This week, we started moving our forward placement to a more conversational place - taking off some of the harsh edges and moving to a more melodic sound. We first do this by extending our words - making sure to sing them how we talk them, still going through our forward placement - and then lengthening each vowel so that our words connect a little bit more. By starting from a purely "talked" place - we are creating a place in Sarah’s brain that's entirely new, as opposed to changing little things about their voice over time. By doing this, we are guaranteeing that Sarah can feel our new placements - and know by the way it feels, that they are singing in a healthy and correct way. From there, we start to build this muscle memory - while continually moving the student’s voice into the places we need it in order to give them more control, brighten their sound, build their high belt, strengthen their voice and extend their range.
If the goal of our first lesson is for Sarah to feel 10 on a 1-10 scale of weirdness - taking them completely out of their comfort zone so that they can feel the difference of what we're doing, this second lesson is about taking Sarah's voice a step closer to feeling and sounding comfortable with it. You'll notice this week will sound more like singing - even though we haven't added any style yet.
It's important that we go through these steps our first few lessons so that their "singing monster" or bad/unhealthy habits become something they can feel as they sing. Creating our placements from scratch allow the student to differentiate between the two.