As we continue exploring what helps and what hinders learning, and how we can structure our practices in a way that leads to actual improvements, we'll look here at the concept of desirable difficulties.
I discussed desirable difficulties a bit in the first blog of the semester. As a reminder, cognitive psychologist Robert Bjork coined the phrase to describe tasks that require a considerable but desirable amount of effort, which improves long-term performance. (Lynn Helding has further explored the concept and applied it to the work musicians do.) In voice, we may consider desirable difficulties as exercises that take you just beyond what you are capable of doing. If we only practice the skills that we have already mastered (those skills which, for us, are in the "automatic stage" of motor learning) then we are not building skill. We are just solidifying those skills, which is also important.
So, what could desirable difficulties look like in our practice sessions? Here is one example:
Let's say you are trying to increase your vocal agility in order to sing passages of fast-moving notes, like riffs. First, remove any distractions that may compete for your attention. As discussed in the first two blogs of the semester, effort and undivided attention are needed for learning to occur.
Second, decide on a pattern and a vowel, like singing a 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 scale on an "ah." Sing through it a few times while giving specific attention to what you feel, noticing where you are physically engaged and where you are released.
Third, sing the exercise again but following along with a metronome set to a comfortable pace (there are lots of free metronome apps you can download). Gradually, increase the tempo. Sing five or six repetitions at each new tempo. Continue checking in with where you feel engaged and where you feel released. Be intentional about maintaining freedom at the places where you are prone to adding unnecessary tension (the jaw, the neck, etc.).
Lastly, continue increasing the speed until you get to a point where you can get through some of the repetitions cleanly but others are not as clean. Or maybe some of the passage is clean (maybe just the ascending part) but the whole thing is not yet spot on. Notice the metronome marking where this happens. This is just beyond the edge of your capabilities and is your new "desirable difficulty."
As you come back to agility work in successive practice sessions, make sure that you work back up to that same metronome marking. If you practice this regularly, with focus and attention, you should start to see some improvement. Once you do, you can increase the speed again to the point where you are sometimes clean and sometimes not. That will then become your new desirable difficulty to work toward.
Of course, then you can try the same thing on different vowels or on a different pattern (a nine-note scale, a riff pattern like 1-2-3-5-6-5-3-2-1, etc.). Keep a record of how far you get each time so that you can continue to measure your progress. If you do this consistently for a couple of weeks and don't see progress, bring that exercise to your lesson or to class and we can troubleshoot together.
Since our bodies naturally fluctuate from day to day (and at different times throughout the day), you may feel progress on some days and not feel any progress on other days. By using an external device like a metronome, however, you will get consistent, objective feedback and will be working toward a set standard. This will take the guesswork out of the process since you will know exactly what progress you are making.
A little creative thought can help you develop your own exercises designed to increase your range, develop greater dynamic capabilities, expand your ability to sustain long breath phrases, or any of the other vocal goals you set for yourselves in week one of the semester.
For your comments this week, look back at one of your week one goals and discuss how you can introduce systematic desirable difficulties into your practice.
Now go practice.
One of the goals I laid out for myself a month ago was "finding a ritual for my practice sessions...that I look forward to." I feel I need to find more stability in that goal, and an area of improvement, at first, could be delegated through incremental implementation. Adding in one hour of time every day, in different chunks and blocks, has proven that it takes more determination than I considered it would. I KNOW it's possible, and history has shown that small incremental changes lead to growth and consistency. Introducing a systematic desirable difficulty for this goal could be practicing every day over one week, for at least a singular practice blocks. Fifteen minutes is here and gone in a blink. The next increment could be adding on another block after two weeks, and so on, until a full practice day feels natural and no longer difficult. Past this, adding on another vocal ritual could be to sing for fun NO practice in mind, which would combine the efforts of goal two and three. There is really an endless array of possibilities here. I feel inspired by this blogpost, and honored to have such a supportive guide in my life. Thanks King B!
ReplyDeleteOne of my goals was to become aware of well as comfortable with my range. I used to know this but since I haven’t sung/had voice lessons in over a year I need to become find it out again. I am also aware that my voice is still changing and it will take me a while as well as a lot of consistent practice to be able to control my range. What I plan to do is not only take care of my voice in general, but warmup my voice 30 minutes a day using both my new vocal warmups as well as some of my old ones. From this I will hopefully get back to where I once was and then be able to expand my vocal range without doing any damage.
ReplyDelete-Noah Omelchuk
One of my goals for this semester was to continue working on my singing from a head-dominant placement in order to sustain my voice and add different colors/sounds to it. In order to introduce systematic desirable difficulties into my practice, I need to start doing vocal exercises that I know are going to help me stay in a head-dominant space. I usually try to avoid exercises (like straw phonation) where I know that I am going to crack and where I just feel horrible about myself, so I just avoid doing them. However, even though they are difficult, I know that adding these exercises into my practice everyday will eventually make me a better singer in the long run.
ReplyDeleteAs a performer, I have always felt that I am pretty good at tackling a difficult task, accept being "bad" at it, and choosing not to let being "bad" at it hinder me from learning how to do it. In dance, I will be unable to complete a sequence but I will cross the floor dong my best anyways. I would like to approach singing and the desirable difficulties of singing similarly. I noticed myself unwilling to try a new sound during a lesson because it sounded "bad", and that automatically I kept wanting to stop. I try new and difficult things all the time-that is how I discovered I even had a soprano range. I would like to reestablish this effort in my singing practice- regarding my goals established earlier this semester, I can implement this in my practice of riffing (which I should practice more...) and accept that the process of learning how to do that will not only sound beautiful it will involve making bad or "recalibrating" sounds. My tactic I have used in the past and will continue to use includes the exercises you mentioned ( slowing down then slowly speeding up via metronome).
ReplyDeleteOne of my goals is to actually increase my agility skills. I have implemented all you've said in the past. I think I just need to get back in to that grove this year. I also have to not compare myself to others and realize that everyone is on a different journey. I find that some vowels/patterns are easier than others. I think that I need to change up my creative ways each time, because for me routines get old fast and make me unmotivated. Also I feel that I love trying new things and that I can sometimes want to try new things so often that I forget to perfect what I have already discovered.
ReplyDeleteOne of my goal for this semester was to find a sound that fits me and practice my vocals. Since I haven't always been a performer, in the sense that I sing in a choir or in a school play, so I found this goal kind of difficult. However, I know I won't reach Ariana Grande high vocals, but my effort will improve from where I currently am. With practice I have found where my voice is at and which rhythms/notes are easy and difficult for me, so what I concocted was a set routine that I can do right now and will eventually progress to a higher note and so on. Furthermore, I have discovered that even though I wasn't born a singer, as I have continued to practice, I do think I have seen a change in my voice. I see that if I continue on this path my voice will get to a point where I'm happy with it.
ReplyDeleteOne of my goals was to be able to hit a comfortable a4. I have recently noticed my voice has been feeling very harsh. I think I can spend more time warming up and have more discipline when it comes to my practicing. Scales are a great way to practice hitting these notes.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of increasing confidence, I think the answer is simpler; it’s a matter of being comfortable with the material, and just getting used to singing in front of others. For my other goal, to maintain pitch accuracy at greater volumes, I would start at a comfortable volume with a somewhat high pitch. I would do some exercises in this place and slowly get louder and note where I start to lose the pitch. Another way would be to start loud and low, then gradually increase pitch. This is perhaps the better option, as it is slightly more measurable than volume with the tools, I have available to me. With either method though, I would keep records of stopping points as well as progress.
ReplyDelete-Isabelle Siebeneck
My first goal for the semester was to expand my breath capacity and my ability to sustain my breath for phrases of music exceeding six to eight counts. I would begin by singing a particular phrase of music. Perhaps three measures worth. As I do such, I would be attentive to where I breathe. If the breath happens to fall on the fourth count of a measure, I would then work to extend the breath to the sixth count into the second measure. Throughout the session, I could utilize repetition and change in tempo before endeavoring to extend the breath duration. If I were to feel comfortable in sustaining the breath for the six counts, I would then forge on to the eighth count of the second measure and so on.
ReplyDeleteOne of my first goals of the semester was to increase my performance range, I can introduce systematic desirable difficulties into my practice in several ways. The first way I could increase my performance range is to see where it is currently, then each day as I practice, do certain exercises, like Iso exercises, that would strengthen the muscles surrounding my vocal cords which would allow for more flexibility and seamless transitions. Doing these simple exercises will help to strengthen my vocal cords which in turn, will allow for me to be able to increase my performance range. However, doing these exercise will push me out of my comfort zone but in turn provide me with the result that I desire.
ReplyDelete-CoCo Berwald
My second goal of the semester, to be able to sing a G4 on different vowel shapes with consistency, would be a good one to examine in this exercise. As I’m doing range work, I can mark where my voice starts to feel tense the higher I get. By slowly expanding up to that G, and even expanding a bit above it to provide some wiggle room, I can slowly find those desirable difficulties to practice. I can also run exercises that go up to G4 on different vowels, finding which ones are more difficult than others. In general, the wider vowels are easier for me to get in that mixy-belty range, so expanding that to more open vowels can be another good source of desirable difficulty. For my third goal, being able to animate my songs with a variety of objectives, I can find that desirable difficulty by trying objectives that seem completely left field just to exercise that acting “muscle”!
ReplyDelete-Caleb
One of my goals from the first of the semester was to increase my range. While I'm practicing, I will work towards that goal by slowly increasing the pitch on vocal runs. I am working at pushing myself specifically past the top of my range. I also wanted to improve my performance range and comfortability with singing around other people. I will start to sing around my friends or family once or twice a week to help reach my goal. Another goal I had was to have better breath control when performing. I have already started to work on breathing exercises, and have been seeing some improvement so I will keep trying to get better!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThis blog is very close to home, working on my vocal agility is something we both know I struggle with. One of my goals this semester is to not struggle with riffs and runs so much when first working on them, I want to be quick to have a good understanding of any type of musical challenge.
- Tate Foshay
One of my main goals was to become more aware of my vocal range and be able to be more comfortable with it. Recently I have noticed I can sing some notes higher and sustain them longer then I have before, but shifting between notes for me is a challenge. I can start spending more time going from high to low notes and sustaining and shifting between them smoothly.
ReplyDelete-Tyler Kline
One of my goals at the start of the semester was to gain awareness of my vocal capabilities. At this point, I feel like I am just beginning to understand and be comfortable using my voice for singing. Even now, I struggle going through vocal exercises when I know my roommates are home; I’m uncomfortable with my imperfect voice taking up space. However, I see and feel myself becoming more comfortable from practicing and the discoveries it’s enabled me to find. The best way for me to continue my growth is not to let fear and exhaustion get in the way of my practice routine or try to control what happens during practice.
ReplyDelete-Hannah Ekstrom
I love that you're emphasizing the importance of self discipline. The process of getting better is only possible if one knows how to identify/diagnose themselves and have a set plan dedicated to mastering the problem area. This is probably the hardest part about succeeding in your craft because it takes so much awareness, time, and effort to get better. One of my goals at the beginning of the year was to be able to sing comfortably and consistently in a mixed voice to a C5. I think the best way to reach that goal is to practice with warm-up recordings that slowly ascend to higher pitches (with a mixed voice). With this, I'll be able to pinpoint where my break consistently happens and I'll have a goal of going up a note every two weeks or so.
ReplyDelete-Caroline Ciet
One of my goals that I can introduce systematic desirable difficulties to is my goal to improve my breath control while singing. One of the ways that I can improve and use desirable difficulties for this goal is to inhale, hold, and exhale my breath for various counts or periods of time. If one day I take five breaths in, hold for five, then release for five I can slowly improve from there. I can also add variation to that. Such as inhaling for a shorter amount of time and exhaling for longer or vise versa. I feel that this will slowly help me improve my breath control and lead to me inching ever closer to my goal of having better breath control while I sing. After all we don’t always release all of the air at once while singing and different songs have different length notes so the variation I would introduce would most definitely help.
ReplyDelete----- Matthew Jbara
One of my goals this year is to make my vocal range more consistent from the low notes to the high notes. One way I can do this using desirable difficulties is to slowly work my way up my range and to sing notes that are shaky and harder to sustain until they are easier to get to and hold. I’d need to be careful not to move too fast so that I don’t damage my voice, but by slowly working my way up through the uncomfortable spots I can make them more comfortable. I can also play with different vowels so that I’m comfortable in that range regardless of the vowel.
ReplyDeleteNate Ginsberg
OF course I really like the idea of slowly improving and being careful about the way you practice. That way you can get the most out of your time. My piano teacher used to talk about the rule of threes in practicing: that is, repeat a section (using various scaffolding tools) until you can play it three times in a row without mistakes before increasing the tempo. I think I can apply this to my vocal goals, and practice until I can get entire song performances right three times in a row consistently, allowing for of un-controllable vocal hiccups.
ReplyDeleteJT Kaufman
I really liked how you mentioned both solidifying what you already mastered and the process of learning. I was able to connect to the example you used as we have worked on vocal agility in our lessons, and although I can do a few runs every now and then, I always struggle with the exercises within the lessons because I always want to hurry and sometimes I have trouble just finding the intervals within the scale. I have a tendency to want perfection immediately, so I tend to forget that in order to get to the level that I want to be at, I must go through the process first, to lay the foundation before advancing. One of my goals the past couple of weeks is to be able to memorize my pieces before September ends, and one way that I found to be effective is to say the phrases out loud, and take each section and repeat it to yourself and quizzing yourself to test your memory, and another is to listen to the songs whenever you have free time to get the melody and text in your head.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea of desirable difficulty! I feel like it's a really healthy way to approach your practice and improvement, especially in a skill like singing. One goal that I didn't necessarily write down on week 1 but has become really prevalent in my mind recently is, finding the range of volume in my voice, specifically on the louder end. I've been told for years that I need to sing louder, but haven't necessarily known how. After learning about Appoggio and starting to implement it in my practice, I have found that to be super helpful for me to find a free and louder sound in my singing. I also really liked your example of starting easy and getting progressively harder. I feel like a lot of the time, we unrealistically expect ourselves to be 100% all the time, but if we can learn to work with our voice wherever it is on any given day we will be more confident and prepared for longevity in our careers.
ReplyDeleteI very much like this concept of desirable difficulties, and I funny enough one of my goals from the first week was to become better at runs and riffs. I think I will take this exercise outlined in the blog, it seems very useful and has a tangible baseline of which I can mark progress and improvement. It can be hard sometimes to see change on an everyday basis, but with a control such as the metronome speed, that should only motivate me with the good progress I am making.
ReplyDeleteJosh W
Looking at desirable difficulties when thinking of my goals from the begining of the semester I think mainly of how the goals converge, with growing rang and healthily singing. Looking back at some private conversations with you, Brian talking about as I might go up (growing my range) and while going up into my higher voice and strengthening it expanding my mouth (health) to help prevent strain and allow for more resonance.
ReplyDeleteLuke Morton
My goals at the beginning of the semester were to find what range I’m at. This idea of desirable difficulties is interesting because it brings awareness on where we’re supposed to focus on. Before this class I didn’t really understand how to find these answers, but as the semester continues I’m starting to unfold new ideas of practice. Even though i’m still struggling on finding these answers, the daily practices are sure helping develop a muscle I haven’t worked out before.
ReplyDelete-Kirsten Henriquez
Thank you for this blog. this is going to help me alot with changing notes at a fast pace and slowly building my way up. I also like that we have to take out distrations. sometimes when I have to sing fast liek that I panic and slowly think about it when I really just need to go for it. I know that parts of that are a self confidence thing.
ReplyDeleteAlex Fish
Dave talks a lot about taking being able to crescendo and decrescendo smoothly on every note in your range as a method of smoothing out your passagio. I feel like in order to help me achieve the mix balance I'm hoping to achieve, this could be incredibly helpful. I might want to start on the higher end and bring in a top-down approach in order to introduce more of my head voice into my currently dominant chest voice. Instead of specifically going for volume though, i could go for placement on each note; moving from a head to a mix to a belt and then back again in order to help myself feel each of those placements and understand the transitions between them. I probably wouldn't be able to do this incredibly often though because it sounds a little fatiguing so maybe just a little bit everyday and not necessarily the whole range or every vowel the whole time.
ReplyDeleteI feel like vocal agility specifically for me is difficult when I haven't practiced the specific pattern. If I've worked a specific riff for like a week it'll usually be pretty good but if it's my first time doing it, it will take a while for me to stumble my way through. A specific thing that I think would be good to focus on for me based off my goals is testing the top of my range when I warm up and seeing how high I can go each day and keep track of it.
ReplyDelete-Myles Davis
I don’t remember if I mentioned this as a goal at the beginning of the semester but I really really want to improve on agility. I’m okay at it to a certain extent but there’s definitely a lot of work to be done there and I want to get better at it as a whole. I’m really glad you explained this process step by step because I’m always just guessing and never knowing exactly how to measure my improvement so this is a really good way to figure that out! This definitely gives me somewhere to go and will make it easier for me to track where I am all the time. I also want to continue working on this during lessons so hopefully that’s something I will see improve during the semester and also during the rest of my time here. Thank you Brian!
ReplyDeleteOne of the goals that I have this semester is to clean up the transition between chest, mix, and head and to be able to move through each of them clearly and effectively. Ideally, I want to be able to access all three placements within "any" rep I'm singing so I can use them within the dynamics of the song. To combat this, I'm trying to avoid categorizing the songs I'm singing as "a belt song" or a "head voice song", but just focus on singing them. Also taking time to do warm up exercising that specifically benefit each of the placements I am trying to access!
ReplyDeleteThis is Jayn