Filling the Balloon

My voice teacher gave me an exercise for homework. At my last lesson, I was having trouble grounding and getting the full use of my breath. So this week my homework has been to sing If Music be the Food of Love, phrase by phrase, using my low abs only. Filling the balloon - meaning, pushing my abs out to draw in air, then pulling them in slowly to sing the phrase. I'm hoping that this exercise will help me gain some control over some of the notes that sometimes come out all blurty.

I was able to use the program on the CD to bring the song down a pitch, but there's no way to save it unless you shell out cash for the full version. So for now I'll be practicing that in front of my computer.

Finally, today's unrelated note:

Today when I got to work I found this on my chair, wrapped in pretty ribbon:



And it wasn't even a birthday present! One of my work friends (the woman who directed the talent show and with whom I've gone to a few operas) was cleaning out her bookshelves and thought I'd like them. Wow! I can't wait to show my teacher.