[Menvi-discuss] a question regarding vocal concepts

[Kelsey Nicolay]

Hello,
I may have posted a similar question before, but here goes.  I am 
in two choirs as well as taking lessons privately with one of the 
vocal performance majors I know.  The women's chorus director is 
new to directing the group and is still learning.  She does a lot 
of work during warm-ups on breathing and vowels.  Since I can't 
see what she is demonstrating, I asked her if I could feel what 
she is doing and she said that was fine.  However, I am starting 
to think that she feels uncomfortable with letting me feel her 
stomach during rehearsal in order to feel correct breathing and 
what it feels like.  She also tried to explain in words about how 
to bring the lips forward when singing a vowel.  However, I am 
the type of person that needs to be physically shown how to do 
something before I can grasp it, simply describing verbally does 
not help.  If any singers have ever had with experience, how did 
you handle the situation? It is a similar issue in my voice 
lesson where he was trying to explain how to shape my lips but I 
was not getting his verbal descriptions as well as his breathing 
descriptions.  Do you think this may have something to do with 
the fact that my voice teacher is the opposite gender and he is 
afraid of engaging in the necessary physical contact for me to 
understand what he's talking about? If I brought one of my 
friends to the lesson, would that maybe make him less anxious 
about the situation?
Thanks in advance and I apologize for such a long post.
P.S.  Guitar seems to be going fairly well except I'm still 
struggling with changing strings when playing.