practicing / training

Personal practice:

Obviously outside of lessons, we had to find ourselves the time to practice our songs and warm up our vocals to help with our singing show. Chloe recommended at least five minutes of vocal warm up's everyday and this would slowly help our voices improve. Truthfully, I did not do this everyday due to forgetting but I did do it most days when I was at home and I did feel it did some improving and helped with my singing a lot more as it improved my strength of singing and breathing etc.

I think my voice suits slower songs more, I think this is because of my breathing. I especially find it hard to hit notes in quicker songs and become off-key and run out of breath quickly such as the school song, it was like a work out for me. I think my voice can get to higher notes in slow songs as well as it is again to do with my breathing. I struggle to sing low notes in any songs because I genuinely cannot sing very low at all.

Other than the exercises I did with Chloe, I used different ones at home such as ones I use with my singing teacher which included sirens, some tongue twisters such as 'the tip of the tongue, the teeth and the lips' and etc. In warm ups, I tried singing lower to start with so my voice would get used to the lower key. I did this because I wanted to try train my voice to be able to sing lower.

I genuinely think in class I had good focus, had a laugh with everyone now and then but I did try in the warm up's even if they were hard. I think in class I have achieved a little more confidence then I had before because everyone is so supportive of you. I have never done a show of just pure singing so it was a new experience and I liked it. I achieved being able to sing higher harmonies and think about the story of the lyrics so much more then I ever did before so it was more then just singing.

I'm still working towards my range, singing lower and belting to be achieved by the end of the year and I definitely think by warm up's for my vocals everyday and drinking plenty of water can really help and just being careful with my voice and do not push myself so hard. I'm also working on facial expressions whilst singing, there was a musical theatre song I did with Dean in the singing show and I didn't really focus on facial expressions, I was too nervous and was focusing too hard on the singing and didn't think about facial expressions to use.

Rehearsal & Performance: 

Chloe wanted us to choose our own songs unless she had one that she would like you to try or would be good for your voice. I always struggle to choose a song to sing because I do not want to make it too easy for myself but I do not want to do a song that I would find impossible to do. I looked at Lily Allen's 'Somewhere only we know' and Ellie Goulding's 'Love me like you do' but in the end I decided to do a song by Adele called 'Make you feel my love'. I have never sung an Adele song as her voice is very different from mine and I felt okay with it at first but I soon found out I held back a lot and I was really nervous to sing the belting parts as I feared that I sounded off-key. I sung it in front of Chloe for the first time on 29th January and I didn't belt but I used head voice on them parts. Afterwards Chloe said I should keep that as my song and me and her will just work with each other on it. She said for the first bridge that I could use head voice because the lyrics are still gentle but on the second one after the instrumental, to belt it as the lyrics mean more and are stronger. So I kept the song.

Most nights at home I would sing my songs to a karaoke version to help get used to them more and get my voice used to the tune and music and then I would listen to the original as well too see what I can change or what I can even achieve myself with it. I would usually do the vocal warm up's during the day as when I wake up, my voice is a little weird and I find it hard to sing without warming up. I also found it easier to sing at night time because my voice has been talking all day and warmed up a lot so it made it easier to sing. At college I would practice in my own time when I could but the main chances that I got too sing was when we actually had singing lessons with Chloe.

I recorded myself a few times but I am unable to upload them onto here for some reason, it was weird hearing myself but I was able to hear parts of the song that I struggled with and parts I was stronger.

When I sung my solo in front of people, most of my peers said not to be afraid to belt out on the belting parts, stay relaxed, and actually perform the song. Chloe pretty much said the same thing on the line so I worked on it and improved my song with using my feedback that I had been given.

My song was sad, so some characterisation could have been used...I wasn't putting an incredibly smiley facial expression on, but sometimes a smile was useful but only a small one was suited. A song could be sung through the eyes as well, as your eyes can look sad or happy or whatnot...I felt my eyes were sad due to the song I was singing.

Exam

We had to do a vocal exam in front of Chloe where she plays us a tune of sixteen beats and then we have to sing it back and she would play the first key to help us. She started off by having us all sit in a circle and Chloe would clap a tune and we had to copy and do it in time and all of us had to do it. This was difficult because not everyone done the correct timing and the right tune. Chloe did this to help us get a rough idea of what the exam would be like. The more we had to do it, the more harder it got. So once we got through the circle once, as well as clapping...Chloe then added clicking, and then afterwards she added a slap on the knee.

Afterwards she wanted us to hum a tune, literally any tune that came up into our head and then everyone had to copy it...we could add claps and clicks if we wanted. This was also difficult because I found it hard to think of a tune on the spot but also listen to everyone else's tune and copy it exactly the same as they done it.

The point in those exercises was because she wanted us to get a feel for the exam and get the idea of rhythm. She then left us to practice some rhythm in groups and then we was called up one at a time to do the exam. I was second and I was so nervous but Chloe was really supportive and helped me with the exam as much as she could.

This was the other half of our singing unit as well as the show and the blog.

The show & Evaluation

In all I think the show went really well and everyone done fantastic and the best that they could. It was a shame that sometimes the microphones wouldn't work but I think we all managed through it really well. I think it was a long show but it doesn't feel like it when you are actually in it. I got told by some audience members afterwards that they really enjoyed it which was very nice to hear as it was a relief if you felt like you had done bad and then have that reassurance.

I felt like I could have pushed myself more, I was extremely nervous in mine and Dean's duet as it was with a piano and I felt like I couldn't sing the song very well but I tried as much as I could. I had the pressure of people hearing me sing that haven't before so I was worried I would sound bad but I still continued, I think I needed to work on my breathing a lot in that song. In my solo I forgot that I needed to use chest voice for most of the song and fell into the trap of singing in head voice but I tried to remember in important places that really needed the chest voice such as when I belt. My class improved so much on the group songs, we got so much more into it as we had an audience with fresh pairs of eyes watching us, and we had a lot of fun with it. Also I think the school song was still way to quick but we always had that issue, we also had the struggle with the four people changing the alphabet letters behind us as they hadn't got much practice doing it before.

We got given log books to use while we did the process of the singing unit:

It then asked what my weaknesses were and to list the three from the sheets before:

For my first weakness I said my 'range', to improve this weakness I said I was going to warm up my voice more often to help with low singing especially and try doing lower songs just to get used to singing lower. For my second weakness I said 'using an accent' and to improve this I was going too try practising accents more and singing with them so I had a load of different accents I could use. For my third weakness I said 'using expression', I have always struggled with this as I focus way to much on the singing and not show what the meaning of the song is, so to improve this I said I would think about the lyrics and what my face would do or how I would react when I head/read the words.

So my first target setting was that my short term goal would be:

- changing facial expressions while singing

- knowing the meaning of the song so I can sing it with meaning

- work on projection

This is something I could probably achieve in around 4-6 weeks.

Then my long term goal would be:

- accents being improved

- be able to sing lower key

- head voice/chest voice to be improved

This is something that would be achieved over a longer period of time.

This is my first self evaluation from the 29th January:

This is my second self evaluation from a month ago:

3rd: 

Last / self and peer evaluation: 

Final Week

On Monday 23rd March we started at 1pm and had a few hours to practice all our group songs and then went into the dance studio and performed them all, after doing them all Chloe sent us back upstairs to go through them again. When we came back to the dance studio, we sung out school song and then Chloe sent us home and advised us to drink lots of water.

On Tuesday 24th March, we did a whole run of the songs in the show...when we done cell block tango admittedly we haven't gone through it with Jodie so she was not sure what to do but we practiced after. Mine and kj's song had to be skipped cause our version of the song we use for earned it sounded funny on the speakers. My solo I was told that I sounded better but I need to perform more and stop keeping my hands behind my back. And me and Dean didn't get to perform our song as the piano was in the club room. 

On Wednesday it was tech run day, spent most of the day doing lights for the song, in cell block tango we have red lights, mine and deans duet is on the floor by the piano, mine and kj's has a mixture of blue and red and my solo is just blue. 

We then tried to do a run with all the songs and microphones unfortunately we only managed to get up to the second song in the second act as Chloe really needed to go to work. 

This is the running order: 

 

Act 1 -

Hello

Broken strings

Love is an open door

Ordinary people

Feeling good

The lazy song

Ruin me

Cell block tango

Heart and music

Who knew

We'll meet again

Something to believe in 

Tenerife sea

Pulled

Keep your head up

Act 2 - 

Gone in the morning 

All American profit

Earned it

Can't hurry love

Mamma knows best

The world will know

Make you feel my love

Yours

Santa Fe 

Real love

Uptown funk

School song

Freak flag

 

On the day of the show we had an early start as we had to finish early on the day before, we got our wireless microphones which made it a lot easier for us all to use and we did another run or two of the show. In this run, we used lights and acted as if it was the actual show (almost like a matinee) and as the hours went past, I got a lot more nervous.

 

Cell block tango really came along in the end which I was happy about because I was worried it would be cut last minute and that all the work we put in would be for nothing. In the show run that we did in the afternoon, I didn't give it my full 100% mainly because I could feel my throat starting to hurt and I didn't want too push myself.

 

I started getting really nervous but excited for the show as the hours went by. About 20 minutes before the doors opened we had a vocal warm up including our simple ones we usually do including some ones we did from panto. I had plenty of water and had it with me so that I could hydrate myself before I went on to do a song.

lessons

I found it really hard to choose a solo. I was stuck with many songs and I decided to go with Adele Make you feel my love. But as I tried practising this song at home I noticed I could not sing it as well as I thought I could so I worried myself. I decided to look at other songs in case I had the opportunity to change it. I tried Ellie Goulding's 'Your song' and Lily Allen's 'somewhere only we know'. I felt a lot more comfortable with these songs and I decided to message Chloe to tell her the issues I was having. She said she still wants to hear the Adele song and reassured me that I may not sound as bad as I may think, she said if I wanted to stick to the Adele song that she would work with me 1 to 1 to help me improve it, and said its up to me completely. She also mentioned it could be something I could work myself up too.


On the 29th January, everyone doing solo's got a chance to have a singing lesson with Chloe to go through the song they chose to do, Chloe said she wanted to hear me sing the Adele song. She then said that the bit that I was worried about I could sing my head voice on the first one and on the second one to belt it.

so head voice on this bit:

I know you haven't made your mind up yet,
But I will never do you wrong.
I've known it from the moment that we met,
No doubt in my mind where you belong.

and belt this bit: 

The storms are raging on the rolling sea
And on the highway of regret.
The winds of change are blowing wild and free,
You ain't seen nothing like me yet.

After going through this a few times, Chloe said she wants me to keep the Adele song but to just keep working on it and I would eventually be more comfortable with it.


Chloe has not been in for two weeks so we have not as a class had our normal weekly two hour lesson. So I have been practising at home because of this...slowly I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable with the more belted singing parts.

A few weeks ago, Chloe gave me this sheet that would help me with my blog: 

This week we got told that our singing show would be moved to march 26th, which is a few months earlier than it was originally but the show in May would clash with exams and other things going on in the school. This shocked everybody and made me think straight away that I need to keep going strong.

We had a lesson earlier to go through all our class group songs and Chloe would film them so we can put them on our blogs to see the progress. This was a good way to help people see how we sound and look. Chloe then brought out another song for us which would make the fourth class group song, we listened to it and then decided that we liked it but we was going to not put it into the show because we wanted to focus on the three songs we already had. it was James Bay's new song.

Me and Kj suggested to Chloe singing a duet of the song called 'earned it, by the weeknd' from the film 50 shades of grey. 

A group of six of us wanted to sing 'cell block tango' from Chicago. The group including me, Kj, Saskia, Lily, Eden, and Daisy. We sorted the characters we were but to be honest rarely practised it.

When we got told that the singing show was being moved to March, Chloe said that on Friday the 27th February we have to sing our songs in front of her and Ella so they can see where the song is at and whether it will go into the show or not. I got really nervous because I thought I wouldn't be good enough.

Me and the Chicago practiced our song a few times and was worried it wouldn't be ready we still tried and Chloe said if we want to do it that we got to work really hard for it so that it will work and will go into the show.

I feel that all my songs went really well but I was most nervous for my solo as it was the first song I had to sing and because I had only sung it in front of Chloe once and never in front of Ella.

Later on that day Chloe took me to have a chat and told me that Dean from the second year wanted to do a duet and asked me to do it with him, I was surprised but I thought I would listen and give it a chance, so Chloe and Dean sung it to me and Dean played the song on the piano. The song is called 'Something to believe in' from the musical 'newsies' I really liked the song and it was sung really high I thought I would like to do it so when I got home I listened to it a few more times and tried singing it a few times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FhVL0Jylm4

The show is 26th March, and a list got put up of the songs that did/didn't come in and the songs that needed to be seen again to see if the song will go into the show or not. My solo of adele got in, mine and KJ's duet of earned it got in, but cell block tango and mine and Dean's song is in the maybe part.

Chloe done an exercise with both 1st and 2nd years where she put up pieces if paper around the room with lyrics on it and no song name on it but we had to write down on a piece of paper what we thought it meant: 

I thought the first one was about thinking positive/there could be something worse then what is already happening.

I thought the second one was about being judged and about personalities and trust.

I thought the third one was about not being left alone/relationships/stalking etc.

With the fourth one I thought it was about dreaming/travelling/relationships/thinking of the future.

And I really wasn't sure about the fifth one, I couldn't quite figure out what it was about. 

The main reason she done this is because she said when we sung our songs that we was just 'singing it' we didn't sing it with emotion and meaning so she told us to write down what we thought our song meant. 

We had a rehearsal of adding movement to our song 'school song' from Matilda the musical:

Although the singing needs a lot of work, by adding the movement it has improved quite a bit of the song already.

Chloe filmed all our songs so that in a few weeks when we have had the show we can see the progress:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zSNujIRzHk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pypsxo50cCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdn0VyffXpg

Me and KJ are using a piano instrumental for the song of 'Earned it' as this key of the song was preferred.

We practised it a few times on Thursday night at college, this helped us feel more comfortable/confident with the song itself and the lyrics.

 

In Cell Block Tango, me and the girls found the timing very difficult, especially when we first come in with our names of the crimes we committed. So one morning, me & Daisy & Saskia worked out all the timings on the karaoke version to help us figure out when to come in.

 

 

By doing this it gave us a more clearer understanding on how the song works. We wasn't sure if a member of the group would be in the song as they had not had much practice with us, we considered using one of the second years to take her place in case this did happen. As the days went on, we figured out that this was the case so a second year kindly said she would take her place and learn it with only days till the show. 

We had to decide costumes for the songs, for the school song we would wear school uniforms, for 'keep your head up' we would wear jeans, white shirts and trainers. In 'gone in the morning' we would wear coloured shirts, jeans and trainers, in our Solo's we had to be in smart black clothing (black dresses for girls/black trousers and shirts for boys).

We constantly got as much rehearsal for our songs as possible especially cell block tango. We tried adding some movement into it as well...just now days away from the show.

 

 

being introduced into the unit

Chloe told us on the 8th January we will be doing a singing show on the 8th May for our singing unit. Although through needing to rehearse children's theatre, get context out the way, and rehearse with second years...we would only have eight lessons altogether.

She gave us a few group songs to practice with but they was not ideas she had completely settled on. She came up with 'School Song' from Matilda, which was a very weird but clever song, had weird timings and speed but was very fun and interesting and I enjoyed it. She also gave us the song 'he lives in you' from the Lion King, I personally really enjoyed this song and think the majority of the class did.

She also explained that to be marked for this unit there is many things we have to do like learn techniques and master our breathing and holding notes and doing tongue twisters. We have to do certain things when being marked on a test which can be very harsh on marking and it can be very hard to get a good grade unless you are perfect pretty much. She also said everyone needs to sing a solo and that can stretch from two sentences in a song to a whole song by themselves. I am quite happy to sing a whole song alone but also do not mind taking part in duets or groups if need be.

At the moment I am losing my voice and it is hard to practice a song that I could settle on to choose for the show when I am not even sure I can pull it off when I am losing my voice. I focused on 'All of me' , by John Legend in female key, 'Mad World', Adam Lambert's cover in female key, a song from Billy Elliot the musical called 'The Letter' which usually requires three people. And I looked over a song I used to sing called 'tell me on a Sunday' from Song and Dance. I have not chosen which one to do as I do not know which one I can sing best as I am losing my voice at the moment so I am not able to see which one is best for me.

On 15th January, Chloe had us for two hours. She said too make a singing show we need 18 songs from us otherwise we cannot do it and at a push 16 songs. I have chosen to do a solo but I have not decided which one as I still do not have much of a singing voice and I'm still not sure which one I will be able to pull off best as I will be getting marked on this.

In the warm up we did usual vocal warm up's such as humming and going higher and lower in notes and so on. She then gave us a booklet and told us to answer a questionnaire very honestly about what we can/can't/struggle to do in singing. I said my three main weaknesses were range, using an accent, and using facial expressions. She also said we need to create our own vocal warm up to show her by the end of the year.

She then gave us two new group songs and got rid of the Lion Kings one 'he lives in you'. We sung through 'gone in the morning' by Newton Faulkner, and 'keep your head up' by Andy Grammer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LMVJ2xd1g8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdfl51Vr7qE

I did enjoy these songs and I think everyone else did as well.

Chloe advises us too drink loads of water to keep us hydrated, and to do five minutes every day of warming up our vocals and we will notice a difference in our voices in a few weeks possibly.