We started the lesson by working through the ‘ie,ay,or,ar’ assessment chords, Gavin said I need to continue to think of the correct placement and anchoring in order for the overall sound to be smooth. In this lesson we did this exercise but Gavin only played the starting note and I had to sing the rest however when I was doing this Gavin noticed that I was singing the tempo abit slower than what it should be, therefore I need to speed up the tempo slightly in order for it to be correct. As I had slowed down the overall tempo I was running out of breath much quicker. When Gavin told me that I had slowed the tempo down it all made sense! I was running out of breath because I was extending the overall phrase, after being told this I was able to sing the whole phrase with some breath still remaining! Gavin also advised me to walk around the room whilst singing this phrase as he thought it would make the overall sound stronger because I wasn’t focussing just on the vocals. He was correct and this method worked, when I started to walk around the room my jaw, body and the sound created was much more relaxed and at ease. I will continue to use this method in my own rehearsal time. In this lesson we also sung through my new chosen rep ‘What it means to be a friend’ from 13 the musical. The first two lyrics of this song are ‘A friend’ whilst I was singing these lyrics I wasn’t saying the ‘A’ clearly enough therefore it sounded like I was just singing the lyric ‘friend’. Gavin said in order for me to overcome this I need to breathe is the shape of the vowel before the song starts this being ‘A’ this way I should be more prepared which will result in the lyrics been sung correctly. Also when I was singing the lyric ‘Friend’ it sounded as if I was rushing and it didnt sound clear enough therefore Gavin also suggested the idea of staying open on the vowel ‘E’ and not closing till ‘nd’. After been told this we could see an improvement immediately, Diction has always been a weakness of mine and im glad that Gavin is suggesting ideas in order for my overall diction to improve.
For next lesson I will know the lyrics to this song I will do this by listening to the song over and over again and also from using the look, cover, check method. I will also be much more confident with my overall diction as I am now aware on what I need to work on for the sound to be much clearer.
ardenrjones 
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