Singing

11 September. This week, we reviewed technical exercises like major and minor scale, arpeggio, and va va va va vee vee vee vee. This reminded us of the ways to warm up, or prepare for a singing performance. This öeek, we just talked in a group about the singing performance, our group songs, and amy further ideas. We didn't get anywhere this week, as there were a lot of mixed conflicting ideas that we hd to discuss. We established that we needed solos, maybe duets and a group piece or two.    18 September. For most of this week, we continued to talk about pieces. We worked out that Groove is in the Heart would make a good group piece. We all liked Madness too, so Baggy TROUSERS was chosen. A popular choice was the 80s track Africa, which I don't really know. I thought about doing feed the birds from Mary Poppins but I'm not sure.   25 September. We have sung through the choruses of Baggy Trousers, while some people struggled, I managed to keep up.  I also had a brief look at the rap in Groove is in the Heart, as we decided I'D do it. I decided to scrap the Mary Poppins idea and do Colours of the Wind from Pocahontas. Emily liked a lady gaga song, Callum liked a Michael Buble song, and we were all happy with the songs. However, some people wanted to do all the songs pre recorded, as in not live. I disagreed, feeling like I öould not feel proud of a pre recorded piece.   2 October. We've given a few of the songs a go. Groove is in the HEart is fun, but hard. People were sceptical about baggy trousers, but I liked it. I am starting to  get used to Africa, as I previousé didn't know it.   13 October. We had a good look at Africa this week, as Cara needed to learn the piano tune for it, aid we needed to look at it. I also sang colours of the wind. My voice is richer and more tuneful than last year. As a second song, I've chosen je veux which is in French. I showed Cara the tune and she is happy with it as a piece for me. We also pre recorded Seasons of love, a song from last year, in the media rooms. Shia was a strange experience for me as I'm not a musician or media student.  We will use this as a musical interlude in a celebration for achievement event in November.    31 October. We began by starting work on melodic phrases. I found one bar phrases easy to repeat, but two bars is harder As there is more to remember. I also managed to work out, during another exercise, which note was coming next and what key ^major or minorä a bar was in. I also identified the number of keys in a note. I am pleased with my work on this, but there is  more to be done.  I did my solo and was told my voice had changed and improved again. We then worked on the noses in my piece, as I don't always take enough breath before a long, very high note. This causes me to frown, and causes headaches. We are going to continue working on this so I can prevent this, and make the note stronger.    3 November  Today I practised my new song, Je Veux, by Zak. It is a FRENCH song, and is very upbeat and lively compared with colours of the wind. I have mislaid my lyrics unfortunately, but I will retape them.     7 November. Today, I practised Je veux properly, at the right speed. I think my first attempt was very successful. I found the right pace, and I can now look at the lyrics properly.The only thing I must do is make sure I don't loose words. As it is a French song, I have to learn how to shorten, or make the words fit in to the tune and the line, like in English we would do gonna instead of going to.    10 November.  Today I spenta lot of time on singing. Cara helped with my rap, for groove is in the heart, all is positive with this but the timings rare hard for some words. Also, my solo in french, Je veux needed some work.  I have got better at not rushing le swallowing words, and the melody and sound of the song has also improved. Also, for one course, there's an almost aca pela moment, and we have adjusted when this will be. Instead of the third chorus, it will be the second, followed by a jolly one to end.  14 September. Today I mainly worked on my songwhich was very productive because we changed the entire pace of je veux to make it jazzy and more French. This would also stop me from swallowing my words and I can work on my diction even in the French language. The key for colours of the wind changed from a c to a b so that I can hit the higher notes in a more tuneful way and it would suit my voice range better.   as it sounds jazzier and I can properly properly speak the French words with a lot of diction. I have tried to sing without a sheetoflyricswhichwas difficult however I have learnt the whole chorus off by heart. In colours of the wind I am still struggling to hit a couple of high notes. We are considering a way of making the notes more approachable and achievable for me.     22 November. Unfortunately for part of the weeek I was ill so I missed Momday's lecture. On Tuesday, I was able to look at my solos again. In colours of the wind we changed the key to a b I think I am making a fair bit of progression this area. We have slowed down the speed of je veux As there isa lot の あの  Colours the wind. I have managed to master the velocity, but one note is difficult for me, and we may adjust the key. However, I have been able to look at

14 November.  This Week i mainly focussed my solo
songs.  I changed the speed and accompany
of my song Je Veux, to make it jazzier and slower.  This meant that I could sing the individual
lyrics more easily, which can be hard in French.  In my other song, Colours of the wind, I
changed the key from C to B.  This helped
as I struggled to meet some of the higher notes.  Also the key fits my vocal range.  I am pleased that I was able to make good
adjustments to my singing to make it easier for myself. Here is a video of me practicing my solo Colours of the Wind
https://youtu.be/2A-8WcC6_Pc
 

 

22 November.  Unfortunately
I missed one of this week's lessons. This was the lesson when the group made the final decision about the songs to be included in the performance. We had 10 songs, 6 will be pre-recorded with a view to creating pop videos to go with them. Four will be sung live and all of the pieces will be live streamed. The focus for the performance will therefore not be to produce a live performance, rather pre-recorded with a live element. I didn't like the idea of pre-recording the pieces, I like the idea of performing on a stage and feeling the adrenaline of singing my best. When we record something, we can do it again but when it's live you only have one chance to do well.
The list of songs for inclusion is as follows:
Africa - group- studio
Groove is in the Heart - group - live
I see the Light -duet - studio Em and Cal
We are Family - group - live
Colours of the Wind- studio my solo
No Floods - studio - Emily
Hallelujah - live Callum solo
Can you Feel it - studio - solo Cal
Je Veux - live my contrasting solo
Own Composition - live - Mikey
This isn't the running order of the show, just a list of how we are going to present the songs.
I did however get the chance to sing through my solos on Tuesday,
without a word sheet.  Although I still
struggle to remember a lot, I am making slow progress.  I am still happy with the adjustments I made
to my solos, and I think this kind of change has helped with my singing skills
as I was able to enhance them by tailoring them to me.

 

29 November.  Today we all had colds so we were not able to
do the solos.  However, I sang through
Groove is in the Heart with Emily.  My
rapping section was really improved, and I even got to show my mum on the phone
this evening and she was pleased.  We are
trying to grasp we are family, as the verses are quite complicated, but I think
it can be done.

https://soundcloud.com/calamity99cb/africa-mix-23rd-march

 

https://soundcloud.com/calamity99cb/colours-of-the-wind

15 January.  This week we had a studio session with the
Art college students, trying to see if they were up for the job as musicians
for us.  We went through all the songs
and worked out what we could add music wise.
My solos were both meant to be piano, but I liked the idea of gentle
precussion.  It was nice to see there
enthusiasm, although unfortunately one person did not wish to take the job and
another knew he was to be very busy.

 

22 January.  This week the art college students did not
come.  It was a shame as they seemed
keen, however, we still continued to practice our songs.  We practiced singing them, which was helpful
as going over words is useful.  We also
tried to record some of the footage, such as I see the light and Can you feel
it.  This was useful as we could see the
progress and we could also understand what we had to focus on.  I was not ready to record colours of the
wind.

 

29 January.  This week, we continued to eddit some of the
prerecorded material.  I was not feeling
that well this week so I whisper-sang colours of the wind.  They managed to record it despite my voice
not being strong.  However, I have been
told that my voice has deffinately improved, partly due to the warm ups and
also due to the fact that I am learning how to control my voice better.

 

26 February: This
week, I really looked at colours of the wind, and managed to record it.  My voice was much better and stronger, and I
felt better vocally.  I used a braille
lyric sheet as a prompt, but this rustled a bit so I put it down.  I was tobbd that the rendition was very good,
however, I forgot the words a couple of times.
However I was able to record over this.
We also did melodic phrases, and I found that with bars of 2 4 and 3 4 I
repeat a melody with confidence.  However
sometimes there was a pause so it was not an automatic repeat and sometimes the
notes were wrong.  However, with practice
I will soon manage to repeat the notes to much longer pieces of music.

5 March: This
week, we practiced all the live songs.
In particular I worked on Je Veux, which went very well but Cara had to
record it so that she could remember my particular arrangement.  Also I accidentally rearranged a few of the
words so I need to work on the lines that went wrong.  We worked on Groove is in the heart, and we
are family, which were fine apart from I slipped up on the words in groove, and
some people didn't know their lines in family.
Since then, I have been practicing my lines and securing my own parts.      12 March. This week my voice was very sore so I tried to sing my solo but could not really manage very well. I did sing my parts in group songs, and reaffirmed a couple of words I had forgotten, for example, I needed to remember "Your groove I do deeply dig." I also helped during we are family as some people found it hard to remember their lines, and others sang quite quietly. Hopefully, next week, my voice will no longer be sore and I can practice my solo. I feel fairly happy with it but again, there are some words I keep forgetting. However, I do feel very confident with my parts in our show, one step beyond.  19 March. This week we practiced our songs, and decided we'd do all of them live when we perform for the French students. It was hard rehearsing colours of the wind after so long not practicing due to thinking we would be using the recording. I will continue to practice my lyrics until the performance.   26 March. The performance is confirmed for monday 27 Major, and I'm not too nervous. I will be doing french translations of the hosting throughout. I will be doing a french translation of Callum's English hosting. When I did je veux,my mind blanked due to the small, connecting words in the French language that make it hard to sing. Its like in English, if you read the word "Zhou do not" you can shorten in to you don't. It is harder to work out where to do this in French, especially when working out the length and accuracy of eaah line. It also was due to the list of similar lines, like suite au ritz, chez chanelle, limousine, personnelle, neuf chatelle, Tour Eiffel. It is hard to remember this while singing a complicated French set of lyrics. Someone made a comment that I didn't know the words and should know them by now, which Quite affected me and slightly knocked my confidence and made me slightly doubt myself, as I wanted to get the song right and seem professional. However, I am confident that I will do my best, as it is hard to explain to non-french speakers the complications of lyrics in a second language, with the abréviations, and I know that the lyrcs are secure in my mind. I am excited for the performance, especially as I can cooperate my French skills in with a theatrical performance.       

Below is a link to my youtube account where there is a video of me carrying out my melodic phrases.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPD-HHuaHTJEan6NiESguUA

Here is a link to the singing performance. I am very happy with this performance. I was unfortunately feeling rather unwell that daybut I managed to translate very competently in Frenchh. I also felt confident that I was loud, clear, and faced the audience. I also felt that having a floor mic really helped, I could tell where it is, but I could still gesture and move without worrying about the sound travelling. I unfortunately sounded like I was out of breath during the songs, but I was confident with the words, and with my overall performance.  I also took part in the ensemble pieces, with my own line in We Alder Family. Apart from a tiny tuning issue I felt confident wish our group song. Unfortunately we could not live stream the fre recorded performance, but I feel that we still carried out a successful, tuneful, and harmonised performance. I unfortunately sang the wrong line at one point, but I am pleased with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNheDgolR-s&t=326s