Getting Down to Details

We had another opportunity to have Leslie Wodday in for a coaching session this evening. Leslie is a Queen of Harmony with Signature Sound in 2000, and is currently gunning for the crown again in MAXX Factor. She knows her stuff, and when we coach with her, we count on her to bring it on!

Tonight was a particularly detail oriented session, more so than we’ve done before, it seems. Here’s an idea of how our session went.

Leslie smiles and says: OK, so start at the beginning of the song and let’s see what we’ve got.

Lustre sings: I know in my—-

Leslie smiles and says: Nope. You need more “Ah” in the word “I”. GIve it more space and tallness.

Lustre sings: I know in—-

Leslie smiles and says: Nope, didn’t get it. Try again

Lustre sings: I know in—-

Leslie smiles and says: ok, that’s better, but now you need to go from “ah” to “ee” at the same time in the word “I”.

Lustre sings: I know in my—-

Leslie smiles and says: Good! Now do it again, and keep going.

Lustre sings: I know in my h—-

Leslie smiles and says: You got the “I” together, but then you didn’t do “my” together. Try again.

Lustre sings: I know in my h—-

Leslie smiles and says: Good! Now again, and keep going.

Lustre sings: I know in my heart I have—-

Leslie smiles and says: Ok, good! Now, you need to hold the nice tall “ah” vowel of “heart”, but don’t forget to put the nice “rt” on “heart” and be sure to turn to “rt” together. Try again.

And then we did this for three more hours! Word by word, syllable by syllable, vowel by vowel, we worked on every little tiny piece of the song. Three hours of stops and starts, of repeating a phrase over and over until we got it right, and then once or twice more just to lock it in. It was an intense session, with a lot of hard work, a little frustration, and a lot of satisfaction.

This is the hard, detailed work that we need right now – and we’re so happy to have had Leslie come over to help us do it. Thanks, Leslie!