Voice lesson journal - MUS 366A

This is the format that I would like you to use for your voice lessons.

Title should include the Date, Lesson # and your name.

Body of journal:

Your Student's Name:
Lesson length:
Voice Type (if known):

Discussion:
In this section, just note how much time was spent discussing general things - health, amount of time practiced (NOTE: this CAN get away from you sometimes!)

Physical Warmups:
List what kind of warmups you did and how long you spent on them.

Vocalises:
List the vocalises used (you may use solfege or numbers, whatever is easier for you, or you may reference exercises in Miller, e.g. "2.13"). Indicate on what pitch you began the exercise and how far you took it in each direction.

Also indicate what your intention was for the exercise - breath managemnt, resonance, alignment, articulation, phonation (onset/release), as well as agility/sostenuto, range, registration, etc.

Indicate how long the vocalise portion of the lesson took.

Repertoire: Name of Song(s)
Indicate who selected the song, if it was you or the student and what you hope to gain from using that particular song. Indicate time spent on each song (unlikely you'll cover more than one per lesson).

Post-lesson Analysis:
How did it go? What did you encounter? What was successful and what was not successful? Was the student cooperative? Did he/she seem confused or not understand you at any point? How do you think you could be clearer? Is there anything I can help you with that would make the next lesson easier for both you and the student?

Student goal for the next lesson:
What have you asked your student to work on?

Your PERSONAL goal for the next lesson:
What do YOU want to work on? How will you prepare for the next time you see this person, based on what you learned today?

A Culinary Cabaret!

Tomorrow, Ryan and I perform our 2nd cabaret show, If Music Be the Food of Love: A Culinary Cabaret at the Times Cinema Theater, 5906 West Vliet Street, Milwaukee. The show starts at 1:30pm, and will be followed by the 1996 movie Big Night.

I like pairing shows with movies that share a theme. The last time we did our movie show and followed it with Singin' in the Rain. Not really the same theme except we sang about movies, old and new, and then watched a classic film. This time, we are doing a show about food and how the subject of food is used in song as a metaphor for finding love, losing love, sex, as status, as a way of saying goodbye, in marketing, and as entertainment. I'm very excited about the show - I like all the songs we've picked and I think we've put them together very creatively. And the movie is one of my favorites, starring Monk's Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia, which I haven't seen yet). It's about two Italian brothers who come to 1950s New Jersey to open an authentic restaurant and are met with skepticism from a market that thinks nothing but spaghetti & meatballs is REAL Italian food.

We've been marketing this show much more than we did our May show. Our February show was full, even though our marketing was primarily via Facebook - but that didn't work for May. We put up a lot of posters, mailed postcards, and did a lot of BOGO deals for my students, WAC members, neighborhood association members. I'm hoping it pays off. Even without a BOGO deal, $15 for a live show + a great movie is a steal. So please come - we're good, really! :D