Lea's NIDA Course updates

After an exhausting, exhilarating and enlightening 3 weeks, we had a lovely dinner to celebrate the finish of our Lessac Intensive at NIDA. My 20mm thick yoga mat is on order and I'm off to Officeworks tomorrow to get my text book spiral bound as it's falling apart. All good!

Last full day of the 3 week NIDA intensive. We're preparing for our performances tomorrow. Scripts to learn, scene's to rehearse, aahhh!! 😯Challenging but tons of fun!

I mentioned to Nancy our trainer that often our singers put too much 'r' on words. She said her method is to have the performer "add more yawn space" to the vowel that precedes it. To establish the right amount of 'Yawn space' between the molars - we've been using a small cork in between the molars towards the front, on one side. What a difference that space (about the width of your thumb) makes! All the "structural" vowels (OO, OH, AH, AW, A) have the same space on the inside, but different opening size with the lips. Here is a photo from today. We were blindfolded and doing performances of text in various tonal and body energies.

Week 3 has commenced!. This week we bring it all together. The body, consonant and structural (vowels and diphthongs) energies together into performances. We are performing in the large playhouse theatre and even outside (pictured). Quote of the day "Don't be careful, and don't be careless. With what you know now, you can afford to be carefree".

We are getting stuck into 'Structural Energy' (Vowels / diphthongs). Very detailed and interesting. Some gems I've picked up so far that I think are worth sharing:
* Sing THROUGH the end of the phrase, rather than to the end of the phrase.
* Have singers FEEL the optimal space / ring, rather than trying to mimic others. Mimicking others doesn't allow them to always process what it feels like for them and they end up trying to please you, instead of knowing it within themselves.
* We should always have a FFF "Forward facial flow" - lips are never 'pulled' back. The FFF keeps the resonance and 'yawn space' intact. (PS - this doesn't involve tension, or a weird looking mouth).
* Communicate THROUGH structure (space) not at the expense of.
*Every time you repeat a line / phrase / song, have a NEW experience with it!
*Our 'yawn space' should be at least one finger width between the molars at the front sides.
* Rather than use the work "exercise" to describe a vocalese use "exploration". It's about self discovery.

Apart from the 3 body energies, we've worked on Consonant Energy, discovering the consonant 'orchestra' and the Tonal Energies, starting with finding the feeling of the 'Y Buzz' - concentrated tone in our speaking range that is free from force, energetic in motion, resonating through bone conduction. It feels very easy when done correctly. This y Buzz is like the focus point that all other resonance emanates from. It keeps a clear ringing tone going. The Y Buzz uses a clear unforced EE vowel with lips that are not pulled back and no nasality exists. We're now onto Structural Energy - the 'house' where the vowels and diphthongs live. I LOVE that house!

Week 2 has started! Our morning body tune up has evolved into body rolls. Yes I’m rolling! We use the 3 Body Energies a lot: Bouyancy, potency and radiancy. I cannot emphasise enough the value of body work to relax and energise your whole instrument before singing. Plus I feel so many less aches and pains. Hardly any now!
Lessac described the consonants as instruments in an orchestra. His method encourages us to ‘play’ them and enjoy the feeling. The ‘N’ violin, ‘M’ viola, ‘V’ cello, NG obo, ‘D’ tympani etc. The unvoiced are in the percussion section - ‘K’ drum beat, ‘T’ snare drum, etc. as we’ve been learning the “orchestra” for over a week now, we do a ‘scat band’ regularly and are asked to “use only strings” or “use only percussions” and those sounds come straight to mind. It’s super fun! At the same time we are really learning the feel of those sounds and how they are produced and how they are different from one another. The TS sound as in ‘cats’ can be tricky. Say “acts” and “precincts” making sure all the sounds are there while flowing.

My NIDA course group! Nancy Krebs trainer Is the short blond in the front.

In everything we say and sing, a forward facial posture is imperative. Think the “goal posts”. This keeps the sound vibrations concentrated and the overtones strong. We know this! But I was often too wide with my lip posture.

The breath. The vessel inside our body’s is described as the “breath bucket” and fills up front, back and sides. Also we want to feel the expansion between the shoulder blades when we take a full expansive breath. A small amount of air moves upward to start the vocal folds vibrating, and then there should be no feeling of flow of air from our face. Its turned into vibrations. The bones around the front of our face is where the vibrations bounce around and resonate, creating what the listener hears. We are being taught to notice the absence of air while we sound quite big and full. Very interesting!

Every morning starts at 8am with 2 hours of body 'tune up'. More than physical warm up, it's getting in tune and in touch with our instrument and feeling what's happening. We do some very fun rhythm stuff and we also do the body energies: Buoyancy (in the pool yesterday morning), Radiance and Potency. How our body energy is affects our voice. The picture shows our morning body work room. Many will remember the 'yawn' / stretch that Katerina did with us last January. This is part of 'potency'. 'Float' is part of buoyancy.

'The Familiar Event.' These are instinctive things performed with ease and grace and efficiency. They are a healthy way to use the body. At the 2019 Directors School, Katerina used mint. We all had a piece of mint and instinctively took a deep easy full breath. Imagine you are smelling a beautiful flower, enjoy the sensation and when you repeat it, become aware of your body's response to it. Where does the air go? What moves?
'Organic Instruction' - using familiar events such as smelling a flower (or mint!) instead of trying to control our breath, leads to the most natural way of breathing without effort. Therefore familiar events leads to organic instructions. Ie the body teaching you instead of you teaching your body.

Finding your best optimal voice is an inside activity. Feel what's going on inside your body and head. Stop "thinking" instead "Feel". They call it "Inner harmonic sensing". Rather than imitate others, work out how it feels to you. If it feels good, looks good and sounds good, then do it.
Nancy Krebs (pictured) is our trainer for this course, from Baltimore School Of the Arts.

Ok first off, some of this info in the posts to come will be familiar, some quite different from what we do / know. I'm going to pick stuff that I think will be the most useful for our art-form. Some things will be very different from our current way of doing things so keep an open mind! NIDA uses these voice techniques for their actors and voice students.
Arthur Lessac (Pictured) was a professor Emeritus of Theater, State University of New York, taught voice training for more than 50 years. His approach draws from his personal experience as a teacher, theatrical performer, professional singer, director and voice therapist. His work is about understanding, training and improving the voice through the physical energy associated with producing sound. "Power without pain".

I'm on a 3 week intensive course about the Voice at NIDA until 27th July and will provide updates and key learnings for anyone who's interested. The course uses the Arthur Lessac voice training method.