The First Lesson

Well, number one was not too bad.  My student is 20 year old Brittney Johnson.  She's a junior at Carroll University studying English. Our lesson was 20 minutes long, and as of now, I'm calling her a mezzo.

I was nervous about the first lesson, so I decided to not have a lot of singing - we mostly discussed what we were both doing here.  We know each other pretty well, but I went a little deeper into explaining why I was doing what I was doing (studying music, teaching these voice lessons, etc.) and she told me why she was willing and excited to participate.  

I asked her what she hoped to gain from these 7 lessons.  Her response was promising - she's unsure about a lot of things as an untrained singer.  She is unaware of what her possibilities are, as well as exercises and ways to achieve those possibilities.  

As for repertoire, she's very wary about that as well.  She's one of those intellectual people who has the mindset of leaving choices up for the people with more background, so she's very intent upon having me choosing everything she sings.  She said she's willing to sing anything.  My plan for this is to pick a classical song, perhaps something in another language.  I also plan on giving her a song in English, I was thinking Deep River.  I think the register changes in that will help her create a sense of consistency in tone and feeling.  Then I thought I might get a few musical theater books from the library and pick some I think would be good for her, and then letting her choose one from those.  

We did a short range test, and I would say the extent of her usable range is the G below middle C to the F two octaves above middle C.  I asked her how she was feeling that day, and she said that she was a little underslept, so her range will be something we continue to explore.  Her tone was a little bright - I attribute this to her choice of models.  Pop music, broadway, and "Glee" most likely contribute to her brighter "pop" tone, as well as the occasional habit of starting phrases from that state of vocal fry that is popular in the genre.  I tested her range on the syllable "da," utilizing the back consonant to bring it out of the nose a little bit (as opposed to using an M or N.)  Ascending in her range, we did a five note scale up and down (1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1) and descending we used just 5-4-3-2-1.)  As I sensed a more natural scuro in her voice, I had her only produce the "d" on the first pitch (to help avoid the fry-onset,) as opposed to using the "d" on each new pitch.

I'm very excited to work with Brittney.  She's an excellent learner, so I'm very excited to work with her voice - I see her having the potential to sound great in many genres of the art.  

Sounding off,

J. Stensberg