To begin this lesson, Marcus reviewed the breathing-motion and breath management exercises of placing the hands on the stomach and expanding while breathing in and flattening the tummy while breathing out, and then applying this concept to "sipping air through a straw." Again, he read the poem "Looking Forward" in Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses, to reinforce the strong speaking voice. To finish the warm-up, he echoed some animal sounds in high and low voice.
To work on vocal resonance, I taught Marcus about humming. I asked him to sing a comfortable pitch (F) on the vowel ah, and then close his lips lightly. I checked with him to make sure that the tip of his tongue was still resting against his lower front teeth, and that his jaw was still relaxed. Next, I had him place his fingers just below his ribcage in the front and gently pulse with a pushing motion while he was humming. I directed his attention to the effect that the pulsing stomach muscles had on the sound of his voice. Then I told him to hum the same note and think about feeding the sound from the same spot that his hands had pushed (without pulsing). This activity is related to the "lifting" feeling of flattening the stomach while inhaling. He alternated between actively pulsing with his hands and singing naturally using whole notes and the pattern do, do, re, re, mi, mi, re, re, do, do. Once he had the hang of it, I mixed it up with some different patterns such as quarter notes so, fa, mi, re, do; so, fa, mi, re, do.
We don't sing a language in the same way that we speak it, especially when it comes to vowels. The five pure vowels - [u], [o], [a], [e], and [i] - form the basis for singing, and they should be uniform. In other words, there is much "chewing" of the vowels when we speak, but the mouth-jaw position should retain a vertical, lip-flared shape from one vowel to the next when we sing. The "vowel color wheel" consists of the colors (and sounds) Blue, Gold, Aqua, Beige, and Green.
I told Marcus that the best vowel to start with is "oo as in blue." When he echoed me, I made sure that his lips were not too close together, and recommended that he have at least one finger's width of space between his teeth. I also checked to see that his lips were slightly flared forward and his jaw was relaxed. However, he had difficulty achieving the right shape, so I had him say "blah-blah-blah-blah-blah" and notice how far his jaw dropped on the word "blah." Then I had him repeat the exercise saying "blue-blue-blue-blue-blue" with as much jaw drop for blue as for blah. Next, I had him put one finger between his teeth and say oo, then repeat the word oo without the finger, but keeping the space. He got it this time, and learned the correct shape for singing oo.
Next, I had him use his upper register voice and hum a G above middle C, using the humming technique from the first part of the lesson. Then I showed him the visual cue to open from the hum to an oo sound, a closed fist to an open hand, while maintaining the pitch. He repeated the exercise in his lower register voice on a middle C, and he was easily able to sing these two notes in tune. To review the abdominal pulse from earlier, I had him place his hands below his ribcage at the front and pulse, listening to the effect on the sound.
Finally, we moved on to coordinating the different vocal registers. I would sing a rhythm on one pitch in a specific register using the syllable loo, and Marcus would echo. I had him point up for high register, hand flat for middle register, and point down for lower register to see if he could recognize what register he was in. After several successful attempts, we switched to echoing solfege patterns using loo. To work on inner hearing, Marcus first had to sing the echo mentally before singing it out loud. After this, I had Marcus sing the melody of "Au Claire De La Lune" on the syllable loo, focusing on the proper shape and voice register.
[There is also a section in the book about helping inaccurate singers through coordinating vocal registers. Solutions include: (1) repeated opportunities to sing alone after a model, (2) using simple tonal patterns instead of a single pitch, (3) finding the correct register through "animal farm" sounds, (4) remind the student about the upper register often, (5) practicing inner hearing by singing mentally, (6) using the "abdominal pulse" on sustained pitches and "sipping air", (7) matching the student's pitch and then expanding range, (8) covering one ear while singing, (9) using hand gestures to signify registers, and (10) have the student describe the sensation and then giving feedback.]
This ended the lesson, and I sent Marcus out to practice the right shapes for humming and singing the oo vowel.
