In this project, we've been given the opportunity to perform at an 'Open Mic Night'. This is a small 'concert' which we've organised to be done at college to an audience.
I've been asked to prepare and perform 3 solo songs and it is vital that I bear in mind the intended audience, the performance space and my own ability. The songs may be from any genre and can either be accompanied by an instrument or a backing track. With this, it would mean that I would need to take responsibility in getting sheet music and/or backing tracks for me to use.
Alongside the rehearsals for this performance, I will need to make a practice diary of my progress in the form of a blog. I will involve audio/video in order to support my developing repertoire and will include strengths and weaknesses along the way, evaluating myself as a performer. Any weaknesses should be supported with targets and/or specific technical exercises in order to improve my musical performance.
Friday 23 May 2014
What songs could I sing?
An element that I need to take into account when making a decision, is my ability to sing specific songs. I need to choose something that I'll be comfortable performing however something that will test and push me further singing wise.
Bearing this in mind I came up with a short list of possibilities and songs that I enjoy singing on a general basis:-
Bearing this in mind I came up with a short list of possibilities and songs that I enjoy singing on a general basis:-
- Talk You Down - The Script
- No Good Deed - Wicked
- Scared of Lonely - Beyoncé
- Royals - Lorde
- Let It Go - Frozen
- Take Me To Heaven - Sister Act
- I Have Confidence - The Sound of Music
- Son of Man - Phil Collins
- Journey to The Past - Anastasia
- Once Upon A December - Anastasia
- One Night Only (Disco Version) - Beyoncé
- Cry - Rihanna
- Raise Your Voice - Sister Act
- Favourite Things - The Sound of Music
- Watch What Happens - Newsies
- The Lady Is A Tramp - Ella Fitzgerald
- He's A Tramp - Peggy Lee
- Part of Your World - The Little Mermaid
- At Last - Etta James
- Circle of Life - The Lion King
- Easy To Say - Zombie Prom
This list of songs all vary from one another. I have some which are musical theatre numbers, old fashioned jazz numbers, popular songs and Disney-related tunes. Originally I chose 3 songs from this list. The ones selected in blue are ones that I have changed and the one in red is the one that I decided to keep:-
- I Have Confidence from The Sound of Music
- No Good Deed from Wicked
- At Last by Etta James
From previous blogs, you will know that I rehearse singing in my car as this is usually the only place where I can practise. I find it easier to do this in my car as I have no distractions (obviously apart from the road!) but most of all I don't have to worry about anyone hearing me sing wrong notes or have the worry of anyone judging me. Because of this, I find it easier to belt notes in my car due to me sitting down. Even though this is not necessarily the best place to rehearse said songs and belt show-tunes, it tells me that even though I'm sat down, I can hit the notes in my range.
I practised 'No Good Deed' the most and I managed to belt the final notes in my kitchen fine, however experienced frequent wobbles as my diaphragm wasn't strong enough to support it. I showed this to Alison and she thought it was great yet agreed with me that I needed help with some of the key phrases; I had tension built up all in my neck rather than sourcing it from my stomach. She gave me one specific exercise which would help with the song/belting however I'll explain this later when applying it to my final choices.
I disagreed with this choice in song in the end as I wanted to choose songs that I would be able to perform to a high standard rather than a 'high-but-with-a-few-noticeable-errors-standard'. I would need more time to make this song sound perfect, therefore I didn't want to risk it for the assessment. If we were to be performing it to a live audience also, my nerves would be guaranteed to get the better of me therefore putting me back to stage 1.
'I Have Confidence' wasn't much of a problem for me, however due it being sung by Julie Andrews (a top soprano) I figured that I'd struggle quite a bit at getting it perfect due to me being an alto-belt. The final note in this song ("...in me!") I had to instantly go into head voice. Although it was a loud head voice to match the rest of my singing, there was SO much tension in my neck and therefore similarly to the reason above, I would need a lot more time (more than 'No Good Deed') than what we had, to rectify this and make it better. In addition to this, I somehow didn't enjoy singing this as much as the other two that I was going to sing. From this, I decided against singing this and chose something else. I feel this was a wise choice.
- I Have Confidence from The Sound of Music
- No Good Deed from Wicked
- At Last by Etta James
From previous blogs, you will know that I rehearse singing in my car as this is usually the only place where I can practise. I find it easier to do this in my car as I have no distractions (obviously apart from the road!) but most of all I don't have to worry about anyone hearing me sing wrong notes or have the worry of anyone judging me. Because of this, I find it easier to belt notes in my car due to me sitting down. Even though this is not necessarily the best place to rehearse said songs and belt show-tunes, it tells me that even though I'm sat down, I can hit the notes in my range.
I practised 'No Good Deed' the most and I managed to belt the final notes in my kitchen fine, however experienced frequent wobbles as my diaphragm wasn't strong enough to support it. I showed this to Alison and she thought it was great yet agreed with me that I needed help with some of the key phrases; I had tension built up all in my neck rather than sourcing it from my stomach. She gave me one specific exercise which would help with the song/belting however I'll explain this later when applying it to my final choices.
I disagreed with this choice in song in the end as I wanted to choose songs that I would be able to perform to a high standard rather than a 'high-but-with-a-few-noticeable-errors-standard'. I would need more time to make this song sound perfect, therefore I didn't want to risk it for the assessment. If we were to be performing it to a live audience also, my nerves would be guaranteed to get the better of me therefore putting me back to stage 1.
'I Have Confidence' wasn't much of a problem for me, however due it being sung by Julie Andrews (a top soprano) I figured that I'd struggle quite a bit at getting it perfect due to me being an alto-belt. The final note in this song ("...in me!") I had to instantly go into head voice. Although it was a loud head voice to match the rest of my singing, there was SO much tension in my neck and therefore similarly to the reason above, I would need a lot more time (more than 'No Good Deed') than what we had, to rectify this and make it better. In addition to this, I somehow didn't enjoy singing this as much as the other two that I was going to sing. From this, I decided against singing this and chose something else. I feel this was a wise choice.
My Selected Songs
After a few slight hiccups, I re-looked at my list of songs and I replaced the two I was unhappy with. From this, I'm now going to be looking at these songs:-
#1 - Favourite Things from The Sound of Music
#2 - Take Me To Heaven from Sister Act
#3 - At Last by Etta James
Reasoning behind choice #1 - 'Favourite Things'
I chose this song because I simply love the musical The Sound of Music! I've grown up loving it and when I was little I used to watch this scene with the song over and over again. I love the maternal essence Julie Andrews has with the character and her relationships with each of them during the thunderstorm. Throughout college, my class have repeatedly called me 'the Mother hen' of the group and therefore I feel this song fits me well. The song isn't necessarily hard to sing, which means I can add a variety of riffs into it and focus on good vibrato without having to worry about hitting some of the notes. If wanting to act it, this will also be able to do as I can apply this to the tone and vocal quality of my voice.
One thing to say about this one is that whenever this song gets into my head, it becomes very difficult to stop singing it as it has quite a repetitive tune!
In the musical, this song is performed right after Liesel has come back to the house from being with Rolf. A thunderstorm has erupted, and she climbs through the window of Maria's room to which Maria notices. Instead of telling the Captain, she gives Liesel dry clean clothes and lets her get changed in the bathroom. Meanwhile, the thunder and lightening become more deafening, causing the rest of the children to come barging into Maria's room, scared of the loud sounds from outside. When the other 6 come in to join them, Maria sings them this song to calm them down right before being caught by the Captain for being up so late.
Piano or backing track? I decided to go with piano music for this song. I looked everywhere for instrumental versions of this song and ended up buying one from iTunes. Unfortunately, when I listened to the whole thing, it sounded very 'karaoke' like and put me off a backing track completely. I think that if you are to have a backing track, it should sound as though you are performing to the real thing, rather than a piece of music someone's put together on Reason. With this decision, I went on to buying the score from the internet.
Reasoning behind choice #2 - 'Take Me To Heaven'
I actually hadn't heard of this song until Hannah W played it to me, this time last year. Ever since then, we always sing it around one another and characterise it due to Deloris Van Cartier being quite a diva. I looked into the song online and watched quite a few YouTube clips of the musical. It's extremely comical and some of the songs have room for comedy additions. This song however isn't as comical without the dialogue; because of this spoken text, I'm not going to perform this part of the song - just the singing. It's not necessarily the funniest song but it is quick-paced, groovy and has room for Deloris' cheeky character hidden within it.
Personally whenever anyone has heard me sing, a lot of people often say I have somewhat of a 'black' sounding voice with a rich, wholesome tone to it. This means that songs sung by black performers tend to welcome my singing voice a bit more than white performers' songs. I see this as a positive as I really enjoy singing soul/motown/r&b music. In addition to this, because it's a 'musical' song, it makes it even better to sing to.
One thing that this song has that, 'Favourite Things' doesn't is the high and challenging range that's needed to be sung. The song has a few changes in tempo and style. For example to start it is well-driven, whereas half-way through the middle of the song it changes to being more laid-back and relaxed. In these changes, this is where it begins to get difficult as Deloris hits numerous notes which are all quite tricky for me. I feel however that with this song I will be able to improve on my abilities in the time given, for it to sound reasonably decent.
This song is based at the very beginning of the musical after the short prologue about the convent needing being in need. Deloris Van Cartier is performing this song to her gangster boyfriend, Curtis Shank, in his nightclub. She claims it's her birthday and is performing this song in the hope that Curtis will introduce her to a record producer that day. When this doesn't happen, Deloris is frustrated and upset thus shifting her to the next song in the musical.
Piano or backing track? For this song, similarly to the one before, I have chosen to use a piano score. I looked at instrumental versions of this song online and could only find one. Although this one sounded 'real' and unique, the only thing letting it down was that you could still hear the performer singing it in the background really quietly. I figured this wasn't good as if it were being performed on a loud stereo system and I'm quieter than the backing track, you would be able to hear the performer's singing and would lose its touch. I therefore bought the piano score; it looks difficult to play but I have faith in Gary who will be there to play it for me.
Reasoning behind choice #3 - 'At Last'
'At Last' has always been a favourite of mine to sing. Whenever I have the house to myself, I sing this song with multiple riffs anywhere I can put them. It's an old jazzy song which therefore means I think it suits my voice well. There are a couple of moments in this song that are a little too high for me, however I don't see this as a worry as when I'm 'in the moment' of singing this song, I don't seem to worry about the high parts, thus me being able to hit them with a small amount of ease. Etta James' song is extremely well known and the meaning behind the song has an incredible amount of emotion in it. I feel that I will be able to do this if I practise it well enough. I believe that a difference in tone, vocal quality and different dynamics will help me achieve this. The one thing that will challenge me on this would be the lyrics. Even though I'm perfectly literate with english grammar, with this particular song, I find it difficult to remember the order of verses due to them all being fairly similar.
This song is all about finding the one person you love. By looking at the lyrics, it suggests that the singer was upset and lonely beforehand. The song exudes her feelings and emotion as to how happy she is to finally be in love. She sings of when she sees this person 'smile' and how they're both in heaven to have finally found one another.
Piano or backing track? For this final song, I've decided to go with a backing track. My main reason for this is so that it adds variety in my 3 choices. In the backing track the strings section at the beginning of the song really adds emotion and feel to the piece, however when looking and listening to it on a piano score, it doesn't quite have the same effect as listening to an orchestra play it all together. Another reason for having a backing track is that all of my timings will be the same as I rehearse them. With a piano, I know that Gary would play it to follow my singing, therefore it would be much easier to practise with a backing track when the instrumental backing is the same every time in rehearsal.
To summarise:
#1 - Favourite Things from The Sound of Music
#2 - Take Me To Heaven from Sister Act
#3 - At Last by Etta James
Reasoning behind choice #1 - 'Favourite Things'
I chose this song because I simply love the musical The Sound of Music! I've grown up loving it and when I was little I used to watch this scene with the song over and over again. I love the maternal essence Julie Andrews has with the character and her relationships with each of them during the thunderstorm. Throughout college, my class have repeatedly called me 'the Mother hen' of the group and therefore I feel this song fits me well. The song isn't necessarily hard to sing, which means I can add a variety of riffs into it and focus on good vibrato without having to worry about hitting some of the notes. If wanting to act it, this will also be able to do as I can apply this to the tone and vocal quality of my voice.
One thing to say about this one is that whenever this song gets into my head, it becomes very difficult to stop singing it as it has quite a repetitive tune!
In the musical, this song is performed right after Liesel has come back to the house from being with Rolf. A thunderstorm has erupted, and she climbs through the window of Maria's room to which Maria notices. Instead of telling the Captain, she gives Liesel dry clean clothes and lets her get changed in the bathroom. Meanwhile, the thunder and lightening become more deafening, causing the rest of the children to come barging into Maria's room, scared of the loud sounds from outside. When the other 6 come in to join them, Maria sings them this song to calm them down right before being caught by the Captain for being up so late.
Piano or backing track? I decided to go with piano music for this song. I looked everywhere for instrumental versions of this song and ended up buying one from iTunes. Unfortunately, when I listened to the whole thing, it sounded very 'karaoke' like and put me off a backing track completely. I think that if you are to have a backing track, it should sound as though you are performing to the real thing, rather than a piece of music someone's put together on Reason. With this decision, I went on to buying the score from the internet.
Reasoning behind choice #2 - 'Take Me To Heaven'
I actually hadn't heard of this song until Hannah W played it to me, this time last year. Ever since then, we always sing it around one another and characterise it due to Deloris Van Cartier being quite a diva. I looked into the song online and watched quite a few YouTube clips of the musical. It's extremely comical and some of the songs have room for comedy additions. This song however isn't as comical without the dialogue; because of this spoken text, I'm not going to perform this part of the song - just the singing. It's not necessarily the funniest song but it is quick-paced, groovy and has room for Deloris' cheeky character hidden within it.
Personally whenever anyone has heard me sing, a lot of people often say I have somewhat of a 'black' sounding voice with a rich, wholesome tone to it. This means that songs sung by black performers tend to welcome my singing voice a bit more than white performers' songs. I see this as a positive as I really enjoy singing soul/motown/r&b music. In addition to this, because it's a 'musical' song, it makes it even better to sing to.
One thing that this song has that, 'Favourite Things' doesn't is the high and challenging range that's needed to be sung. The song has a few changes in tempo and style. For example to start it is well-driven, whereas half-way through the middle of the song it changes to being more laid-back and relaxed. In these changes, this is where it begins to get difficult as Deloris hits numerous notes which are all quite tricky for me. I feel however that with this song I will be able to improve on my abilities in the time given, for it to sound reasonably decent.
This song is based at the very beginning of the musical after the short prologue about the convent needing being in need. Deloris Van Cartier is performing this song to her gangster boyfriend, Curtis Shank, in his nightclub. She claims it's her birthday and is performing this song in the hope that Curtis will introduce her to a record producer that day. When this doesn't happen, Deloris is frustrated and upset thus shifting her to the next song in the musical.
Piano or backing track? For this song, similarly to the one before, I have chosen to use a piano score. I looked at instrumental versions of this song online and could only find one. Although this one sounded 'real' and unique, the only thing letting it down was that you could still hear the performer singing it in the background really quietly. I figured this wasn't good as if it were being performed on a loud stereo system and I'm quieter than the backing track, you would be able to hear the performer's singing and would lose its touch. I therefore bought the piano score; it looks difficult to play but I have faith in Gary who will be there to play it for me.
Reasoning behind choice #3 - 'At Last'
'At Last' has always been a favourite of mine to sing. Whenever I have the house to myself, I sing this song with multiple riffs anywhere I can put them. It's an old jazzy song which therefore means I think it suits my voice well. There are a couple of moments in this song that are a little too high for me, however I don't see this as a worry as when I'm 'in the moment' of singing this song, I don't seem to worry about the high parts, thus me being able to hit them with a small amount of ease. Etta James' song is extremely well known and the meaning behind the song has an incredible amount of emotion in it. I feel that I will be able to do this if I practise it well enough. I believe that a difference in tone, vocal quality and different dynamics will help me achieve this. The one thing that will challenge me on this would be the lyrics. Even though I'm perfectly literate with english grammar, with this particular song, I find it difficult to remember the order of verses due to them all being fairly similar.
This song is all about finding the one person you love. By looking at the lyrics, it suggests that the singer was upset and lonely beforehand. The song exudes her feelings and emotion as to how happy she is to finally be in love. She sings of when she sees this person 'smile' and how they're both in heaven to have finally found one another.
Piano or backing track? For this final song, I've decided to go with a backing track. My main reason for this is so that it adds variety in my 3 choices. In the backing track the strings section at the beginning of the song really adds emotion and feel to the piece, however when looking and listening to it on a piano score, it doesn't quite have the same effect as listening to an orchestra play it all together. Another reason for having a backing track is that all of my timings will be the same as I rehearse them. With a piano, I know that Gary would play it to follow my singing, therefore it would be much easier to practise with a backing track when the instrumental backing is the same every time in rehearsal.
To summarise:
- 2 of them are from musicals and 1 is an actual song
- I have an easy, a medium and a hard song (#1, #3 and #2)
- 1 is maternal, 1 is upbeat and fun and the other is about love
- They're all female songs
- They're all achievable
- They can all be acted out or properly 'performed' with emotion
- 2 of them are being done on the piano and the other is through backing track
Target for the project:
- To apply exercises to my songs in order to help me achieve them to a high standard.
- To practise regularly.
- To pay close attention to where I'm going wrong, so I can correct myself and put them right.
Practice of 'Favourite Things'
This is my first song that I'm going to be performing. This is going to be quite an easy one for me to perform as it's one which I'm most familiar with.
I've decided to go against acting it out physically, however I've decided to try and add a more warming tone to my voice when singing it to give it that 'maternal' essence. To help me with this, I watched a YouTube clip of Julie Andrews singing it in the movie and what characteristics she adds on what part of the song.
Julie Andrews singing/acting Favourite Things
From watching this, Julie Andrews really demonstrates a lovely relationship with all of the children which can really be seen when singing the next part of the verses. One thing I should make sure to do however is perform the song with received pronunciation. I feel that replicating the same diction as Julie Andrews helps not only with the characterisation, but so that the audience can understand what it is that is being sung. Due to it being quite a trance-like song and having so many verses that rhyme, it could be quite easy for lyrics to be lost in this song. This would be a key thing for me to remember when performing it as the most important part of the song is the lyrics!
At home I used this warm-up to help me with my RP. I found that this aided me with this song a large amount:
Overall, this song doesn't challenge me much at all therefore didn't need much practise on it. Everyone who I performed it to all said that I sang it okay, therefore feedback wasn't an issue. Although this is the case, I used my time wisely when devoting myself to this song as I used the time to complete a warm-up with friends in order to get my vocal chords lubricated.
Something I wanted to add to the song was a difference in dynamics through the words which are used. For example going from "...those are a few of my favourite things" to "when the dog bites, when the bee stings" the second phrase is a lot more negative than the things she's been explaining earlier, meaning it would be good to place emphasis on these moments.
Even though I haven't practised as much as the other songs, here is what I sounded like at the very beginning and here is what I sounded like after experimenting with riffs and emphasis on specific words. The practice that I should have done on this song I used in 'Take Me To Heaven', however even though these rehearsals were placed elsewhere, I still benefitted with confidence and strength vocally in 'Favourite Things' as you can subtly hear the difference in standard. The backing track that I'm using to practise in, in these audio clips is slightly higher than the version I'm using on the piano. This in one way is a good thing as if I practise with this, when it comes to performing a lower version it will be easy. This said, it could also be a bad thing as you won't be able to tell how I'm doing due to struggling for the top notes. The final note in the 'after' clip is slightly flat; I felt myself not being able to reach it, therefore I will need to do some more diaphragm exercises to support me with the higher notes. Looking online, I found this video to be quite useful!
Breathing exercises for singing
Here is before I started practising:
Here is after I started practising (with a higher backing track than what I'm actually going to be using!):
Targets:-
- Add characterisation to my voice in order to replicate the 'maternal' feeling Julie Andrews has.
- To complete breathing exercises in order to help me with this song. Not only could I look at the ones that I've spoken about, but I could do the exercise where I breathe in for 4, hold it for 4 and then exhale for 4. This would regulate my breathing pattern and the more I practise, the more counts I will be able to hold. With a bit of luck I may even be able to hold 12 counts with practise. This would allow me to have enough air to sing more of the verses all in one breath to add a realistic quality to it rather than it just being a 'song'.
- To practise with Gary sooner rather than later, as the piano score is lower than the backing track I've been rehearsing with.
I've decided to go against acting it out physically, however I've decided to try and add a more warming tone to my voice when singing it to give it that 'maternal' essence. To help me with this, I watched a YouTube clip of Julie Andrews singing it in the movie and what characteristics she adds on what part of the song.
Julie Andrews singing/acting Favourite Things
From watching this, Julie Andrews really demonstrates a lovely relationship with all of the children which can really be seen when singing the next part of the verses. One thing I should make sure to do however is perform the song with received pronunciation. I feel that replicating the same diction as Julie Andrews helps not only with the characterisation, but so that the audience can understand what it is that is being sung. Due to it being quite a trance-like song and having so many verses that rhyme, it could be quite easy for lyrics to be lost in this song. This would be a key thing for me to remember when performing it as the most important part of the song is the lyrics!
At home I used this warm-up to help me with my RP. I found that this aided me with this song a large amount:
Overall, this song doesn't challenge me much at all therefore didn't need much practise on it. Everyone who I performed it to all said that I sang it okay, therefore feedback wasn't an issue. Although this is the case, I used my time wisely when devoting myself to this song as I used the time to complete a warm-up with friends in order to get my vocal chords lubricated.
Something I wanted to add to the song was a difference in dynamics through the words which are used. For example going from "...those are a few of my favourite things" to "when the dog bites, when the bee stings" the second phrase is a lot more negative than the things she's been explaining earlier, meaning it would be good to place emphasis on these moments.
Even though I haven't practised as much as the other songs, here is what I sounded like at the very beginning and here is what I sounded like after experimenting with riffs and emphasis on specific words. The practice that I should have done on this song I used in 'Take Me To Heaven', however even though these rehearsals were placed elsewhere, I still benefitted with confidence and strength vocally in 'Favourite Things' as you can subtly hear the difference in standard. The backing track that I'm using to practise in, in these audio clips is slightly higher than the version I'm using on the piano. This in one way is a good thing as if I practise with this, when it comes to performing a lower version it will be easy. This said, it could also be a bad thing as you won't be able to tell how I'm doing due to struggling for the top notes. The final note in the 'after' clip is slightly flat; I felt myself not being able to reach it, therefore I will need to do some more diaphragm exercises to support me with the higher notes. Looking online, I found this video to be quite useful!
Breathing exercises for singing
Here is before I started practising:
Here is after I started practising (with a higher backing track than what I'm actually going to be using!):
Targets:-
- Add characterisation to my voice in order to replicate the 'maternal' feeling Julie Andrews has.
- To complete breathing exercises in order to help me with this song. Not only could I look at the ones that I've spoken about, but I could do the exercise where I breathe in for 4, hold it for 4 and then exhale for 4. This would regulate my breathing pattern and the more I practise, the more counts I will be able to hold. With a bit of luck I may even be able to hold 12 counts with practise. This would allow me to have enough air to sing more of the verses all in one breath to add a realistic quality to it rather than it just being a 'song'.
- To practise with Gary sooner rather than later, as the piano score is lower than the backing track I've been rehearsing with.
Practice of 'Take Me To Heaven'
This was the one song that I ended up practising the most on. This was a particularly hard song for me to sing as there was so many ups and downs, however it was a lot of fun during the rehearsal process.
Here is was what I sounded like to begin with:
One main thing which I struggled with was the high parts of the song which I found extremely difficult. I performed 'No Good Deed' to Alison during one of our singing lessons and I was struggling with the high notes in that also. Alison recommended for me to perform the song by using lip trills only and using my diaphragm for the whole thing. I found this tricky at first as my tensions were around my jaw, but I soon unclenched it and begin lip trilling through the song (with my nose really itching!). Soon after changing my song choice to this one, I found it difficult to hit some of the high notes again. With this, I used my initiative and used the same technique for the same reason. I used this gentlemen's do's and don'ts of the exercise and this gave me the support I need to make sure that I was doing it correctly.
Do's and Don'ts of lip trills
Here is me lip trilling to 'Take Me To Heaven':
When looking at the song and listening to the professional version of it, I've looked at different things which can help me add character to the song. I recorded myself doing a 'normal' way of singing this and then I recorded myself doing a 'character' singing it. You can instantly hear a 'cheekier' version in the second one, as I also used crescendo's in certain places and lengthened the amount of vibrato at the end of words. I feel that when doing it this way, it makes the lyrics more colloquial in a way as though Deloris is actually talking it rather than singing it. By also singing some of the lyrics all in one breath adds an essence to the song that it can keep flowing rather than stopping and starting.
Here is the song sang 'normally' first and then the range of different things added in. You can hear the difference:
When performing the song, I tried to add even more characterisation into the song. I looked into the lyrics as to where in this that I could do it and it was when she sing: "...I'll give you all I've got, because nothing's as hot as when you groove with me" and "...I just can't help surrounding you're so strong, you're so sweet, you're what makes me complete".
I tried to add a breathy quality on the word 'hot' and I raised my pitch on 'sweet'. This again, contributes towards the 'cheekiness' of the song and the 'flirtation' of when Deloris sings this to her boyfriend.
Here is me singing it normally:
Here is me singing it with the breathy quality and the high pitched 'hot & sweet':
From doing this, I then looked further into being able to lengthen my vibrato and lengthen the end of the words so they don't get lost for an audience. I never used to think about this until I started to record myself and hear the difference. I now try and make sure I do this so the note comes out stronger and as long as I don't do this too much, the note won't sound forced and awkward.
Something which I haven't spoken about in this song is that I'm going to be performing it in an American accent. What with Deloris being in Philadelphia, I felt that it was only necessary to replicate this. Also, the lyrics are written for an American to sing; for example: "I've been thinking about'cha" the 'cha' gives the impression it would be sung as 'about ya' rather than 'you' which is something a British person would never really say.
With this, I looked into something that could help me with my vowel pronunciations of the words and I found a really useful video to help me do this. She takes things slowly and really makes you focus on the shape of your mouth:
American vowel sounds
I recorded myself singing an 'after' clip of the song, having put all of this above together and creating a piece of my own. This song really required me to practise, and I rehearsed this a lot in my car on journeys to college, work and others. In this sound clip I've got a bit of a cold therefore there are some parts of it sound a bit different to how I will perform them in the assessment, but I feel that you can hear the differences that I changed when working on this song:
Targets:-
- Think about clear pronunciation when performing.
- Think about the character and how cheeky/flirty she is throughout it. Add this to the song.
- Rehearse the song in my car/in the house with lip trills more than anything to secure the way my body works and performs the song. (If you can lip trill the entire thing, you'll be able to sing it!)
Here is was what I sounded like to begin with:
One main thing which I struggled with was the high parts of the song which I found extremely difficult. I performed 'No Good Deed' to Alison during one of our singing lessons and I was struggling with the high notes in that also. Alison recommended for me to perform the song by using lip trills only and using my diaphragm for the whole thing. I found this tricky at first as my tensions were around my jaw, but I soon unclenched it and begin lip trilling through the song (with my nose really itching!). Soon after changing my song choice to this one, I found it difficult to hit some of the high notes again. With this, I used my initiative and used the same technique for the same reason. I used this gentlemen's do's and don'ts of the exercise and this gave me the support I need to make sure that I was doing it correctly.
Do's and Don'ts of lip trills
Here is me lip trilling to 'Take Me To Heaven':
When looking at the song and listening to the professional version of it, I've looked at different things which can help me add character to the song. I recorded myself doing a 'normal' way of singing this and then I recorded myself doing a 'character' singing it. You can instantly hear a 'cheekier' version in the second one, as I also used crescendo's in certain places and lengthened the amount of vibrato at the end of words. I feel that when doing it this way, it makes the lyrics more colloquial in a way as though Deloris is actually talking it rather than singing it. By also singing some of the lyrics all in one breath adds an essence to the song that it can keep flowing rather than stopping and starting.
Here is the song sang 'normally' first and then the range of different things added in. You can hear the difference:
When performing the song, I tried to add even more characterisation into the song. I looked into the lyrics as to where in this that I could do it and it was when she sing: "...I'll give you all I've got, because nothing's as hot as when you groove with me" and "...I just can't help surrounding you're so strong, you're so sweet, you're what makes me complete".
I tried to add a breathy quality on the word 'hot' and I raised my pitch on 'sweet'. This again, contributes towards the 'cheekiness' of the song and the 'flirtation' of when Deloris sings this to her boyfriend.
Here is me singing it normally:
Here is me singing it with the breathy quality and the high pitched 'hot & sweet':
From doing this, I then looked further into being able to lengthen my vibrato and lengthen the end of the words so they don't get lost for an audience. I never used to think about this until I started to record myself and hear the difference. I now try and make sure I do this so the note comes out stronger and as long as I don't do this too much, the note won't sound forced and awkward.
Something which I haven't spoken about in this song is that I'm going to be performing it in an American accent. What with Deloris being in Philadelphia, I felt that it was only necessary to replicate this. Also, the lyrics are written for an American to sing; for example: "I've been thinking about'cha" the 'cha' gives the impression it would be sung as 'about ya' rather than 'you' which is something a British person would never really say.
With this, I looked into something that could help me with my vowel pronunciations of the words and I found a really useful video to help me do this. She takes things slowly and really makes you focus on the shape of your mouth:
American vowel sounds
I recorded myself singing an 'after' clip of the song, having put all of this above together and creating a piece of my own. This song really required me to practise, and I rehearsed this a lot in my car on journeys to college, work and others. In this sound clip I've got a bit of a cold therefore there are some parts of it sound a bit different to how I will perform them in the assessment, but I feel that you can hear the differences that I changed when working on this song:
Targets:-
- Think about clear pronunciation when performing.
- Think about the character and how cheeky/flirty she is throughout it. Add this to the song.
- Rehearse the song in my car/in the house with lip trills more than anything to secure the way my body works and performs the song. (If you can lip trill the entire thing, you'll be able to sing it!)
Practice of 'At Last'
This song I found was the easiest and the most laid back to sing. From looking at the meaning behind the song, you can have different dynamic changes when performing the song in order to get the meaning behind it across to the audience.
As said before in the short explanation of the song, I decided to use a backing track for this song rather than going with the piano. This is because of the natural-sounding instrumental that I have for it rather than the typical 'karaoke' sounding track. I feel this is a good choice to make as the orchestra in it is very strong and really adds an atmosphere to the mood of the song.
I began this rehearsal project by completing a small warm-up. Obviously you should warm-up all the time before singing, however this one needs more as I intend to do riffs and other unique things with the material. The audio clip below demonstrates the warm-up 'Do a dear' from The Sound of Music. The first version that you will hear is a typical one that I use to warm my vocal chords up. When this is done with other exercises, I then move onto the second version of the song which is exactly the same however with a small riffed flourish.
I began this rehearsal project by completing a small warm-up. Obviously you should warm-up all the time before singing, however this one needs more as I intend to do riffs and other unique things with the material. The audio clip below demonstrates the warm-up 'Do a dear' from The Sound of Music. The first version that you will hear is a typical one that I use to warm my vocal chords up. When this is done with other exercises, I then move onto the second version of the song which is exactly the same however with a small riffed flourish.
From this I can now begin performing the song and working on it. This is what I sounded like before looking into the song and applying devices to make it sound better:
Listening to this, I think it sounds very plain and quite boring. This song really settles into the comfort of my range therefore I can experiment with different things to make it sound more alive. To do this though, when practising it at home, I notice that my posture isn't very good. I often lean forward and crook my neck up towards the sky meaning that there's tension where it shouldn't be. To change this, first of all I should complete a small body warm-up of releasing any tension that lies in my upper body. This can be removed by simply massaging and shaking it away. As for my posture, I looked into a couple of websites to help me and I cam up with the following:-
- Stand shoulder width apart
- Have your tail bone pointing downwards
- Have your arms by your sides
- Make sure your head is level
With all of this checks I feel that I would be better aligned, allowing more air to access my windpipe, thus giving me more strength to hit the notes with ease.
I showed this performance to my class and Alison in order to gain feedback. When I did this, I hadn't practised the necessities for it and it was pretty much one of my first performances of the song. When I finished, I gained feedback from the class that it sounded good although it was clear that I was nervous. I took this on board and I agreed that I was (purely because I was doing it with no practise at all) and that I should acknowledge that the more comfortable I am, the more relaxed and 'in the moment' I will be with the song, resulting in it being a great performance. My feedback I got from Alison was that on one of the high notes, I strained my neck to get it. This again is a diaphragm problem which I've always had trouble with when singing. This should be something for me to work on in order to achieve some of the notes I want to.
I looked into a variety of things that could help me with my diaphragm, and one of them was an exercise where I perform the song in second position (ballet), go into plié and hold a chair above my head. This would instantly engage my stomach muscles and source the notes from a more realistic places where it can receive strength rather than from my throat, which could cause damage and cause the song to sound strained - which is something definitely not wanted for this song as it's a relaxed tune!
For the character behind it, I feel that it should require a very 'welcoming' sort of vibe and should include smiling of some sort. If I were to perform this to an audience, I think it should be on more of an intimate level, therefore I would look at all of the audience when singing it. I would want to give the impression of, "hey, I've found the man I love and I'm telling you all how amazingly happy I am about it. Be happy for me".
When looking back at riffs, one way to get me into the style of this was by listening to a song by Whitney Houston. It's from the film The Preacher's Wife and contains a lot of riffing at the beginning of the song and throughout. (It's a GREAT song):
Joy to the World - Whitney Houston
From listening to this, I decided to sing the beginning riffs that she sings. This helps a lot as it gets you into the freedom that you have with music that a lot of songs tend to restrict. Eg: ('Favourite Things').
In the audio clip below I am singing the beginning of 'Joy to the World' however not trying to be perfect with the riffs. They sound slightly messy and very uncontrolled, yet I think this is a good exercise to use for you to get used to your vocal chords having to change so quickly to different notes.
After using this small exercise, I then apply it to a different song of my choice which not only warms up my voice (because it's heavily suited in my vocal range) but allows me to apply small riffs where I want to place them, being able to help me apply them to 'At Last'.
Throughout the song of 'At Last' (and the other songs) I intend to belt them all. Although this is my comfort zone (to a certain level), it's best to get myself better than before and therefore complete different exercises to help me perform in a belting style. One way which I've found is most useful is by leaning against a table or a wall. You do this so that all of your muscles in your back are activated, creating a stronger source for the notes to come from. This is done when you fully engage yourself and can take a long while for this exercise to kick in and for you to recognise them and use them when you want to. Practising this makes me become familiar with the muscles that need to work and I think with a bit of practise, I should hopefully be able to perform this better and benefit from the exercise.
After finally applying the exercises I have mentioned above, I have a finished product. Obviously rehearsals can still continue as there is always room for improvement.
Targets:-
- Be aware of the emotional journey that Etta James experiences when singing this song.
- Add riffs where I can to give a good performance and don't use them where necessary to highlight an important part of the song. For example "Riff: And here we are..." "DON'T RIFF: ...in heaven."
- Make sure I have the correct posture and alignment before performing this song.
Assessments
Overall I feel that the assessments went fairly well for me. We also performed some of our songs in a singing showcase in front of a live audience. I think this was a good thing for all of us to do as we've all worked so hard on our songs and therefore the chance to perform them for other people is nice. It's also a good thing I think for the department as they get to show off what is being taught to potentially new students.
'Favourite Things'
This went really well in the assessment and I believe this was because I've been rehearsing it with a higher backing track. The element of me coming back to Gary with a lower score helped me a lot. Through performance of this song I didn't actually enjoy singing it as I found it quite repetitive and it didn't have much on the other two that I was going to perform.
Even though this is the case, nevertheless it's always good to have a musical theatre songs in your repertoire when auditioning for places such as drama school.
In the assessment I believe that my breathing was a lot better and I wasn't running out of breath on any of the lyrics. In relation to the song I can remember the element that I actually sung it, but the process of doing this escapes my mind. This was probably because I was unfortunately looking forward to getting on with my other two songs!
One thing that I seemed to struggle with (which I haven't struggled before) was the lyrics of the piece. Due to the verses all being so similar, I mixed up some of the words in my quick run through before performing, which threw me a little. I stayed calm and went over them quickly on the score and I was fine.
Here is my performance of 'Favourite Things' in the assessment:
'Take Me To Heaven'
Although there was a slight hiccup with the music causing me to do it again, I feel that I performed this one better than what I thought I would. The piano music unfortunately got a little complicated as due to it being a 7 page score, when Grace E helped Gary to turn the pages, it was situated in the wrong place, causing the whole song to be wrong. I was fine with this as there was nothing I could do but that version of it I thought was going really well until it had to suddenly stop. I performed the second time and although I don't think it was as good as my first one, I think it was still an 'alright' performance. On the lyric "[soon to be filled]" I was supposed to go up in pitch. For some reason, I went with the flow and I ended up doing a riff downwards. This caught me off guard as I didn't intend on doing this however it still sounded good so I didn't mind.
I performed this song in the singing showcase and it didn't go as well as my assessment. This was slightly down-heartening as I practised so much for it. The part in the song where it goes: "He's got the boogie, that moves my soul. He's got the boogie that makes me lose control" is an exceptionally high and difficult part in the song for me. When performing it in the singing showcase, I managed to sing this with strength and with an element of control which I was really proud of. Even though it didn't go too well for me in the showcase, the fact that I sang the part I found most tricky, with ease, I'm happy with.
Like I said, the assessment went well - so that's okay!
Here is my performance of 'Take Me To Heaven' in the assessment:
'At Last'
This song went SO well in the assessment and in the singing showcase. Both performances were different, however still went well for me. In the assessment I found it difficult to remember the correct words (a worry I had from the beginning with this song) however when I finally got them together, the song had riffs and power in it. Towards the end of the song during the assessment, I experimented with riffs right at the end, which I didn't intend on doing. Obviously the practice I was doing on this has paid off as it was luckily all in tune and I was able to continue the song by hitting the final beat for "at last".
As for the singing showcase, I used the 'intimate' performance which I spoke about in my rehearsal log. I made eye contact with all of the audience and due to being comfortable with the song, I didn't seem to mind that they were looking back at me! I really went for it in this performance to which I partly think this was because the song before (Take Me To Heaven) wasn't so great and I wanted to redeem myself.
I played with the dynamics in appropriate places and really tried to capture the emotional journey of Etta James. If anything, I wish I had experimented more with the dynamics and possibly quietened the song down (I feel it was slightly shouty part of the time) however I was happy with my performance.
Here if my performance of 'At Last' in the assessment:
Overall, I actually really enjoyed this project and it gave me a lot of confidence to perform in front of an audience. Although I like musical theatre, acting whilst singing is completely different to standing there with a mic whilst everyone is looking at you. I seriously take my hat off to people who can do the latter with ease, as it's horrible standing there with everyone looking at you!
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