This session was allocated to the blocking and staging of the performance to ensure that our interpretation was strong and we had a clear idea overall.
Perry and I felt this sort of song needed simplistic blocking but the personal interpretation be emphasised by gestures and facial expression. By having more simplistic blocking our vocal performance wouldn't be hindered and we could keep a standard throughout the performance. We felt it would be easiest to go through the song in different parts and express and discuss our ideas.
We began with the first part of the song:
"All along it was a fever,
A cold sweat hot-headed believer,
I threw my hands in the air, said, "Show me something."
He said, "If you dare, come a little closer.""
We decided the main blocking of this would be two chairs facing each other with Perry writing down notes and me singing to him about my feelings. For this part, I had to try and make eye contact with Perry to show the desperate need of my character and him fighting his desire by keeping professional.
For the next part:
"Round and around and around and around we go,
Oh now tell me now, tell me now, tell me now you know"
We decided that Perry should stand up and leave me as if he's denying and distancing himself from my character. This gave me the space to be isolated when singing the next part.
The next part:
"Not really sure how to feel about it,
Something in the way you move,
Makes me feel like I can't live without you,
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay."
I was left sitting on my own in the chair defeated and alone, this allowed me to really add emotion into the way I was singing the words and with Perry's character's back in front of my created a sense of lose and confusion in the feelings. By singing the on my own also established a segregation between the characters as their feelings for each other are forbidden.
For Perry's part:
"It's not much of a life you're living,
It's not just something you take - it's given.
Round and around and around and around we go,
Oh now, tell me now, tell me now, tell me now you know.
Not really sure how to feel about it,
Something in the way you move,
Makes me feel like I can't live without you.
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay."
Perry remained sat at his desk and animated the singing with various gestures showing frustration and confusion over his feelings for my character. He has a sense of anger in his presence as he knows that having a relationship with my character could potentially destroy his career so by keeping still and using soft facial expression and eye contact allowed for that interpretation to be conveyed.
The final part of the song:
"Ooh, ooh, ooh, the reason I hold on,
Ooh, ooh, ooh, 'cause I need this hole gone.
Funny you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving,
'Cause when you never see the light it's hard to know which one of us is caving.
Not really sure how to feel about it,
Something in the way you move,
Makes me feel like I can't live without you,
It takes me all the way,
I want you to stay, stay.
I want you to stay, oh."
Perry and I felt this was the perfect moment for the characters to start slowly showing their expressions for each other. We began by standing in opposite sides of the stage and then start singing to each other from "Funny you're the broken one" as if we were finally discussing our feelings for each other. As we start walking together, this is where the connection and love for each other is established and we embrace. At the end of the song we then go back to our positions, separate showing that our love didn't conquer over all and the professional relationship had to be maintained.
I feel that in this session we have successfully established the blocking with reason and thought into the detail of the movements and how they relate to our interpretation of the song. The blocking allows the audience to establish a relationship between the characters and the simple blocking also allows us to maintain the emotions behind the words.
I feel like once we've combined this blocking to our vocals, our performance will have a strong and unique interpretation and remains emotional.
Last week it was evident that the blocking and characterisation of our duet had to be established and this session was used productively to perform this. Now I think to move one and develop the piece for assessment we have to pair the characterisation and vocal performances together.
I feel like we completed a thorough and detailed exploration of the song and used staging to benefit and aid our performance.
To complete the rehearsal process we need to pair the vocal work and staging work together to reach our potential in regards to the performance.
Run through the performance and work on any last minute small details in preparation for the assessment!
Unfortunately due to the Easter Break, Perry and I had missed a fair few rehearsals slots so this week we knew we had to nail down on ensuring that we were comfortable with the song and start working on our interpretation and staging of our duet.
We decided to use various week days, this week to ensure that we had learnt the song accurately and in detail. Perry and I felt it was appropriate to ask one of our friends and someone who has already done this project from last year, James D. Fawcett, to sit in and give us some feedback so we know what to develop and improve for the assessment.
I felt that asking James was a useful tool to improve and to gain someone else's opinion, I was also comfortable with James giving feedback which was useful and thoughtful.
When we performed the song I felt that I was far more confident and was able to remember the words, now that I didn't have to rely on the lyric sheet I could focus more on my singing rather than what word came next. Whilst performing I felt that Perry was also far more confident and this allowed the song to sound far more stronger than it has done before.
There were various parts of the song that Perry and I would need to work on to ensure it was up to a performance standard, but, overall, I felt that we had performed a good job and we had accomplished the best we could for the rehearsals we've had.
James suggested that we added harmonies to our song to get a more textured feel. He also wanted us to perform it with the full characterisation but unfortunately, Perry and I hadn't gone through the staging of the song just yet.
Perry and I weren't initially sure on what harmonies to add so we asked a fellow classmate to assist us.
Susie offered to add a harmony in the part:
"Round and around and around and around we go
Oh now, tell me now, tell me now, tell me now you know."
And:
"the reason I hold on...
...'cause I need this hole gone"
In these parts, I would sing an octave higher to Perry, it was extremely hard for me to get the tune right but once I had accomplished this the song was much more textured and added a nice effect to the song.
So that I could practise the harmony, I recorded it on my phone so that in the next few weeks I can familiarise myself with it as much as possible.
I felt that the Easter holidays has meant that we started off struggling to get back into the flow of the song but once we had it was much easier to perform. Having James help us was great because it gave us an idea of what to develop in the song.
James did want to see us perform it using the characteristics but unfortunately we haven't got that far yet, I feel like now we are confident with the song it's time to finalise the characteristic and blocking of the song so we have an overall rounded performance.
This week there wasn't much emotion added to the song but I feel this will occur when we're adding the staging and characteristics to the song. So far I've really enjoyed working with Perry as we're both artistically and creatively in-sync and share the same passion for producing an interesting performance.
We asked for the opinion of someone else to gain a wider knowledge of how we could develop on the song and made progress.
Characterisation and staging needs to be completed so the performance is at the standard we want it to be.
Focus on the overall performance of the piece and polish it for the assessment.
Again, Perry and I felt it was important to work through the vocal performance of the song rather than the blocking. Through this rehearsal we decided to keep going through the song and noting any areas for improvement we have to work on to create a strong vocal performance.
During the rehearsals of the song we applied the feedback we received from each other and any aims or targets we had set ourselves. I often found pitching the first part of the song more difficult but as I begin the song I was determined to make sure my pitch was correct and in tune. As I practised the song more and corrected myself as we went through I began to pick it up.
I tried to add a softer tone to the start of the song I was singing because my characteristics of defeated and weak could be easily shown by the way I sung the song, my singing voice tends to be loud and obnoxious so portraying softness in my voice was far more difficult than I originally thought.
I was really uncomfortable when singing the "Ooooh"'s as I felt I was out of pitch and was embarrassed about sounding bad in front of Perry. I feel like I would need to practise this outside of our rehearsal sessions to gain confidence with that part of the song. Whilst we were going through the song I had realised I was far more familiar with the song from listening to it and learning the words to the best of my ability and as fast as I could. I felt this was needed for our rehearsals to be productive and to not let Perry down as he's my partner and both our work efforts should be the same. Although we've started applying emotion to the way we're singing the song I feel like we need to develop this more to truly show our interpretation of the song to the best of our abilities. I am really enjoying working with Perry and I feel the progress of the song we're making so far is really promising and I am looking forward to performing it when it's polished!
We have both been working independently to work on learning the lines and the parts we find more difficult. Add more emotion to the way we're singing the song so that our interpretation and characterisation is strong. Starts blocking the song and singing it the way we need to stage it in the assessment.
Last week we explored and interpreted the song we would be performing for this duet project, this week we decided to start practising and rehearsing the song with a run-through of it and then deciding on what we needed to work on.
We performed the song the whole way through to discover what areas would need work on and where we could enhance the performance with harmonies, etc.
When going through the song both Perry and I gave each other some notes on each other's performances and what to look out for as it's important to be detailed and accurate in the performance from the start and avoid any routines/habits.
I realised that I was singing slightly too loud at parts and over taking Perry's voice by being too loud. Therefore, I will make sure to use an appropriate volume. I also realised that Perry had already learnt most of the song, where as, I hadn't so I felt that for our rehearsals to develop and for productivity to be strong I needed to learn the song as well too. I felt if I didn't I would be letting my partner down from all the hard work he had put into the song.
From the last project, I learnt that familiarising yourself with the song provides greater help during the rehearsal process and makes you feel far more confident. As this is a duet piece I rely on Perry and he relies on me so for that mutual respect it's important for me to have self-discipline.
In conclusion, I feel that this week was quite productive and we're quite relaxed with our performance at the moment, I do feel that we need to increase our productivity soon so that we're at a comfortable position and the performance isn't affected by us being stressed or frustrated with each other. Perry has managed to learn his parts of the song so I feel that I am obligated to learn my parts as soon as possible, I did make it an aim for last week to learn my lines so to stop this affecting our rehearsal process I need to take responsibility in learning my lyrics. I think the song we have chosen is a good choice for both our voices and is a reachable challenge for us. Some parts of the song are higher than others and I am quite a low singer so I feel that when it comes to the "Oooohs"I need to make sure I'm comfortable and confident in performing them by continuously practising them. After discussing other people's duet ideas, I feel that Perry and I have taken a unique turn to the project and worked together well so far. This gives me confidence in the project and I am taking full advantage with working with someone who I feel happy and comfortable when discussing ideas with. I think the more we increase the dynamics of the tones we used the far more impacting the performance will be and vocally challenging for us. The vocal quality we perform could really benefit our performance and help our interpretation of the song. I imagine that overall it will benefit us most to continue working on the vocal sides of the song before exploring the blocking in detail.
I feel like we're utilising our rehearsal time efficiently and are working together well. I need to learn my lines to the song so that I feel more comfortable when performing the song. Continue with the vocal aspects of the performance and using more emotion in the way the song is sung.
This was our first session for our last project in this unit. For this project we need to get into pairs to perform the unit.
Perry and I decided to partner up as we feel comfortable working with each other and share a great chemistry from working together outside of this unit. We also had similar abilities so we felt we would be perfect to work with each other.
We discussed various songs we could chose and had equal parts for both of us and decided on the song "Stay" sung by Rihanna and Mikky Ekko. We felt we could interpret this song to explore two characters relationship and to develop characteristics of the song which isn't set in stone as much as a musical theatre number would be.
Here are the lyrics to the song "Stay" By Rihanna and Mikky Ekko: Red - Me Black- Perry Orange - Both
"All along it was a fever
A cold sweat hot-headed believer
I threw my hands in the air, said, "Show me something,"
He said, "If you dare, come a little closer."
Round and around and around and around we go
Oh now, tell me now, tell me now, tell me now you know.
Not really sure how to feel about it.
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you.
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay
It's not much of a life you're living
It's not just something you take–it's given
Round and around and around and around we go
Oh now, tell me now, tell me now, tell me now you know.
Not really sure how to feel about it.
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you.
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay.
Ooh, ooh, ooh,the reason I hold on
Ooh, ooh, ooh, 'cause I need this hole gone
Funny you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving
'Cause when you never see the light it's hard to know which one of us is caving.
Funny you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving
'Cause when you never see the light it's hard to know which one of us is caving.
Not really sure how to feel about it.
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you.
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay, stay.
I want you to stay, oh."
We had quite a long discussion on how we could split up the lines to the song to get a sense of conversation between two characters and decided that the most effective way would be what we finally decided.
I felt that fully discussing this was good as we were listing to each other which is extremely important when working in partners.
We then informed Alison of our song choice and she gave us the thumbs up so we could then discuss the relationships dynamics of the characters and how we were going to interpret it. Alison informed me that my vocal skills and ability in this project would need to have a bigger focus on and this song would be perfect for me to challenge myself but be a reachable and easier goal to achieve. This meant I wanted to strive for the best and make sure that Perry and I really focused and rehearsed the song so it was a strong vocal and acting performance.
Perry and I were quite active in discussing our ideas for the staging and background story of the song to enable us a clear understanding of the characters' relationship. We finally came up with the idea of Perry playing a Doctor/Psychiatrist and a patient, played by me, falling in love but due to professionalism and to suppress their feelings for each other.
We came up with their interpretation by exploring the text in detail and discussing what we thought of it.
Lines such as:
"Not really sure how to feel about it"
Could be interpreted as the confusion and frustration of not knowing what to do and how to explore the feelings when it's not accepted for the characters to do so.
Or:
"Round and around and around and around we go"
The character's relationship can't be fully developed and the emotions they're feeling aren't being explored and the professionalism they have to keep is destroying them.
After spending this session exploring the text and creating an idea of the context to the song and how we were going to perform it meant that now we could focus on learning the song and practising it.
I felt this session was really productive and doing this interpretation of the song early will help us keep our rehearsals as sustained as possible.
I'm really excited to work with Perry as I feel that our creativity will help us perform the song to the best of our ability and create an interesting performance.
We know how to interpret the song and we can begin working on specific characterisations.
We need to start learning and practising the song as soon as possible to make our rehearsal process as stress-free as possible.
Begin learning the song so that rehearsals with Perry can be efficient and we can develop the song as much as possible in the following weeks.
"It Takes Two" is our final project for the unit "Singing Skills for Actors and Dancers". In this project we will have to imagine we are a successful member of a West End show and have been asked to take part in a charity event entitled "It Takes Two - The Top Duets of All Time".
The event will be widely publicised and will feature in the national news so costume and props may be used.
We will receive guidance in the choice of partner and song as it is vital that the song chosen will suit both performers and enables each of us to demonstrate our independent ability to characterise the song. We should also think about the relationship between the participates and use a wide range of physical and vocal expression to communicate our interpretation. The song may be from any genre and may be sung either accompanied or to a backing track. We must take responsibility for providing either sheet music or backing tracks in the correct key. The website www.musicnotes.com will be very helpful to us.
We will perform the duet to a public audience.
We will also complete Blog entries for this project and it is here that our singing coach will be able to look over all the work we have done in this unit and assess the improvement in our vocal technique over the entire unit. It is important that we include either video or audience evident of at least two rehearsals on our blog and that we keep a practise diary in which we reflect on strengths and weaknesses and set ourselves SMART targets supported by specific technical exercises.
I'm looking forward to gaining experiences with working another performer to produce a performance fit for an audience and explores relationship between two characters. I'm really excited to start his project and I can't see what this project has to come!
Today was the day of our singing assessment for our solo project "Auditioning".
I began the session by performing some warm ups which I knew would help and aid my performance for the assessment.
Warm Up
Assessment
Here is the video for my solo assessment:
During my performance I felt that my characteristic were the strongest part of my performance as it was the part I was most comfortable with.
I started the song with strong diction and articulation to reinforce the character's frustration and new-found independency, I struggled with the performance slightly because it wasn't to an audience where I could bounce of them but to a camera, this showed me that I shouldn't rely on the audience's reactions all the time because it might not always be there. Performing to the camera was slightly weird at the start but as the song continued I gained my confidence and was happy overall.
When singing "It's me and not you" I felt there was a new found passion in the line and it was far more effective than I had ever performed it before. This then allowed me to sing the next line with more sincerity and heart ache.
I started to lose my timing slightly and the acoustics of the room made me lose a lot of confidence as I was used to practising in one of the sound-proof rooms. I tried my best to pick up on the timing but throughout the song I had lost it and I feel this strongly affected the vocal performance of the song for the worse.
I managed to catch up with the timing but I was continuously losing it throughout so the precision and detail of the song was lost, even though I knew this I had to keep up my performance and continue as best as I could.
When I finished the song I felt that it could have gone much better and was slightly dis-heartened as I felt I could have practised and rehearsed more to produce an overall stronger vocal performance. Although this was slightly frustrating I can take this experience and use it in future experiences.
Overall, the assessment could have gone much better but I felt that I had a strong acting performance and as an actor this is the part I found easier anyway. I feel that singing a solo was a big step for me to gain confidence with singing and to gain new experiences.
Evaluation of Auditioning
Warm Ups and Workouts allowed me to gain new knowledge of using and protecting my voice to fulfil it's full impact, Singing Showcase enabled me to start gaining a wider repertoire of songs and for me to learn what works for my voice, I feel that Auditioning as helped me to gained a lot of confidence and motivation to achieve more in singing and to explore different types of performances but still applying my knowledge and passion for acting.
Through this project I had to rely on my own independency through rehearsals and knowing what to work on to improve and develop my skills and to produce a strong performance. This experience of being independent will help me in the future when it comes to auditioning for drama schools and rehearsing for shows. As a performer, self-discipline is extremely important so exercising this in the discipline of singing will provide me experience for the future.
I have also been setting myself aims each week to develop my skill and then completing those aims the next week, target setting allows you to develop skills and become more aware as a performer so setting and completing these targets has meant that I now have a better knowledge of my own skills and what works and doesn't work for me.
I feel that I could learn a song independently confidently and explore the song to produce a strong performance to show to an audition panel or to an audience. Performing in front of the class as especially allowed me to grow in confidence because before I would feel too awkward or too self-conscious to perform full-out.
Through this project I've added a song to my portfolio which I could perform strongly and efficiently which is important for the future of my performing career. I feel like I would benefit from adding more songs to my portfolio to ever increase my versatility and skill as a performer.
By choosing a song I could characterise well, I feel that this helped my performance and knowing what works is important when performing a song as a character. I would love to explore a different song where there isn't so much information already given and I can take my own personal spin off it.
I feel like I have gained a lot of confidence as a singer in this project and used a lot of the techniques and knowledge I have learnt from previous projects to aid me in my performance. I am excited for the next and final project of this unit so I can explore my singing ability even more!
Today was an opportunity for us to perform our solos in front of the class and get some peer feedback and also watch others and give them some constructive criticism.
I felt it was necessary to take part in this dry run to enable me to prepare for next week's assessment.
For the dry run I had actually prepared a backing track to use but unfortunately the CD didn't work and I had to sing it a cappella. I was slightly embarrassed by this and felt that it impacted my timing of the song and pace as I didn't have anything to follow. But I carried on as best as I could.
During the song, I felt that I added a lot of characteristic and confidence that the character of 'Fanny Brice' would have herself. I kept standing in the same place but used gestures to aid my performance and to keep it upbeat. I also felt that reacting and directing comments to the audience allowed them to be absorbed in my performance and be far more responsive to what I was singing.
As this was a musical theatre number, and a very famous one at that, I wanted to give it as much justice as possible. I did start out quite nervous but as the song developed and I felt people were enjoying it, I was far more confident and happy.
When I got to this part of the song:
"I'm gonna live and live NOW!Get what I want, I know how! One roll for the whole shebang! One throw that bell will go clang,Eye on the target and wham, One shot, one gun shot and bam!"
I stumbled on the words but I kept my performance up as much as I could, obviously I should have gone through the lyrics more so I knew them completely and this would not have happened, unfortunately I didn't but I was glad that it carried on with the rest of the song.
When I was finished I received some feedback from my classmates:
Positives:
Max Wilkinson - "Strong characterisation and performance which was enjoyable to watch!"
George Hyde - "Projection was strong which led to a confident performance."
Shannon Allen - "Confident performance and hit some of the bigger notes with the same confidence throughout!"
Improvements:
Freya Hunter - "Make sure to practise with the instrumental as some of the singing was slightly out of tune."
Stephanie Ridge - "Breath out before breathing in so you're taking in as much as breath as possible and that will aid your vocal ability and strength."
It was really helpful to get some feedback from my class about my performance because they were helpful and gave me a boost of confidence too. I'm not really a singer so having some positive feedback about the song and how I used characterisation to aid the performance was fulfilling to me and gave me a boost of adrenaline to really focus down on the song and rehearse so next week was even better.
It would seem that the acting side of my performance was stronger than the vocal performance so this meant I need to truly focus on practising the song with the instrumental and focusing on my breath intake so the notes were performed to the best of my ability.
In conclusion, performing to my class and gaining feedback before my assessment has given me a confidence boost and allowed me to know what to practise and rehearse.
I have never been that confident with singing so singing in front of my class was a big step for me to take and I am happy that I took it because now it's given me that motivation and realisation that maybe with more work and effort into singing I could actually become stronger and a more rounded performer.
Even though I had gone through the lyrics of the song, it was obvious that they needed more work as I stumbled on the words. I, of course, can't do the same in the real assessment so practising the words and completely knowing them off-by-heart is essential for the assessment.
I performed the song in detail through my performance but to be fully confident in the song then I do have to work more on my singing ability. But overall, I was happy with the performance and I felt that the audience enjoyed it!
The assessments next week so I will focus on going through the song and the detail of the vocal performance so that next week I perform confidently and as accurately as possible.
I feel confident in the acting side of my performance of the song and I feel like I've successfully used my research to portray a character which the audience enjoys watching.
I stumbled upon the words of my song so I need to make sure that I know them before the assessment by just going through the lyrics and listening to the song.
I hope that next week I take in the comments I received this week and apply them to my rehearsals, most of the comments are just reinforcing what I've already been practising and applying to the song but by doing this it should aid my performance.
This is week was the week before our dry-run for our singing assessment. This week meant that I needed to finish go through the song and really start polishing it up to performance standard.
Rehearsal
Warm-Up
Independent Practise
Last week I decided with my singing teacher to use a backing track. This was because we felt the song would be more effective and it would aid my performance to be strong and powerful.
I went onto YouTube to find a backing track that I could then burn onto a disk.
This was the backing track I found:
As I now know what backing track I'm using, I needed to ensure that I was comfortable with the backing track and that it was an appropriate backing track to use.
It did take me a while to get the song but after a few tries I felt that it was appropriate and I could use it for my assessment.
So far I have practised and learnt these parts of my song in detail:
"Don't tell me not to live,(breath)just sit and putter, (breath)
Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter, (breath)
Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade, (breath)
Don't tell me not to fly,(breath) I simply got to,
If someones takes a spill, (breath) it's me and not you,
Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade,(breath)
I'll march my band out,(breath) I'll beat my drum (breath)
And if I'm fanned out, (breath) your turn at bat, sir,
At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir,
I guess I didn't make it, (breath)"
To be fully prepared for the dry-run next week I would have to complete my progress of the song and be able to sing it to a performance standard.
I first practised the parts of the song I have already learnt so I knew that, that was learnt and memorised.
The next part of the song I practised and looked at was:
"But whether I'm the rose of sheer perfection,
A freckle on the nose of life's complexion,
The cinder or the shiny apple of its eyes, (breath)"
For this part of the song, it follows the same tune as the previous part. Again, it's very fast paced and I needed to make sure that my diction and articulation wasn't lost as the pace increases. This part of the song wasn't too hard to tune but it again I did make sure to that what I was singing was in time and as accurately as possible.
I went onto learning this part of the song:
"I gotta fly once, I gotta try once,
Only can die once, (breath) right, sir?
Ooh, life is juicy, juicy and you see,
I gotta have my bite, sir. (breath)"
This part was far more difficult than I had realised. I couldn't reach the notes without croaking my voice and I was finding it was sounding as smooth as it should have.
I was slightly worried as I knew that I would have to perform it next week and be able to reach the note, therefore, I asked my one of my classmates, Stephanie Ridge, to help. Steph told me to engage my core when reaching the note. I tried doing it and already it sounded better. She then told me to doing a sit up whilst singing the note. Once I did this it showed me that I could reach the note but I just had to focus and engage my core.
I then practised both parts of the song together a few times to get used to the transition between the parts I had been learning.
The next part I learnt was:
"Get ready for me love, 'cause I'm a "comer",
I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer, (breath)
Don't bring around the cloud to rain on my parade."
I felt this part had to have a stronger and more grounded tone to it and once it reached "my heart's a drummer" the pitch goes up. I practised this a few times as I felt it wasn't in tune with the music as first. After I did it various times and listened closely to the music, it was easier to sustain the pitch.
I then went onto learn:
"I'm gonna live and live NOW! (breath)
Get what I want, I know how! (breath)
One roll for the whole shebang! (breath)
One throw that bell will go clang, (breath)
Eye on the target and wham, (breath)
One shot, one gun shot and bam! (breath)
Hey, Mr Arnstein, here I am..."
I found that I kept confusing the "shebang", "clang" and "wham", so I relied on the words a lot when practising this part and determining how I would sing it. This meant that I wasn't very confident when singing it and I was getting easily frustrated, as I was getting frustrated my effort was lacking and I was getting annoyed at myself for not being able to concentrate.
I decided to take a few moments to go over the song and then I tried going through the part again, as I practised it more, it started to improve. I decided that I would need to complete the rest of the song soon so I went on, at the "Hey, Mr Arnstein, her I am...", I was really happy with how my voice sounded because the words mixed well together and it sounded nice as it built up.
I then added the four other parts together. Again the struggle of the pacing from the last line before "I'm going to live and live NOW!" meant there needed to be more commitment and detail to it. I had to keep listening to the backing track so I knew that I was in time with the music as much as possible. But I carried on with learning the next part of the song.
The next part I did was:
"I'll march my band out, I will beat my drum, (breath)
And if I'm fanned out, your turn at bat, sir, (breath)
At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir, (breath)
I guess I didn't make it, (breath)"
The pacing was slightly difficult to get hold of at first but once I did it I found this section of the song easy to get used to. I used the sit up exercise to help me engage my core at first and then I practised it standing up. Once I had established how I would use my breath and core to sustain my performance it was much easier and the singing was more flowing.
I again put the parts of the song I learnt together before going on to the final part of the song.
Finally, I was able to do the last part of the song:
Get ready for me love, 'cause I'm a "comer",
I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer, (breath)
Nobody, no, nobody (breath), is gonna rain on my parade!"
The first part of the section were easy, but the last part needed far more control as I felt the "no"in the line threw me off the timing a bit. To get the true powerful ending I think I would need to focus on making sure that line is delivered strongly by engaging my diaphragm and correctly using my breath intakes to my advantage.
Once I had learnt the song and could sing it I needed to include a strong performance to aid my singing and to complete the performance criteria.
As an actor, I felt that the acting part of the song came much more naturally and was far easier from the character profile research I completed a few weeks ago. I feel that I should have probably put some more use into learning the song and getting used to it before and then completed the performance ideas I had but by going through the song I feel like I am happy about my song choice and I'm excited to show my class.
I am confident with working independently when practising and rehearsing my song, I feel like I work efficiently and can ask others to help if needed. I feel that this sort of behaviour will aid me in the future when I'm auditioning for drama schools or rehearsing for shows. One of my aims last week was to learn the song accurately in detail, by going through different parts of the song I feel like I have completed that aim to the best of my ability. I also have began rehearsing it to a performance standard but I feel like there needs to be more rehearsals before the dry run of the assessment next week.
From the session, I feel confident with the words, timing and pace of the song.
I still need to feel more comfortable with some parts of the song so I will continue with my breathing exercises and performing a sit up whilst singing the bigger notes.
To perform the song confidently to a performance standard with accuracy in the singing and detail in the performance through practise and rehearsal so my dry run is something I'm proud of!
This week I completed some further and the remaning of my research on the song "Don't Rain On My Parade", had various rehearsals of my song and my one-to-on with Alison. I've realised that we haven't got long until our assessment so I really wanted to start focusing on my performance and being comfrotable and confident when I come round to performing it.
Research
For this week's research, I focused on my staging of the song as I felt that I was confident with my knowledge from the last few weeks and I could now use that to supplement my performance.
I felt that the best way to begin staging this was a basic idea. My basic idea was to stand, centre stage, with a strong, stacked posture and remain standing straight throughout. I decided to do this because I felt like the song wasn't a song where I should be moving around too much but keep my power and authority by standing up straight, as if I'm not scared of anyone.
The Song:
"Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter,
Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter,
Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade"
For this part I would stand in my strong and stacked posture but I decided to use a subtle hand movement during "don't" this reinforces the point that this character doesn't want to be treated as a child and she wants to live her life. By showing this authoirty at the start I feel like the audience would know that she's someone you shouldn't mess with.
Also, when I watched Barbra Streisand's version, the start of the song is very snappy as if she's had enough of someone's comment. Therefore, I wanted to interpret the start too and grab the audience's attention right at the start of the performance.
When it came to the line "Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter", I wanted her to open her arms as if she's slightly sarcastic and being patronising because that's how people constantly treat her.
"Don't tell me not to fly, I simply got to,
If someones takes a spill, it's me and not you,
Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade"
The next part of the song was far more passionate as I had her holding her heart at "I simply got to" but then becoming slightly angry by pointing to herself at "me" and then the audience at "you" with the sharp and fast gesture.
So far I've decided not to use any specific staging when it comes to the "don't rain on my parade" line as I want it be far more naturalistic and sincere. I feel like if I stage the song too much it will lose it's meaning.
"I'll march my band out, I'll beat my drum
And if I'm fanned out, your turn at bat, sir,
At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir,
I guess I didn't make it"
For this part, I've used my facial expression to convey I slight sly and arrogant look to the character as she's gaining confidence and losing her inabition. This meant by adding a slight smirk to the character and widening the eyes.
"But whether I'm the rose of sheer perfection,
A freckle on the nose of life's complexion,
The cinder or the shiny apple of its eyes,
I gotta fly once, I gotta try once,
Only can die one, right, sir?
Ooh, life is juicy, juicy and you see,
I gotta have my bite, sir."
For the line "But whether I'm the rose of sheer perfection" I decided to add some humour by placing my fist under my chin as if I'm mocking the way people judge others and using a sweet/innocent face which had a child-like sweetness to it. On the line "right, sir?" I wanted to angle my head as if I was looking for approval mockingly - but in reality I don't care about what others think anymore.
"Get ready for me love, 'cause I'm a "comer",
I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer,
Don't bring around the cloud to rain on my parade."
This passage really build up the character's passion and confidence for "'cause I'm a "comer"" I wanted her to expand her fingers forward as if she's inviting the audience into her new found confidence and love for herself. When it comes to the "heart's" she holds her heart and closes her eyes as this emphasises the passion and love she has for being her own person and standing on her own ground.
"I'm gonna live and live NOW!
Get what I want, I know how!
One roll for the whole shebang!
One throw that bell will go clang,
Eye on the target and wham,
One shot, one gun shot and bam!
Hey, Mr Arnstein, here I am..."
This part is really fast paced and upbeat so I wanted the movements to be the same. The "NOW!" is really demanding so I wanted the character to point to the ground so the audience know that she will not be messed around with or treated like nothing anymore, she's going to live her lfie to the full the way she wants to. All this excitement truly then spurs her commitment to her lover and offers herself that she is going to be a strong and independant woman who won't allow people to shot her down, so for "Hey, Mr Arnstein, here I am..." and I wanted the character to open her arms so that she is open and expressing herself to the world confidently and is commited to her new thinking.
"I'll march my band out, I will beat my drum,
And if I'm fanned out, your turn at bat, sir,
At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir,
I guess I didn't make it,
Get ready for me love, 'cause I'm a "comer",
I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer,
Nobody, no, nobody, is gonna rain on my parade!"
This last passage truly explores the character's new found freedom and independancy where she isn't going to let people get her down or tell her what to do with her life and that she has found the control that she has always wanted and needed. As I way of making her seem like she doesn't care and is taking responsibiltiy on the line "I guess I didn't make it" she's smirkign and shurgs her shoulders as if she's saying that her life is hers and if she's following her dream then that's all she truly wants. Again, I used the grabbing of the heart on "my heart's a drummer" to show her passion and love for what she wants to do and how no one can stop her.
I decided that this would be the perfect way to tie up everything in the song but using a gesture on the line "rain on my parade", this part of the song is a cresendo so to emphasis this I wanted the character to work forward from her standing postition and look up to the sky as if she's imagining herself on stage and perform to a wild and huge audience, as this is her dream and no one is going to stop it happening anymore.
I think having a well thought out plan on what I am wanting to do and staging the song so that the characterisation of it is strong and there are clear elements of the characteristic traits through gesture and movements but also the deeper meaning of the song, which is, staying true to yourself and reaching for your dreams no matter what anyone says you can't do.
I tried to make sure the actions were appropriate and did add something to the performance. Now that I know what I'm doing, I can really focus on learning the song and making sure my vocal performance is as well through out and practised as much as the acting-side.
Rehearsal
Warm-Up
Individual Practise
I started by going through my breathing exercises, the first one being a simple breathing exercise to help control and provide awareness and I also used a new one too.
I created a 'sssssssssssss' sound by breathing in and then piercing my lips together. The aim was to make sure the noise was sustained and didn't range in pace or volume. This was all done to the breathing control I used.
This dedication to expanding my knowledge and skill in breath control will provide me aid not just in the performance but in my training as a performed throughout my project.
Last week I went through the first part of my song:
"Don't tell me not to live,(breath)just sit and putter, (breath)
Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter, (breath)
Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade, (breath)"
I went through this part of my song to remind myself and to ensure that I knew the words to this part and I using the correct breath intakes.
This week I decided to go through the next two parts of the song.
The first part I went through was:
Don't tell me not to fly,(breath) I simply got to,
If someones takes a spill, (breath) it's me and not you, Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade,(breath)
I used my diction and articulation again like I did in the previous part of the song but this time I began to emphasise some of the phrases such as "it's me and not you" to show the strain and annoyance in her words for being blamed for everything.
This part of the song is the same tune as the previous part, again I found the pacing slightly difficult so I had to keep practising to ensure that my pacing wasn't too fast. I also found it helpful to sing along with the backing track as this meant I could listen to the parts of the song and start getting use to singing with it.
The second part I went through was:
I'll march my band out,(breath) I'll beat my drum (breath)
And if I'm fanned out, (breath) your turn at bat, sir,
At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir, I guess I didn't make it, (breath)
This part was slightly differently, it become more upbeat and jazzy. The words were far more smoother together. The pacing between the last part as this part meant that it was much slower. After I had become confident with this part, I decided to put the three parts together and sing them through altogether.
As I sung them through I had to keep going through it because I realised that I was singing them separately and not as the song together. I kept practising it through and although I was pretty confident with the lines I felt that I needed to focus more on the tuning and pacing of the song to perform it well.
I think gradually learning the song part-by-part as helped me to be more precise in my learning of the song and knowing where and how I need to improve by the next week.
One-to-One
This week I had my one-to-one with our singing teacher. For the one-to-one, I made sure to bring my music sheet for the piano and to know be familiar with the lyrics.
My feedback from the one-to-one was:
The characterisation was well thought-out but I needed to really to go for it more and not hold back when performing it as the song needs a strong voice and a strong personality.
I needed to learn my lines more precisely as when I was slightly unsure it was completely obvious because the performance went down.
Keep using breathing exercises everyday to help breath control and aid the performance.
*Make sure I open my mouth so the words are clear and understandable when I sing.*
I also discussed whether or not to use the sheet music or a backing track during the assessment. My singing teacher felt it would be more effective to use the backing track as this would mean I could have the different instruments in the track and it would be a more entertaining performance and would help me.
*To make sure I opened my mouth so the words were clear and understandable, I was given a mouth exercise using different notes*:
" doh, ray, me, far, so, la, te, doh. "
This exercise would help me open my mouth and explore the different vowel sounds which are of course going to make the sounds of the words.
I found this one-to-one with Alison really useful as it meant that I knew how to improve for my performance. Now I can make my independent rehearsals which more directive aims after having help from my singing teacher.
In conclusion, I feel that this week has been productive but I do need to start spending more time on my song as the assessment is coming up soon. I've learnt nearly half the song and the rest to learn won't be too hard, but to perform confidently I know that this has to be done as soon as possible. One of the things I worked on last week was marking where I was going to breath and then doing some breathing exercises to help me with breath control. I carried on with doing the same exercise I did last week and also introducing a new one too. I feel like this emphasis on breathing is truly going to help me during this assessment but also aid any other performance I do as breathing is so important to an actor, singer or dancer! I feel like having a one-to-one with Alison was extremely useful as now I know what to do before the assessment. I don't actually have long until the assessment so I know that I need to buckle down my ideas and really focus on completing learning the song and adding the characterisation in. I've been learning different things separately so the sooner everything is put together, the better.
I am happy that I've sustained my breathing exercises and looked into new ones too also that I'm thoroughly thinking about how I'm going to stage my performance and the detail of the vocal performance.
Learn the words confidently and accurately.
Learn the staging and the song words together and start practising it to a performance standard.
We have a lot of independancy during this project to practise our solo on our on accord. We have been told various ways to help us cover the research needed and how we could use that research to benefit our performance.
Research:
This week, I have researched two contrasting performances of "Don't Rain On My Parade". Our singing teacher gave us the idea for this as it would enable us to choose a more direct and focused take on our solo song.
Here are the two versions I choose:
The original performance by Barbra Streisand in the musical "Funny Girl":
The TV Show "Glee"'s performance sung by Lea Michele playing the character 'Rachel Berry':
The original performance of course has a lot of characteristic significance, as the song was written for the character of Fanny Brice and as a musical, was appropriate to the plot and everything surrounding the song. The song is one of Barbra Steisand's most famous performances and is deemed as a classic performance.
In this performance, I feel like I could gain and interpret the song as the character of 'Fanny Brice' in the musical, by playing a specific character this will help me use my movement and vocal skills to truly portray that character as from the previous research I did where I wrote a character profile can help me to choose appropriate ways to interpret the character.
As an actor, I would probably find this performance much more useful when it comes to playing a character if it's specific and I know exactly what to do and how to do it.
The second performance is part of a TV show called "Glee". This performance shows the song being interrupted differently, but with the same meaning behind the song of telling people to stop ruining someone's happiness or pride. The character of 'Rachel Berry' has suffered some hurt through her love of musical theatre and singing where people deem "untalented" or "worthless" even though these opinions are by virtue of jealously. The character sings this extremely passionately as it means something to her, she's interpreted the song personally.
I think comparing two different performances of "Don't Rain On My Parade" has helped me to explore how I could interpret the character from similarites of each piece.
As a performance and characteristic standard, I feel like the "Funny Girl" performance will be far more useful to me but I use the "Glee" version more vocally as my voice more like to the character of "Rachel Berry" as I have a loud projection and I articulate and use diction more.
Rehearsal:
Last week I wanted to start really focusing on learning the song as the basis of my performance. I found my sheet music online at www.musicnotes.com in preparation for my one-to-one with Alison. Unfortunately, I didn't have my one-to-one this week but this did enable me to explore the vocal difficulties I was facing and become far more comfortable with the timing and words.
Warm-Up
Our singing teacher has told us before we go off in our independant rehearsals, we need to use the time to complete a vocal warm up in groups of three to four. This will enable us to make sure that we're not straining our voice and put our knowledge of singing warm ups to another project in the unit.
Individual Practise
I decided to sing the song the whole way through, with the help of the lyrics, when I did this I realsied that I needed to focus on my breath control because the song needs alot of power behind it.
To do this, firstly I wrote out where it was appropriate to breath:
"Don't tell me not to live,(breath)just sit and putter, (breath)
Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter, (breath)
Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade, (breath)
Don't tell me not to fly,(breath) I simply got to,
If someones takes a spill, (breath) it's me and not you,
Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade,(breath)
I'll march my band out,(breath) I'll beat my drum (breath)
And if I'm fanned out, (breath) your turn at bat, sir,
At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir,
I guess I didn't make it, (breath)
But whether I'm the rose of sheer perfection,
A freckle on the nose of life's complexion,
The cinder or the shiny apple of its eyes, (breath)
I gotta fly once, I gotta try once,
Only can die once, (breath) right, sir?
Ooh, life is juicy, juicy and you see,
I gotta have my bite, sir. (breath)
Get ready for me love, 'cause I'm a "comer",
I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer, (breath)
Don't bring around the cloud to rain on my parade.
I'm gonna live and live NOW! (breath)
Get what I want, I know how! (breath)
One roll for the whole shebang! (breath)
One throw that bell will go clang, (breath)
Eye on the target and wham, (breath)
One shot, one gun shot and bam! (breath)
Hey, Mr Arnstein, here I am...
I'll march my band out, I will beat my drum, (breath)
And if I'm fanned out, your turn at bat, sir, (breath)
At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir, (breath)
I guess I didn't make it, (breath)
Get ready for me love, 'cause I'm a "comer",
I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer, (breath)
Nobody, no, nobody (breath), is gonna rain on my parade!"
By marking out my breathing, my muscle memory would start helping me to control my breathing and I won't have to focus on if I'm running out of breath during my performance and my performance will stay strong and the way I want and need it to be. This also meant that I could make sure when I'm taking breaths they're are aiding my performance by being deep and useful and not distracting an audience who may be watching.
The second way I focused on my breath control was to look at some warm up exercises. I feel like it would be useful for me to start using breath control exercises to stregthen my control and as part of my warm up too.
The breath control exercise I use this week was a simple breathing exercise:
I made sure I was standing in neutral with correct standing and posture. This meant:
Weight balanced - If the weight is balanced the performance will look relaxed. By balancing the weight equally your posture will be upright.
Shoulders relaxed - The more relaxed the shoulders are the more relaxed the body is. If you have tension in your shoulders then this can cause strain whilst performing, making you look like you're uncomfortable. If the shoulders aren't relaxed there will be strain on the spine and the chest won't be able to be held high.
Open chest - An open chest allows more control over breathing which is an essential part to singing.
Hands by your sides - The focus should be on your singing so if gestures/actions aren't needed then the hands should be relaxed at the sides.
Knees relaxed - Tightening or locking your knees can make your body tense and affect your breathing so every part of your body should be relaxed.
Feet in parallel - You should be standing with your feet in parallel slightly apart, grounded on the floor with the toes opined forward. This will help when containing a strong posture.
This was the best postition for me when you're focusing on your breathing as the body should be relaxed and the chest open for the air to easily enter and exit from your lungs. This early awareness which help me sustain it throughout my rehearsals so then it will come to me in the assessment naturally.
I used a simple breathing exercise where I place my hands on my stomach and felt it expanding as I breathed in and reducing as I breathed out. I noticed that my shoulders kept rising up, to stop this from happening I then did the exercise lying down. Once I had established that my breathing was strong and being executed correctly, I used counts to control my breath in-take and out-take.
These are the counts I used:
4 in, 4 out.
4 in, 6 out.
3 in, 6 out.
3 in, 8 out.
2 in, 8 out.
I found this exercise incredibly useful because I was aware of how much breath I needed to take and then how to regulate that breathing to ensure that there was enough left for the remaining counts.
I feel like this exercise would aid me during my rehearsal time of my solo song as it will start helping me to regulate my breathing and aid my performance. Hopefully, the more I do this exercise the better my breath control will be and I can aim to further improve it.
After I sung the song the whole way through and then worked out where I needed to breath, I started to go through a short passage of the song to slowly work through it and be accurate with the small details.
My first passage was:
"Don't tell me not to live,(breath)just sit and putter, (breath)
Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter, (breath)
Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade, (breath)"
As a musical theatre number I knew that diction and articulation would aid the performance of this song well. Therefore, as I was learning it I made sure you pronounce my "t" and "d"'s. I also found that the more the diction used the words are far more stronger and powerful, this was useful as the song needs to be a powerful way to tell someone that they're are not going to ruin someone's pride or happiness with their pessimitic or arrogant comments.
As I was singing the song I felt like I needed to work on my pacing more as I was slightly out of time with the music. I used my foot to create a beat which then helped me to sustain the create pacing through the passage of the song.
Overall, I felt that this week was a great rehearsal week as I've explored two different performances of my song and gained knowledge and further interpretation of how I would like to perform it, I found my music sheet, started to work on breathing - a huge factor to this song, and started to go through the first passage in detail. Therefore, I feel this week has been productive and that I've successfully used my independant time efficiently.
I know that to progress further I will have to keep up some of the techniques to sustain the aid of my performance and explore other techniques/stratergies thoroughly.
My improvement last week was to start going through the song in detail which I have by using breath control and starting to explore how, vocally, I am going to perform it. I didn't have my one-to-one with Alison this week so my aim for this week may be similar to lasts.
I have increased my awareness of how I would like to interpret the song using research. I have also planned my breathing so that I can work on my breath control and improve it for the performance and aiding my singing overall.
Sustaining the breathing exercises throughout this week to improve breath control.
As I didn't have my one-to-one with Alison, I am going to aim to at least know the basis of the song lyrics and the tune I will be singing it in. I also will start applying my characterisation to the song.
