Practice Plan by BOSHITA MASAHIRO

Aims

21085923_1 — 2024-10-24 11:14:56 UTC

Skills

1- Vocal range

2- Breath control

3- Vibrato

Transfereble skill

1- leadership

Week 5

21085923_1 — 2024-10-24 12:44:07 UTC

Week 7

21085923_1 — 2024-10-24 12:44:13 UTC

Week 9

21085923_1 — 2024-10-24 16:17:16 UTC

Week 11

21085923_1 — 2024-10-24 16:17:22 UTC

As there were too many assignments and other tasks this week, I couldn’t record the full vocal exercises. However, I managed to hit a C#5 note with a mix voice belting, and other notes, such as B4, are also pretty stable.

Week 13

21085923_1 — 2024-10-24 16:17:27 UTC

I couldn't record because of the sore throat :{

Learning & Exercises to do

21085923_1 — 2024-10-24 16:17:45 UTC

Based on what I explored in AM3 and my vocal teacher's advice, I realized that to hit higher notes, my jaw and tongue tend to strain when singing higher pitches. I’m also lacking airflow support and overusing the strength of my vocal cords.

Therefore my vocal teacher gave me an exercise 1 & 2 which helps the jaw and tongue to relax, and she also advised me to do some aerobic/cardio exercises.

Breath Control

21085923_1 — 2024-11-13 09:51:04 UTC

From the last AM session, I noticed that my breath control, especially when transitioning between chest, mix, and head voice, is quite weak. Additionally, improving breath control helps to expand vocal range, as breath support is crucial for reaching higher notes.

Vibrato

21085923_1 — 2024-11-13 09:51:14 UTC

I noticed that my vibrato, especially around my comfortable range, is not stable, and sometimes I can’t produce vibrato on certain notes. I found it strange because I can create vibrato in my lower range and higher head voice, but not in my comfortable range. I asked my vocal teacher about this, and according to her, it's harder to produce vibrato in the comfortable range because it’s very balanced and doesn’t require much effort to sing. Unlike low or high notes, I’m not using as much air support, which is necessary for vibrato. Consequently, I struggle with it in my comfortable range.

Therefore she gave me this exercise 4 where it not only improves my vibrato, but it also helps to improve my air control / Breath control.

Physical training

21085923_1 — 2024-11-13 10:08:37 UTC

Since I don’t have many days in the week to work out consistently, I couldn’t establish a fixed workout schedule. So, I asked ChatGPT for advice on quick workout options. Besides the usual workout plans, it suggested increasing my walking distance to work or school. Inspired by this, I decided to take the stairs more often. Although I’ll still be doing exercises like skipping rope, using the treadmill, and doing bodyweight and dumbbell workouts, adding the stairs will bring a bit more activity into my routine.

Exercise

21085923_1 — 2024-11-13 15:26:36 UTC

This exercise helps to improve the control and switching of breath between low and high notes. For this exercise, the slower i do, it will be more harder as i have to use more air. therefore i programmed the backing track with 3 different tempo getting slower each time to practice.

Music director

21085923_1 — 2024-11-14 16:53:49 UTC

I've been the music director for all of my AM classes, and although I’ve improved a lot compared to my first semester, I feel that I still lack efficiency and struggle to incorporate everyone’s opinions and keep their attention. Therefore, I decided to analyze my own directing style and compare it with my classmate, Brandon Cheong’s, approach to music direction. He has been the music director for his J-rock band for over two years and has extensive experience in various band settings, including professional ones. Moreover, I’ve worked with him in both assessment and personal bands, and I feel very comfortable with his direction style.

Practice Plan

21085923_1 — 2024-11-14 16:59:22 UTC

Online resources

21085923_1 — 2024-11-20 08:38:30 UTC

Previously, for AM 3, I did online research mainly on the songs I was working on, focusing on videos that explained the techniques used by the artist. While this was effective, my progress was quite slow since it only targeted that specific song or the artist’s style. This time, I decided to try out everything I found online that seemed helpful and write a critical analysis of whether it was useful or not.

Exercise

21085923_1 — 2024-11-20 09:39:04 UTC

gFrom my experience practicing to achieve higher vocal registers, I’ve realized that while I’m developing my vocal range, my tone sounds quite different from singers with naturally wide vocal ranges. To address this, I’ve been using the Moises app, which is powered by AI and helps separate tracks for each instrument, allowing me to extract the vocals. This enables me to sing along and try to match the tone as closely as possible. Moreover, i will be holding a chopstick with teeth so that my jaw wont be straining.

Vocal Tone

21085923_1 — 2024-11-20 09:48:26 UTC

I've asked my bandmate for their opinion on where I can improve my vocal performance, and one of them told me that my voice sometimes does not blend with the band, especially for the song "Boogie Wonderland." I was also feeling the same thing, but at the same time, it was very hard for me to fix that since, in "Boogie Wonderland," I'm singing up to F#5, which is not an easy range for a man to produce a round tone. To overcome this, I gathered with other vocalists in my band to practice and achieve a similar tone. Although there was a slight improvement, our vocal tone still sounded very different, and our vocal technique was limited, so we couldn't achieve a perfect result. Although we also tried changing the key of the song, the verses became too low to sing. I also tried harmonizing, but I couldn’t achieve the powerful effect of singing the original melody. Therefore, I’ve decided to stick to the original melody and have tried my best to make my tone rounder.

Exercise

21085923_1 — 2024-11-20 16:01:15 UTC

Using Moises

21085923_1 — 2024-11-21 13:57:54 UTC

Singing along with the song has definitely given me more ideas about different tones. However, while singing along, I could roughly match the tone, but I couldn’t hear if I was capturing the finer details. To address this, I used headphones to record just my voice, allowing me to listen closely and analyze the details.

Using Moises

21085923_1 — 2024-11-21 14:03:59 UTC

From my experience practicing to achieve higher vocal registers, I’ve realized that while I’m developing my vocal range, my tone sounds quite different from singers with naturally wide vocal ranges. To address this, I’ve been using the Moises app, which is powered by AI and helps separate tracks for each instrument, allowing me to extract the vocals. This enables me to sing along and try to match the tone as closely as possible.

Leadership skills

21085923_1 — 2024-12-28 15:07:03 UTC

I’ve also asked for feedback on how I can improve my AM band’s practice, and one of the members pointed out that there isn’t much communication or interaction. They also mentioned that some members seem unconcentrated, especially when we are discussing or working on parts they are not directly involved in.

Although I was aware of the lack of interaction and communication and tried to encourage more engagement, my bandmates tend to be more introverted. I’m not blaming them or anything, but whenever I try to ask for ideas, it often takes a long time to get a response, or we sometimes can’t come up with any ideas at all. Therefore previously, i was just giving out the ideas by my self as we dont have much time to spend. However, I noticed that during a practice session with only five members, there was slightly more communication, and the discussions were much more efficient. I believe this is because my band usually consists of nine members, which might make some of them feel shy or assume that others will answer on their behalf. Additionally, having a larger group can affect concentration, as we sometimes repeat sections to accommodate one or a few individuals, or rehearse parts when some members are not actively involved. Therefore, I decided to organize a few sessions with just 5–6 people, and it worked well. There was noticeably more concentration, and everyone was more active, which helped in gathering their opinions on the arrangement and the band’s direction.

Conclusion

21085923_1 — 2024-12-29 14:04:05 UTC

Although I’ve gone through numerous videos and articles discussing what mix voice is, how to achieve it, and the theories behind it, I eventually found a video that stood out. While the person in the video explained some theories, what truly helped me reach the high notes in week 11 was understanding the feeling and the imagery he suggested when hitting higher notes. Therefore, the theories and knowledge I gained from online resources helped me build a solid foundation, but what truly broke through the barrier was focusing on the feeling and imagination.

Youtube Shorts 1

21085923_1 — 2024-12-29 16:07:13 UTC

This video talks about how to achieve powerful and higher notes. The speaker explains that there should be no air coming out from the nose, the tongue should be in a lower position, and there should be strength coming from the stomach. It made me realize that I can apply these techniques to my lower registers, but my higher registers become unstable. Since this is a short video, it doesn’t go into much depth, which could be risky for beginners to try. However, because I already know the fundamentals, it helped me better understand how to produce a stronger tone and reach higher pitches.

Youtube Shorts 2

21085923_1 — 2024-12-29 16:08:12 UTC

This video explains how to stabilize the balance of mix voice when pronouncing difficult vowels like "I." The approach involves starting with easier vowels and gradually transitioning to "I." While this method has somewhat helped me stabilize "I" in the higher range, I feel it’s not a priority for me right now since my overall mix voice balance in higher pitches is still not stable enough.

Using AI

21085923_1 — 2024-12-29 16:24:38 UTC

Using AI for my practice has definitely given me new directions and expanded the possibilities of what I can do. For example, I used Moises, an AI tool that separates tracks, to extract the vocal track of a song and sang along with it to match the vocal tone as closely as possible. In this exercise, I listened to the track through headphones so I could record just my voice. This allowed me to hear very small details in my singing and notice how it differed from the artist’s performance. However, aside from that, I couldn’t find a truly "effective" way of using AI for my practice. I believe that learning to use AI will definitely be helpful in the future, and as AI technology becomes more advanced, it will likely provide even greater support for our practice. For now, though, I don’t think it’s particularly effective or necessary to rely on AI for my practice. It’s often faster and more straightforward to come up with and carry out exercises on my own, rather than figuring out how to incorporate AI to make my practice more efficient.

Personal tutor

21085923_1 — 2024-12-29 16:37:02 UTC

For personal tutoring, I’m learning vocals from my music center’s teacher. This time, I also learned leadership skills (music direction) from Brandon Cheong, who is in my class.

Vocal Teacher

21085923_1 — 2024-12-29 16:42:36 UTC

When attending class, I aimed to have a very effective session. To achieve this, I avoided doing things I could practice at home, such as repeating the same exercises from the previous week. Additionally, I made it a point to prepare questions in advance that I wanted to ask during class. I also ensured I did vocal warm-ups before coming to class.

As for the outcome, I believe it was definitely more effective than the classes in the previous semester. I was able to develop a deeper understanding of vocals since I managed to ask more questions.

Brandon Cheong

21085923_1 — 2024-12-29 16:49:35 UTC

For leadership (music directing) skills, I asked for Brandon's feedback after my AM band's practice, as he is also part of the band as a sessionist. His advice focused mainly on interaction with the band members. He emphasized the importance of always asking everyone’s opinion when making decisions and confirming with everyone if they are comfortable with the direction or changes. Since leadership skills are not something that is immediately visible and are not necessarily improved through regular practice, unlike with a vocal teacher, Brandon Cheong was more like an advisor who helps keep me on the right track.

Learnings

21085923_1 — 2024-12-29 16:54:33 UTC

To fully utilize the time with personal lecturers, I’ve learned that it’s crucial to prepare and think about what I would like to focus on in class, as well as to make sure to complete any homework assigned. The advantage of face-to-face teaching is that you can ask any kind of question, and the teacher can answer based on your specific situation, rather than relying on online resources that tend to cover topics in a more general way. Moreover, teachers can assure you that you’re on the right track, or even if you are on the right track, they can give you confidence by confirming your approach. This personalized feedback helps me stay motivated and provides clarity in areas where I might feel unsure. Having that direct communication also allows for a more tailored learning experience, which is invaluable in making progress.

In conclusion, personal lessons and leadership guidance have significantly contributed to my development, both vocally and as a music director. By preparing for each session, asking thoughtful questions, and actively engaging with feedback, I've gained a deeper understanding of my vocal technique and improved my interaction with the band. While AI and online resources offer useful tools, the direct, personalized approach provided by my teachers has proven to be far more effective in helping me stay on track and gain confidence. Moving forward, I plan to continue applying these lessons to further enhance my skills and leadership abilities within the band.