Performance Preview (summary)

December 21, 2016December 21, 2016 Annelikissing you, performance preview, practice, pretty sun hurts, project space plus, rehearsal

On Tuesday, 15th of November, 5 second year Bachelor of Music degree students had a performance preview (a long practice from 9am until 4pm) in the Project Space Plus on the University of Lincoln campus.

All performers practiced their chosen pieces for the final show (scheduled to commence 5 weeks later) that was to be assessed. My choices were:

1) “Pretty Sun Hurts” (original composition by myself, Anneli Tiirik, written on a guitar, 4 minutes long), which I sang with my guitar.

2) “Kissing You” by Des’ree and Timothy Atack (“Romeo and Juliet” soundtrack, 4 minutes and 57 seconds long), which I sang accompanied by a pianist.

My practice session lasted for about 20 minutes in total.

Final Show Day (performance)

December 20, 2016December 21, 2016 Anneliassessed performance, assessment, belting, elizabeth gilbert, fear, final show day, project space plus

I arrived at the venue 10:30 (half an hour later than the official time of the rehearsal had been announced). As expected, I was still one of the first to arrive and there was not much to be done besides wait until 12:40, when I was scheduled to practice with pianist Ed Wellman.

As I had been ill for almost 2 months prior to this concert, I had had relatively limited practice opportunities (5 individual rehearsals, 2 rehearsals with the pianist and learning the lyrics and changing the key of my own song only the night before sums it up quite accurately), but I was determined to do my best.

Running through “Kissing you” once was enough for both me and the pianist, whereas I ran through “Pretty Sun Hurts” twice, as it was more difficult for me to sing and play the guitar at the same time. Overall, I felt quite good and prepared for the show, even despite having difficulties breathing due to illness.

However, after practicing “Silver Dagger” with the whole course, I could suddenly feel my control over my voice starting to slip. As that song demanded more belting-based singing, it added more strain on my voice, because I am not in the habit of practicing that vocal mode regularly due to my first solo teacher never having focused on it in our 8 years of vocal training together. Belting can be done without harming one’s voice, but only if it is done correctly (it requires loud volumes, but the louder the volume, the more potential risk there is of developing vocal constrictions), therefore “many voice teachers believe (incorrectly) that belting is simply bad, physically and aesthetically. So, singing students are getting mixed messages.” (Gagné, 2015).

All in all, during the group song I was unable to establish a supporting breathing pattern (breathing in became very hard, but I was unable to use my inhaler for asthma as it loosens up the vocal chords in a way that makes singing on the same day impossible) no matter how hard I pushed my abdominal muscles, since “asthma can be extremely unpredictable and you never know when an attack will occur.”(Buttler, 2014). From that point onwards, I stopped singing and limited talking as well until the performance time arrived.

At 2 o’clock, the concert started as planned. There were only 5 people in the room besides the performers. It was difficult to breathe even while sitting down, but I was counting on the microphone and menthol oil to help me succeed.

When it comes to singing my first song, the start was very shaky: it took a lot of willpower and muscle work to gain control over my vocal chords and it was much harder to sing than it had been during the rehearsal. The first verse was immersed in my fight with my own voice (air makes the voice flow easier, whereas without being able to breathe properly, it becomes a tricky ordeal), but by the second verse I had gained a foothold over the notes and could concentrate on offering more of an emotional experience to the audience. In my opinion, the singing was not as powerful as it could have been, but I still reached the highest notes and managed to stay present and emotionally connected to the song.

As for my second song, I made 3 big mistakes with my guitar playing, but did my best to blend the wrong notes in with the correct ones as smoothly as possible and to make it seem as though a longer intro and a bridge were intentional, since “audience doesn’t need your fear, they have their own.”(TED, 2014). To be honest, I was quite proud of myself to remember all the lyrics and felt rather confident with my singing, since this rock-rooted song fitted a hoarse voice, I could follow my own tempo (making breathing easier) and it didn’t require a heavy belting or too loud volumes.

Last, but not least, after having sung my individual songs, I could relax more during the group performance. It was fun and enjoyable to listen to other performers and to melt my voice into the mixture of instruments. All in all, we maintained a good tempo (I tried to follow the trombone player, as in the rehearsal we had struggled to stay in the same tempo at times) and balance (I sang further away from the microphone, so that I could hear the instruments better). I gave my maximum to this song, no longer worried about losing my voice afterwards, trying to make the notes sufficiently clear and powerful. My efforts were rewarded: my voice carried well and strongly.

Overall, my performance was a success when taking the breathing difficulties into account. Even so, it felt frustrating that I had probably been able to sing more effortlessly if I had not sang with so much effort in the rehearsal, but such is the way of life sometimes and learning to accept circumstances and doing your best at all times despite difficulties is a big part of a musicians’ job description.

References:

Gagné, J. (2015) Belting: A Guide to Healthy, Powerful Singing. Boston: Berklee Press.

Buttler, B. (2014) Interview: Kristin Chenoweth On Singing With Asthma, Performing for the Phillies, and the Fate of Pushing Daisies. Philadelphia Magazine, 22(5), 1-3. Available from http://www.phillymag.com/g-philly/2014/05/01/interview-kristin-chenoweth-on-performing-the-national-anthem/#hP4t1bK0Jdh5T8z5.99 [accessed 21 December 2016).

TED (2014) Elizabeth Gilbert: Success, failure and the drive to keep creating . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_waBFUg_oT8&t=30s [accessed 21 December 2016].

Final Show Day (summary)

December 20, 2016December 21, 2016 Anneliassessed performance, assessment, final show day, project space plus

On 16^th of December 2016, the second-year Bachelor of Music degree undergraduates performed in the Project Space Plus of the University of Lincoln campus. The programme consisted of individual performances (2-3 songs each) and a group song (“Silver Dagger”, the Joan Baez version). The rehearsal started at 10 o’clock and the concert itself commenced at 2 o’clock.

As this was an assessed final performance of the semester, there were only 5 people in the room besides the performers: a photographer, two tutors (assessors), a representative of the media department and my significant other. A pianist (who accompanied 3 performers) was also present.

My contributions included:

Singing “Kissing You” by Des’ree (4 minutes long).
Singing and playing the guitar in my original song “Pretty Sun Hurts” (4 minutes and 50 seconds long).
Singing 4 verses in “Silver Dagger” (approximately 6 minutes long).

I also signaled the pianist (who modified the microphone volume during one of the individual acts) when to adjust the balance of vocals and guitar amplification during the concert and helped to pack up equipment afterwards.

Performance preview (rehearsal)

November 28, 2016December 21, 2016 Annelioriginal music, performance preview, project space plus, rehearsal

The performance preview was an opportunity for all the performers to run through their songs (2-3 contrasting pieces) that they had chosen for the final concert of the semester. This session also included setting up the equipment and amplification, discussing the flow of the final performance, the layout of seating and stage area. There was a photographer present to photograph the first and second year music students for the university portfolio for an hour as well.

When it comes to my overall contribution to this project, I actively participated in the discussions about the layout of the concert space and also recommended choosing a host for the programme, as from what I have seen at events is that a host is vital in creating the mood and helps to make the transition between different performers smoother.

As for my own songs, it was the first time ever that I had sang “Kissing you” by Des’ree and I had only finished writing the lyrics for my second song “Pretty Sun Hurts” the night before. Admittedly, such a last minute preparation could be seen as risky and unprofessional, because “practice is the only road to success” (Klickstein, 2009, 19-20), but having the flu for two weeks prior to this session had left me only three options:

1) Choose songs from my old repertoire that I knew well and could recite easily and confidently.
2) Try to practice and work on the songs despite feeling ill and risk making my voice even more hoarse and becoming more fatigued and stressed out as a result.
3) Trust my abilities to improvise and learn really fast.

Generally speaking, I prefer to challenge myself in the first rehearsals since that’s one way to find out where the strengths and weaknesses lie within the songs, as these become prominent in stressful situations (being prepared brings confidence, being unprepared leads to nervous feelings usually). Therefore I chose the third option. However, having gone through the nervous stage, motivation resulted as I gained clarity on what I needed to work on most; awareness of my own natural responses to unexpected and stressful situations expanded and I become able to take all of this into account in future performances; my confidence got a boost since my improvisation skills usually enabled me to make songs sound decent even when I had not practiced them much.

All in all, the rehearsal proved to progress just as I had anticipated: most performers arriving late and having relatively unpolished pieces. By and large, the session still fulfilled all the goals:

1) Hearing everyone’s pieces so that a list and order of the songs could be made.
2) Trying the songs out with amplification and accompanying pianist (for those who chose to do so).

Regarding my own practice, I tried my own original song first. Unfortunately, my guitar would not connect to the guitar amp (the reason for this being that the tuner button was switched down whilst trying to play it, as I found out in the Guitar Parlour on the lunch brake). Trying to sing into a microphone while the guitar had another microphone in front of it and I also had to see the lyrics was a very hindering experience, which I would prefer to never repeat.

Notes to self for future:

1) Always arrive in plenty of time before a gig or important rehearsal to make sure the microphone and guitar amp work properly and that the guitar is in tune.
2) Learn the lyrics so that it becomes possible to interact with the audience.

As for the second song, it took a while to get the tempo coordinated with the pianist (we had practiced different versions of “Kissing You”). At first, I tried to follow the rhythm of the piano and figure out his take on the song, but as I gained enough confidence to trust myself and relaxed instead of trying to mediculously follow him, it became easy to sing on top of a slightly different rhythmic pattern and I was quite surprised how smoothly we blended our sounds together. Even so, I was fully aware how much work I needed to do on the emotional mapping of the song and my own core strength as long notes full of feelings were the very core of this piece. In fact, I would go as far as to say that emotion is central in all music, since “music can modulate activity in brain structures that are known to be crucially involved in emotion” (Koelsch, 2014, 170).

Overall, despite enjoying challenging myself, I am fully aware that the only way to truly feel confident on stage is to be prepared. Knowing the song inside and out also helps to improvise consciously and to add emotional value to it. Eventually, you perform as you practice, so after the initial practice session I always try to treat further practice sessions as small concerts.

References:

Klickstein, G. (2009) The musician’s way: a guide to practice, performance and wellness. New York: Oxford University Press.

Koelsch, S. (2014) Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(2), 170-180.