After a quick review of posture and breath support, Marcus began working on vocal-tract freedom, or singing with an open throat. The first exercise focused on dropping the jaw, which means singing with a relaxed but open jaw position. I had him place his fingers just beneath his earlobes and say "ah" as if at the dentist, feeling the motion of the jaw where it hinges. I also had him say the vowels "eh" and "oh", noting that the jaw is slightly less open. "Ee" and "oo" have an even smaller space. I challenged him to say these last four vowels with as much space as possible. Next, I had him repeat the word "yah", paying attention to the movement of the jaw, much like the chewing motion. We sang up and down a five tone scale in quick succession using "yah" on each pitch, again focusing on the motion of the jaw.
To work on word pronunciation, Marcus read a few tongue twisters out loud (such as Peter Piper and Sally Sells Sea Shells), making sure to read clearly.
Last, I spoke some rhythmic patterns using voiceless plosives (p, t, k, and ch), and Marcus echoed the pattern. I told him to overemphasize the explosive sounds of the consonants as if he were speaking them to someone at the other end of a basketball court. Then I asked him to come up with his own sentence using words that started with the voiceless plosives, and he came up with "potato cheese cake."
To be honest, I really don't remember teaching this at all. I may have skipped over it, or maybe it was too similar to the vowels from the previous lesson and I just combined the two. As for "open jaw position," I usually use the phrase "tall vowels" instead. Sometimes I say "more space" or "more vertical space" and demonstrate what it looks like while making an up-down gesture with my hand. The nice thing about "tall vowels" is that it applies to every vowel, not just the long vowels or the pure vowels. This is a concept that I have recently learned and am finding very useful, especially with the older groups.
ReplyDeleteI did not have my students read tongue twisters because I didn't have any available at the time. It would be nice to develop a good list of tongue twisters that I can use. They are fun, but I'm not sure if they are really that effective.
While I commonly use rhythmic patterns with elementary classes, I don't usually include them with older groups. Also, while it is interesting to me to know the categories of vowels, I think it is unnecessary for the students to know. However, it was very effective to use the imagery of "speaking to someone at the other end of the gym" when the students are reading or singing the lyrics.