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:

Grace W - Favourite Things

'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:

Grace W - Take Me to Heaven

'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: 

Grace W - At Last

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!