I have a feeling I may start this tonight and finish and post it in the morning! I make lots of notes in my notepad during the day (7 pages today) to refer to so it should be just as reflective even if it is a little late!
I know people are excited to hear about my day as I mentioned it was starting with a master class with Roderick Williams. It started off great and just carried on - here are my (at least) 20 things for today:
Turning it into a performance with Roderick:
1. Give the people on your shoulder a job to do so they can't sit there saying "you don't know the words to this bit, you're not standing properly etc". Instead get them to listen for something eg. evenness of voice to keep them busy!
2. Disguise the stress (to a certain extent). Use some stage acting if necessary.
3. Drop the mistake and put it behind you. Forgive yourself immediately. Smile, move on and enjoy it more if you can. You can sing badly if you do it confidently!
4. The balloon full of air... You are in control of the end (squeeky balloon noise). Don't let it all rush out (comedy balloon noise).
5. I had a lovely chat with Roderick he asked me questions about why I sing? Why I chose the piece? (On mighty pens) and what did I enjoy about it? Summary of answers that he said I should take onto the stage with me to give the audience an idea of who I am:
I've grown up with singing. My mum sings, it's part of who I am. When I sing on stage I get to be this confident part of myself. I enjoy singing, I know I can do it well. I picked this song because it was in the diploma list, my teacher said it would suit me and when I listened to it I really enjoyed the soaring high notes. I like high notes! He said he'd love to put part of this onto a plaque that I could hang up!
6. Key thing: communicating the words.
7. "On mighty pens? What? a biro?"
8. Imagine the whole audience has English as an additional language - every word has meaning and I need to get it across to them so that they understand.
9. Breakthrough moment... He asked me to say the words of the first page like the audience was a class of primary school children ("I can do that!!"). Amazing response! They suddenly got it! I got it! I communicated!!
10. The words in this song aren't grammatically sensible due to it being translated back and forth from English to German. I need to understand what I'm trying to say first so I can get it across.
11. Mmmmighty - make the word and the eagle mighty! Aim for him at the top of the phrase.
12. Be careful not to overdo communication!
13. The process of learning/building the song. You put up scaffolding to get it ready (maybe going through phrase on arr) then you remove it to perform.
14. "Trying to make something that's dead on paper come to life".
"Next time I sing I will use things that I've learnt from working with all of you today"
Wow that took up 14 points for just one session!!
I've still got tons more revelations to go through! Video playback next! These are mainly things I know I do and I realised I was doing them during the performance which is a real step forward!
15.dont lean back/tighten shoulders/ wiggle hand when I'm panicking/ running out of breath. Continue with Alexander technique to help with this.
16. Keep face open. No scowling!!! Don't close up mouth to reset. It closed off the audience.
Session with Elaine Kidd.
17. Try concentrating in character. Ignor the hands, let them do what they want!
18. I was singing the Embroidery Aria from Britten's Peter Grimes.
I ended up singing this ontop of a small table (small in size not in height). The ceiling was low so my head was about a centimetre away from the ceiling!
This was my confessional in the court. Setting the scene.
19. My thought to get across was that I was asking the jury for forgiveness. I had to look at them and plead, explain as I sang.
20. This is a hard song to understand even if English is your first language. My job to communicate the words and tell the story (back to Rodericks advice this morning).
21. Relate the stitches to the jumper. See the jumper.
22. Show depth and a range of emotions - happy and light to contrast when singing 'a coil of silken thread".
23. Thought for Ellen "I've been a silly naive teacher. I should never have stitches the jumper or brought the boy to Peter because now the boy is dead. I'm sorry".
24. Thinking about this found the heart of the song and helped as a distraction for bad habits etc! An amazing way to think.
And finally I sat in on Margaret Humphrey Clark's session as I'm due a session with her today (now Wednesday!).
25. Need awareness if space to breath around the back. Ensure you take enough breath to support what you need to sing. Use singing in monkey to help feeling the breath in the back. Propreioceprion - key word this week... Basically to be aware of the position of the body.
So loads of things going on!
I'm thinking there may be slightly less to report back later but I'm ready looking forward to working with Margaret. I know I'll end up singing in monkey! :-)
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