Stock take day 6

So today was the last day of master classes and the first day of final concerts.

It's nearly all over! :-s

I'm hopeful that I will be performing Farewell ye Limpid Spring tomorrow at the 3.30 final concert (we find out for sure what we are singing tomorrow!). Fingers crossed I get a little practise time before then!

Today's 16 things... (I didn't manage to stretch it into 20)

From watching Catherine Wyn Rogers master classes:

1. 'Don't hold the notes, travel through them'

2. She talked a lot about speaking and singing. Singing is like speaking. Practise saying it and think about saying it whilst you sing. This will help with the line and direction.

3. There's no need to think of an interval as making a jump in your voice. You are just talking through it. It shouldn't be a big effort to go to the high or low notes and it should all be flowing along the same line. 

4. Don't try to hang onto/hear the note. Allow it out and to move away - it's for the audience not you.

5.  Arches, legato, long, stretched vowels 

6. Don't worry about how. Worry about why. ( when talking about a laugh in a song - it needed inspiration not planning).

Session with Christine:

7. Christine wanted to work on not using my chest voice for some of the notes in farewell. This should make it easier to sing. Here's how...

We used a hair bobble! Holding it between two fingers in front on me. As the pictures show this is how we represented high and low notes. It sort of represents the vocal chords. For high notes the bobble is stretched out and it takes a fair bit of effort and support. For the low note it still took a surprising amount of energy (support) to keep the bobble stretch to a lesser extent. 

So I'm singing fare- well (b to e) and moving the band from fully stretched to less stretched. Fairly soon I make the connection with my support and I can now sing the e without dipping down and using my chest voice. Yay!

8. So it turns out this technique works for the whole song! I can even do it without the elastic - just moving my fingers in and out to aid the memory.

9. I need to use the tone from the top when singing the lower notes - bring it down. 

10. Specific to farewell: tell the story (communicate!!!). Make it make sense. Go through the rest so it's "are ye thus afraid to execute my fathers will?" Or it doesn't make sense! 

11. Important word is human (and blood) not hands.

12. Brighter scenes part open it up - think opera to help me find bigger voice. 

13. It is important to congratulate yourself/ others when things go well. We focus too often on the bad things! 

14. For introductions to stop woofing up I to first note (woofing isn't the right word here but I get it) practise a staccato ah ah on notes followed by staccato words and then add the legato back in.

15. I am rubbish at three legged races and sack (black bin liner races).

16. Interesting songs from today: 

oiseaux dans la charmille - Offenbach - Hoffmann. 

Mozart- Entfuhrung - durch Zartlichkeit. 

Last day tomorrow. No master classes but a couple of talks and group sessions. I'm hoping that I should have a few final thoughts to put into a blog tomorrow. Maybe a few ideas for the future and development of my singing.