More Junk and some Pop: Week 12

Monday: Continued to work on My Junk. I really do love this song.  I also find that I prefer to sing with an ensemble of people, rather than by myself. I ultimately feel more comfortable when I have people around me to back me up. And I also enjoy practicing matching my tone with others, or 'blending' in a musical group number.

Wednesday: We began working through our individual pop/contemporary pieces. The piece I chose to work on was "I've Been" from Next to Normal. Thankfully Dallas and Jason helped me make a better, shorter cutting of the song to work with. It's taken roughly twelve weeks, but I'm finally starting to feel comfortable singing by myself in front of people again. The main thing that Jason asked me to do for next time was to lean into the pop sensibility of the song. There are musical 'runs' in the song and I should certainly work on those.

I meant the song "My Junk": Week 11

Monday we all got up and each sang through our Jazz Standard one more time. It went well, but as I was sitting down Jason asked me if I was nervous this time as opposed to last time singing the song. I replied that I'm pretty much always nervous to some degree when I get up and sing in the class. Jason suggested that a way to possibly combat nerves is to be even more prepared. And although that's probably not why I'm nervous, it's a good thing to do nonetheless. You can never be too prepared.

The end of class on Monday and all of class on Wednesday we began working on our second ensemble number. Also from Spring Awakening, the song "My Junk" is quite lovely. While it has a similar narrative to "Bitch of Living", it is far softer and more pleasant.

I'm just loving listening to the class sing the song over and over. It's even better to sing with them, which is a great sign. Next week we will continue to look at my junk (the song) and start working on what I believe is our final individual "audition" songs.

Standard Practice: Week 10

Monday was the first round of working on an American jazz standard of our choice. I chose "Love is Here to Stay" by George and Ira Gershwin. Couple of things noted during this session:

-I should smile when I'm singing a love song, but this is just the result of a more important note. I should be applying right away what Jason has asked me to apply in previous sessions.
-Lying on my back and singing the song seemed to release a lot of unnecessary tension. I should do that with every song I sing from now on.
-One of my classmates observed that I make a lot of self-deprecating comments. He suggested that I take care with how I talk about myself, because it's often untrue. It's often a way for me to let myself off the hook if I fail at what I'm doing, or as Jason might say- "pull the ripcord on the parachute". I'm always appreciative when someone calls me out on that, because it's a known bad habit of mine.
-I'm loving this section and hearing everyone's songs. These Gershwin, Porter, and other Tin Pin Alley compositions are just lovely to listen to. 

Wednesday we reviewed Bitch of Living and Friday we presented it to the other cohorts. A great experience and a very different experience. Not only were we in front of an audience, but we performed in a space wholly new to us. A very fun day, but I noticed that I lost a bit of the ease I had found in rehearsal. I think this mostly had to do with adjusting to filling a more cavernous space, and I felt a greater need to provide an edgier quality of sound to the song with an audience present.

Excited to sing my standard once more on Monday, and then onto new and exciting things!

Into the Woods, then out of the woods: Week 8 & 9

Haven't posted in a while, mostly due to my involvement with USU's recent production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I had a marvelous time (and I sang "Happy Birthday" with very little tension). But let's talk about what happened the last two weeks of Musical Theatre. I hope I can remember what we did, but that's what I get for falling behind on postings.

Monday: Discussed a few chapters from our textbook: Acting in Musical Theatre (Deer and Dal Vera). The book covers not just how to approach the lyrics and music of a song, but how basic tenants of acting should be applied to musical theatre. Although much of what we read was review for me, I still absolutely recommend this book.  Its a very easy read, with a whole lot of great examples and exercises. And who doesn't benefit from reviewing the basics?

Wednesday and following Monday: Watched the American Playhouse version of Into the Woods with the original Broadway cast. I had seen this filmed version before, but not for a few years. It was great to watch it again. First of all, Sondheim is a brilliant composer and lyricist. It's also difficult to be led astray when James Lapine is directing. One of the things I like about Sondheim is that his songs may not require the largest singing range, but it does require a great deal of musical precision. Basically, if you can't read sheet music and perform the music as written, you might be screwed. As Jason pointed out, neither Chip Zien (The Baker) and Tom Aldredge (Narrator) have the strongest vocal sound, but they do have a very distinct and interesting sound. Also, I just love the story of Into the Woods. Talk about an emotional roller-coaster. It's also a great example of a tightly constructed piece of musical theatre. What I mean is that there are no filler songs (in my opinion). Each song either forwards the plot or deeply develops the characters in the song.

And now for fun, I will compile just a fraction of my favorite lyrics from Into the Woods:

"Isn't it nice to know a lot! And a little bit not..."

 "And you think of all of the things you've seen,

And you wish that you could live in between,

And you're back again,

Only different than before,

After the sky."

"It takes care.
It takes patience and fear and despair
To change.
Though you swear
To change,
Who can tell if you do?"

"Into the woods,

It's always when

You think at last you're through, and then

Into the woods you go again

To take another journey."

"Oh, if life were made of moments,

Even now and then a bad one--

But if life were only moments,

Then you'd never know you had one."

"We disappoint, we disappear, we die, but we don't."

"Hard to see the light now, just don't let it go. 

Things will come out right now. We can make it so. 

Someone is on your side." 

"Sometimes people leave you

Halfway through the wood.

Do not let it grieve you,

No one leaves for good."

"Careful the wish you make

Wishes are children

Careful the path they take

Wishes come true, not free."

The way is dark, The light is dim,

But now there's you, me, her, and him.

The chances look small, The choices look grim,

 But everything you learn there

Will help when you return there."

Bonus:

 "Dwarves are very upsetting."

Mid-semester: Week 7

Monday: All of us in class went up one more time with our second song. I got some positive feedback from Jason on my progress with the song. He asked me to sing through it again, this time adding back in the acting element I had removed in order to focus on singing technique. After I sang it a second time, he told me to keep working on the song and to keep this song in my audition book, since it's a good song (and role) for me.

Wednesday was mid-semester evaluations (I can't believe we're that far into the semester!). Jason and Adrienne (Voice and Speech) spoke one-on-one with me about progress thus far in the semester. The two major things that I'm looking to improve upon for the rest of the semester are:

1) Watching vocal tension when speaking and singing.
2) Not being so hard on myself.

Let's do it!

I stand before you now, incredibly afraid: Week 5 and 6

Most of the past two weeks have been dedicated to working on a second song with Jason. I have to say, seeing how much progress every classmate has made from just their previous individual songs - quite exciting.  The second song we were to bring in had to be different in style from our last song and more of a challenge. I did a bit too well fullfilling those requirements.

I decide to work on "Funny" from City of Angels because of it's far more serious tone and it was within my range. The reason it was within my range was because I had been singing it in a much lower key. After a few attempts to sustain the final few notes at the top of my range, Jason asked if I had another song. We looked through my book and found a song from Parade called "It Don't Make Sense".

Jason began to work with me on this new song. At this point, however, my voice was tired from trying to hit those high notes in "Funny" and still frustrated that I couldn't hit those notes. My frustration was clear to Jason, so working on the song devolved into a conversation on my insecurities with singing 'correctly'. While I do not at all doubt the importance of the conversation, I was still uncomfortable talking about it in front of my classmates.  I felt I shouldn't be taking up their time with musings of self-doubt that can be easily done on my own. 

Anyway, Jason had mentioned that a song sung by the character of Leo in Parade might be better suited for me. The next class I had selected yet another song: "It's Hard to Speak My Heart". I love this song to begin with, so I was pretty stoked to get to sing it. The song is still very difficult for me, and over the course of working the song, my insecurities began to creep back in. I started to back away from sustained notes-in case I sounded bad. Jason gave me permission to sound bad: "Strong and wrong". The song is definitely a work in progress, but I do feel somewhat better about it. 

It's a Hard Knock (teenage German) Life: Week 4

This week was more Bitch of Living. We finished up learning the song on Monday, then we sang through it a few times, looking at the sections that needed the most work. Wednesday was devoted to choreography, or rather chair-ography. We got about roughly halfway through with the choreography and shall conclude it next week.

I don't have to much to say about this week. I'm just enjoying the creative process of learning choreography and immediately having to put it into practice, as well as begin to endow it with individual acting choices. I was pretty proud of myself for remembering all of the words to the song, which doesn't really seem like a big deal- but when not everyone can remember the words to the song in a certain moment, it kind of makes a difference. 

One thing that I know is going to be a challenge for me: the balance I need to strike between the physical tension that occurs in the given circumstances of being an angst-ridden teen, while at the same time not having that tension obstruct any singing or movement that has to occur. It's a bit tricky.