Choosing an Ensemble Piece | Lesson 13

As well as choosing two solo songs, we needed to perform an ensemble song as a group. When choosing an ensemble song we wanted something with good harmonies and clear parts to it. Many songs were suggested and we listened to a few, but we all agreed on 'Stay With Me' by Sam Smith. We weren't 100% sure we wanted to perform this song just yet, so we decided to do a run through of it and see what it sounded like.

When rehearsing the song for the first time, a few of us tried out some harmonies that we could hear in the song and others sung the melody because we didn't have a clear structure of who would sing what. Once we listened to the song we all decided this song was a good idea as the harmonies were clear and all of us would have a part in the song. We picked out that there were harmonies in the verses and the chorus of the song so we knew we could fairly arrange who would sing those parts.

We chose this song as our ensemble piece due to the potential of the harmonies present in the song, and we already had the score for the song. When starting the designated roles of the song, we decided to work out the harmonies first and then once they were known we would split sections of the song for people in the group to sing. We started with the verse, which has a high harmony along with the melody. We decided Evie and Amelia would sing the melody of the verse while Maddie and I sung the harmony. Due to the melody having a range of notes, we found the harmony quite challenging to master. We had to alternate the notes we were singing along with the melody to create the best sound between all the vocals.

Once the harmonies of the first verse had been worked out we moved onto the chorus. We decided to leave this part and carry on when we next have a lesson on ensemble work so we can go away and work on our first verse.

Choosing Solo Songs | Lesson 11 & 12

Since we have finished the leaflet, we now need to choose some solo songs to perform. We needed two solo songs; One notated song and the other not. This means one song needed to be sung through the directions of sheet music and the other can be sung from a normal lyric sheet. The first song I wanted to find was the notated song as I knew that would the hardest song to find.

I was advised to choose a musical piece as it would show off my vocal abilities and also a musical piece would be fairly easy to find as sheet music. I looked through different books that were available to me and searched for songs that have been in musicals to get an idea of a song I could sing for my notated solo song. At first I thought about singing a 'Mamma Mia' song because I knew they would be up beat and they would challenge my voice slightly. With 'Mamma Mia' in mind I rehearsed 'The Name of the Game' to see how it suited my voice and whether I would find it challenging. When I sung the song I thought it suited my voice well and challenged my dynamics slightly, but I didn't like the instrumental breaks in the song. I couldn't find the song in sheet music, so I decided to find a new song.

I had previously sung 'On My Own' for another unit, so I really wanted to sing another 'Les Miserables' song. I asked my teacher and he advised me that I should choose another 'Les Miserables' as they challenged my voice and they were technically challenging. I decided to choose 'I Dreamed a Dream' because I knew it was hard a song to perfect, but I wanted to challenge myself. When rehearsing the song once over I realised the song was a good choice. I really liked the song, I knew the lyrics well and it was in my vocal range. It is challenging through the dynamics of the song and the emotion, so I decided I would do that song as my noted piece.

Finishing the Leaflet | Lesson 10

When finishing the leaflet I wanted to make it look eye-catching and interesting to attract the public and make them want to read the leaflet. At the back of the leaflet I added a shape that looks like a post-it note and added some tips that I found on the internet. I did this to attract all ages and also share some quick tips on how to warm-up. The tip section on the leaflet is useful as it means people can look at the tip part of the leaflet without having to read the whole thing if they are in a rush.

To finish the leaflet I added some colour to make it eye-catching and I read through it to make sure it makes sense and the wording is clear.

Research on Warming Up | Lesson 8 & 9

For these two lessons I started explaining what warm ups are and why they are important. I used the information I found in one of the previous lessons as well as other information I found through my own knowledge. I decided to make the warm up section of my leaflet the biggest part as I knew the warm ups would need the most information.

I started by explaining why warm ups are important and why you must do them before performing. Because I wanted the leaflet to be understandable and targeted at any age range, I made the language simple and didn't use too much sophisticated language. I split the warming up section into several parts.

1 - Why warming up is important. 

2 - What to do when you warm up. 

3 - A few examples of warming up techniques. 

I made the section on why warm ups are important quite big because there was a lot of information about why it is important and I wanted to make sure everything was said.

When writing the section on what to do when warming up I made sure to include what will happen if you don't warm up so the public know what the disadvantages of not warming up your voice are. I wanted to add some information about you can do to maintain a healthy voice so I used Google as my source and researched different things you could do to keep your voice healthy.

For the examples of warming up techniques I used the information I found off the internet again and described some ways in which you can warm up your voice. This part of the leaflet is probably the most helpful as it shows you how to warm up and what works well within different song types.

Research on Vocal Cords | Lesson 7

For the leaflet I had to some research on the vocal cords. I researched what their purpose was, what they do and why it's important to keep them safe. I used the information that I found last lesson and wrote it in my own words. I made sure to make the leaflet understandable so I tried to use language that most people would understand. I decided that I was going to highlight words that people may not understand in a different colour and add the definition of it later on in the leaflet. This is so people are aware of what the difficult words mean. I didn't want the information to be too scientific and hard to understand so I wrote. A brief summary of what the vocal cords are and what there purpose is.

Next lesson I will start explaining why warming up is important and how to do it properly. 

The Warm Up Video | Lesson 5

Here is the warm up video that Amelia and I created, filmed and edited.

Starting the Leaflet | Lesson 6

Last lesson we finished filming all the footage for our warm up video, so I decided to start on our next task. The task set was to create a leaflet about vocal cords and why it is important to warm up your vocal cords before you sing. When creating the leaflet I decided to use publisher as the templates are very useful.

The leaflet should include information on what vocal cords are and what they do, why warming up your voice is important, and how you should warm up. We can also include some easy warm ups to help the audience who will read the leaflet.

I decided to start the leaflet by researching the vocal cords; what they are and how they work. When researching vocal cords I used the internet as my source as I knew the information I found would be accurate and fairly useful. I didn't want to copy the information word by word so I used the research as a base and wrote the information in my own words. I made sure to make the text engaging and understandable so the public would find it interesting and useful when doing their own warm ups. Because the anatomy of the vocal cords include complicated language, I decided to highlight those certain words and explain what they are further on in the leaflet. This is so the public aren't left wondering what the definition of the words are.

I didn't want to include too much complicated language, and too much anatomy of the vocal cords as it's not that interesting, so I made sure to add the important information about what it does. I decided that once I had included what the vocal cords are and what they do, I would go straight into why it's important to warm up.

Before I started the leaflet I made sure to collect information about the vocal cords and the importance of warming up. I put this information into a PowerPoint so I could use that as a guide when completing the leaflet.