I have forgotten how incredibly beneficial it is to do score study!! On Tuesday we took a field trip to Norfolk for our instrument repair class and on the way there and back I studied "O del mio dolce ardor". I was surprised to see just how much text I could memorize in such a short period of time, even with my attention halfway on the people in the van. This being said, there is still a lot to do. I have begun working on the notebook part of things and it is amazing how much richer my singing is now that I am putting myself into the character's place, especially for "Che faro senza Euridice" and "O Del Mio Dolce Ardor". Now for the rest of my songs! :)

I also sang for last Tuesday's recital. This time I sang "Take o take those lips away" by Amy Beach. I was relatively satisfied with my performance. I tried to remember to keep my mouth big in order to create a more resonant space and also tried to remember to "smile", or keep a thinner top lip, as I was singing. I was able to think about what I was doing instead of freaking out about how nervous I was to get up in front of people. That was very relaxing: not having to worry much about the words. This week I was very aware of what my body was doing: where my arms were going, how I stood, where I was looking (trying to look down at the audience), etc.

Overall, I thought I was very consistent with my mouth space, which is something we have been working on in lessons. Thank you Dr. Hepworth for helping me become consistent!!

This blog is about my performance of Green finch and linnet bird on last Tuesday's student recital. I am satisfied with my performance in that I only messed up one word (that I'm sure no one noticed), all the notes and rythms were pretty much "spot on", and nothing happened that would make me think that the performance was a failure. On the other hand, I am my biggest critique. After my performance, I realized that there were some things I didn't do or think about that I will change before my next performance.

First off, I realized that I wasn't aware of my body positioning/stance at all. This scares me because I am usually very aware of placing my feet in the "fourth position" so that I appear professional to the audience. The second thing I will change with Green finch is opening up my jaw to get more of a "mush-mouthed" feel, especially for the i sound in Green. I think this came from watching the clip from the movie where Johanna sings this song. I was trying to emulate her pretty, 'little girl' sound (which she could do becuase she was miked) instead of embracing a more full, higher frequency sound that will cut through the air and come across more clear to the audience.

Other than those two things, I was pretty satisfied with my performance on Tuesday.

Finally, I'm back in the swing of things and beginning to practice on a more regular basis. I have been working a lot on O del mio dolce ardor and Take oh take those lips away. I realize that if I had worked just four or five more hours on this one before fall break I probably could have had it memorized a long time ago. However, there is nothing I can do about that now and it is finally pretty much memorized. Also, O del mio dolce ardor is coming along ok, but the German song (Fur musik) is still giving me fits. We'll see how that one goes...

Today I am singing Green finch and linnet bird on student recital and I am pretty excited about it. It is about time I sang this one on recital! lol. Unfortunately I am struggling with some flem this morning but hopefully things will get better this afternoon.

Also for warm ups I still enjoy doing lip buzzes on five note patterns going up by half steps and sing-ahs going up by half steps as well.

I am expecting to make a lot of progress in a little amount of time as the end of the semester is just around the corner!

I have recently been spending the majority of my practice time with Che faro senza Euridice. Ever since I heard two girls sing it at NATS, I have fallen in love with it. I love the "che faro" melody (the one that is happy sounding)but am having trouble with the parts that differ; especially the parts that come between the happy "che faro" melody. I am also kind of scared of the beginning recitative because it is so long and doesn't really having a flowing, easy to catch on to, melody. I have realized though, after spending only one day on the first page, that memorizing Italian isn't really that bad. If I just put the time in, I can get this one down. Right now I have the first page almost totally memorized, but there is still a lot of work to be done on this aria. I am also putting some time into memorizing the German piece. I just love Che faro!!

I am very pleased with my NATS results! I was not expecting to be only two points away from making finals. On the other hand, I realize that if I had practiced a little more, especially on the French piece, I might have actually made finals. But I guess that's just a motivation for next year. I was expecting to get grilled on my French because, as they pointed out, I am not solid on my diphthongs and I don't quite understand the French vowels. However, I am super glad that I did not mess up on words or switch the two main runs (which I had done a couple times in practice).
As for Down in the Forest, I was pretty nervous because I did not do so hot on it on recital last week. On recital, I started the piece very timidly and did not open up my voice until the second half of the piece. At NATS, right before I walked in, a girl gave me some great advice: the adrenaline that is produced when you're nervous is the exact same adrenaline that is produced when you're excited. So...I went into my NATS "audition" telling myself that I was just super excited to share these pieces with the judges and everyone who was listening instead of being nervous. It helped tremendously!!

NATS

Please disreguard that last post. I was just kind of in a bad mood last night. After a great vocal studio yesterday and after practicing after studio, I realized that I just need to power through sometimes and just get through my bad practice "slumps". Now I am really excited for NATS!! I am also now really excited for NATS. Can't wait for this weekend!!