trick to the technique and how it can be applied/mixed in with the character development we're doing
3. Adding dynamics -- more than just volume!
Moving from conscious competent to unconscious competent:
There are 2 ways to be great at something - 1. You are consciously competent. You work hard planning out a strategy for every part of the thing you are trying to be successful at. The example I gave Tatum was someone who is not good in front of people or at running a meeting, but chooses to be a teacher and has to learn things to help them present, teach effectively, how to talk to students, and how to deal with large crowds. Just because they're not naturally good at it doesn't mean they can't be great - they are just conscious of every step that it takes to get there. 2. You are unconsciously competent. You unconsciously go through the steps that it takes to be great at something and succeed. It doesn't mean that this person doesn't have to work hard - it just means that they do things that they don't realize are part of their building process... they do them unconsciously.
Today we decided to shift Tatum's perfectionist mind from conscious competent with her placement, tricks of getting and staying in the placement, and character building skills - to an unconscious competent mindset. Our goal was to have Tatum have complete confidence in her placement, pitch, and ability to add character to a song - so much so that we could focus on the other elements of these things.
I had Tatum choose to be 100% confident in every note she sang - whether it was right or wrong, it didn't matter. We were going to focus on building the character of the song, using the tools we had like smiling to not think about placement - but how it would be on stage. We focused on the relaxation of the placement rather than the hard stops and harsh extremes of it. And we tried to make singing in general - easier for her as she was doing it.
The reason we were able to make this shift today is because of all the hard work Tatum has been putting in in our voice lessons! The muscle memory of her voice allows her to stay in the correct placement without having to think about it. We tried to make singing second nature by shifting her focus from things that make her self conscious about what she's singing - to the parts of performing she enjoys the most - allowing both of these things to complement the other!
It was seriously such an amazing lesson! She is incredible!
Trick --> Technique:
Today we also started focusing on why we sing things through our teeth, smile, sing like we talk, go to a more chipmink place that has wider vowels with musical theater - instead of just doing them as a trick. By focusing on the technique instead of the trick - Tatum was able to get to the goal faster - without having to do extra processing to get there. She was able to 1. stay on pitch 2. shorten her words/make them punchy and therefore stay on rhythm 3. keep a bright/forward sound 4. project her voice in a musical theater style suitable for stage.
Adding dynamics:
Today we also worked on adding dynamics to her song without losing energy or breaking character. We talked about different ways to keep the energy up and the character big - without having to shout louder and louder every time Tatum wanted to make a point or emphasize something. We had her add breath to certain words, make some words significantly shorter, and use her voice differently depending on the part of the song.