Day 1 Senior Project

Today was my first official day of Senior Project.  I am doing a half project which means that I am still going to my afternoon activity which is the musical, Man of La Mancha, and attending my AP Biology class until the AP exam.  Part of doing a half project means that I do less for my senior project a day because I have other responsibilities.  Today I started off my project by attending Chamber Choir and singing with professional singer Martha Guth.  During our master class with Martha we learned about the importance of proper breathe mixture when you sing.  She had us doing different exercises like singing while bent over to see where we were tense and running around while we were singing.  Martha also focused on our vowel sounds and the energy in our voices as we sang.  When directing us to hit top notes she asked us to concentrate on hearing the note in our minds and then singing it.  Also, Martha asked us in our master class to visualize the note by saying, "think first then sing."  After I sang in the master class with Martha I came back for a private lesson.  During our lesson she helped me focus on my vowel shapes and posture.  Martha pointed out to me that by slightly changing your posture you can drastically increase the vibrancy of your voice.  Also, in my lesson with Martha we focused on using my full voice and not being ashamed of how loud it is.  She helped me realize that even though during choral singing you want to blend with the others around you when you are singing solo pieces you want to use your full voice because it helps with vibrancy.  At the end of my lesson with Martha she had me apply what I learned with her to one of my solo pieces.  Quickly, we saw the difference in quality once I sang in the proper form.  I also started setting up meetings with the three Proctor faculty members that I am going to ask why they chose to sing non-professionally and then write my paper on their responses and my own research.