Voice
production techniques
During lectures I have been introduced to a few voice
production exercises such as the intercostal diaphragmatic exercise. At the
start of the term I was really struggling to carry out the exercise but now that
I have had lots of practice, I am now able to carry this out at a moderate
level of difficulty.
Target -
Next term I will be focusing on extending the breathing technique so I can hold
long notes for longer and improve phrasing in spoken word passages. I will also
need to continue practicing the diction exercises as I still find ‘thah, vah,
zah’ a challenge.
Expression
in performing arts
I am working towards developing a character in my duologue
‘Split Down the Middle’. I have applied diction techniques in my poem
‘Blessing’. Learning correct breathing techniques has impacted on my ability to
deliver a song.
Target – I
need to continue practicing intercostal diaphragmatic breathing to improve the
quality of my delivery both in song and in spoken word.
Clarity
of delivery in all areas of acting, singing and dance
On a Thursday we have been mostly concentrating on singing
skills. We have been able to record 2 songs in the studio. When I first started
the performing arts course I was a very shy singer and sang very quietly. Now
that we have recorded in the studio twice, I am more confident with singing in
front of my peers. Whilst in the studio it was made clear to me that despite
having a microphone which amplified my singing voice, I would still need to
project in order to produce a vocal performance.
Within performing arts lessons I have been learning and
practicing some diction exercises. When I first started learning my poem, my
diction wasn’t very good but now that I have been practicing these, they have
really helped the delivery of the poem.
Target – I
need to continue working on projection. This will enable me to communicate a
performance more successfully.
Applying
dynamics
Working within an ensemble to produce group songs has
really developed my listening skills. This is key to understanding how to make
a performance dynamic and maintain the interest of an audience.
Target – I
need to ensure that I memorise performance materials as early on in the process
as possible. This will then free me up to be able to listen to my peers in
ensemble work and also to creatively express solo pieces.
Communicating
performance work
I have not taken part in any college performances but I did
take part in the Tapathon which was really well received. In my second
experience in the recording studio, the professional engineer commented on my
clear diction. He said as a result of my singing performance it brought all of
the other vocal parts together and gave the overall sound clarity.
Target – I
must try to maintain confidence and not feel inhibited when working with new
creative opportunities.
Teamwork
I am tolerant, open to new ideas and enjoy working with
others to produce believable performance work. Positive teamwork, listening to
my peers is key to producing good improvised drama.
Target – My
lecturer was fed back to me and has commented on my strong teamwork throughout
the past term. I will continue to contribute to all elements of performing arts
as I enjoy feeling that I am part of something and that I have a voice within
it.
Dance
techniques
Within dance lectures on a Wednesday morning, we have been
learning about Alexander technique. I have never done this style of supported
movement before so this was a new skill that I have learnt. I feel this would
be of use to a totally blind person as it really addresses posture, gait and
the way that we move our bodies. Also, it helps with the way that we sit and
lie down and the way that we move from these positions.
Target –
Next term I am going to lead a Learning and Leisure performing arts session. I
am going to use some of the Alexander technique as part of this session, in
order to support some of the less able students.
Drama
techniques
I have commented on my physical theatre work in a previous
blog. We have mainly been focusing on developing improvisation skills as these
impact on a lot of performance work as they encourage spontaneity and
responsiveness.
Target – An
ongoing target for me is to work at being less inhibited in unfamiliar areas of
performing arts.
Life
skills (punctuality, attendance and engagement)
I aim to turn up to all of my performing arts lectures on
time, if not early. I come appropriately dressed for the lessons in clothing
that I am able to move well in. I bring all relevant materials to my lectures.
Target –
Maintain this level of engagement throughout the academic year.
Responsibility
for own learning
I carry out independent research outside of lessons which I
then put into my blogs. I write blogs frequently and try to keep as up to date
as possible.
I have also carried out independent learning for my diction
exercises, poem and duologue. I practiced ‘pah, tah, kah’ firstly to memorise
it and then I was able to say it faster and faster. This then helps my diction
and this is already showing within the delivery of my poem. I practiced my poem
and duologue to memorise the lines and then I am able to add expressing and
meaning into the words.
Target – My
lecturer has commented on the amount of work that I produce outside of the
lecture. I am a methodical worker who sets aside time in the evening and at
weekends to carry out coursework. This is evidenced in my blog. I will continue
to work at this level for the remainder of this academic year.
Communication
This term I needed to identify a space where I could
practice tap dancing with a peer. I approached the manager of thePoint4 sports
centre and secured a room with a sprung floor for this purpose. I had to
explain to the manager and negotiate a time for the space.
As I have a visual impairment, I had to ask the teacher at
the Tapathon if I could move to a place where I was able to see the
choreography more clearly. I feel I am proactive, I plan ahead and I have the
confidence to speak to people even if I don’t know them.
Target – There
are still certain situations where I might feel intimidated for instance having
to telephone people to request information. I need to work on preparing what I
am going to say beforehand and think about strategies which would help with
this process.
Wednesday 28th September
The aim of this lecture was to familiarise ourselves with our poems.
To start the session, we did a short warm up including some vocal exercises. The first exercise was to make sure that the muscles in our face were fully warmed up. We stretched our lips out and our cheeks back and said an ‘ee’ sound and then pushed our lips out and together making an ‘oo’ sound. We kept repeating this gradually getting faster each time. I found this exercise quite difficult once we started to pick up speed but as we practice this more often, it should become easier.
After the warmup, we looked at our poems which we had selected in the previous lecture on Monday. Our lecturer, Cara recorded our first attempt of sight reading our poems. Here is a link to my first attempt of sight reading:
Once I had finished reading my poem, our lecturer gave us some feedback. The first piece of feedback which she gave me was that my reading was stilted. However, for people with a visual impairment like myself, sight reading is difficult as we can read no more than 2 words at a time which causes the reading to be stilted. The main piece of feedback that I was given was a target to try and start learning the poem as soon as possible. When I was reading the poem from the sheet, my words were unclear as there was no projection due to the paper being in front of the paper and my shoulders were hunched. However, once I learn the poem, these two issues should not be a problem. Another piece of feedback was that the diction in some places was quite poor. This is an area in which I will need to improve on. Another piece of advice was that I need to be careful when reading the lines and to make sure that if a sentence carries onto the next line, it should still flow. The last piece of advice that I was given was that throughout the poem, I tended to stay within the same tonal range. This meant that I did not put much expression into the reading of the poem. Over time I will develop all of these so that it makes the poem sound more exciting.
To finish off the session we set ourselves a target for the next session. My target was to learn the first 4 lines of my poem.
Monday 10th October
The aim of this lecture was to review our starting parts for some elements and to concentrate on learning our poems.
To start the lesson, we started with the warmup. For this, we started by carrying out the intercostal diaphragmatic exercise. For this exercise we breathed in for 4, held for 6 and breathed out for 12. Here is a link to a video of me carrying out the exercise and also some comments from my lecturer Cara:
I carried out this exercise quite well as I did not move my shoulders. However, there was not much movement in the diaphragm so this is an area which I will focus and improve on. We then moved onto the diction and travelling exercises that we have had a brief look at in previous lessons. Firstly we looked at “pah, tah, kah”. Although I only just know the exercise without the piece of paper, I am unable to say the exercise with some speed. This will come over time as I keep practicing it over and over again. Here is a link to a video of me carrying out the “pah, tah, kah” exercise:
Once we had finished the warmup we moved onto looking at our poems. Between last week’s session on Monday and today, I have looked at the beginning of my poem a few times but I have not had time to learn it.
Our target from last week was to start to learn the first part of our poem and to learn the “pah, tah, kah” exercise. This means that I have partly achieved my target because although I did not learn the start to my poem, I did learn the travelling exercise. Due to me only partly meeting my target, the duration of time that I had to complete this target has been extended and I now have until the 17th of October to learn the first part of my poem.
Monday 28th November
The aim of todays lesson was to start to look at a duologue that we will be learning and developing over the next few weeks. We will be looking at sight-reading skills and starting to look at our characters too.
The duologue that our lecturer, Cara has selected for us is called ‘Split down the middle’ and was written by David Campton. It is about a couple who have been out on a day trip on a boat. It’s starting to get dark and foggy and they’re stranded out at sea wondering what to do. The duologue involves 2 characters, Josie and Fran. I am playing the part of Fran and Angel is playing the part of Josie.
We first of all read through the duologue as our assigned characters. Once we had read this through once, we read it through again but this time we swapped the characters around. This meant that we were able to gain a better understanding of our character as we were responding to the character that we are actually going to be playing. We then read through it one last time, this time reading as our characters again. Here is a link to a video of our initial duologue which is being sight-read:
We were able to read this duologue through a number of times because our sight-reading skills are quite good even though we have a visually impairment. A duologue is a lot easier to sight-read as there is less to say at one time. For example, if you are reading a monologue, then it is just you speaking and therefore you have to read a lot of text without stopping whereas a duologue you have short breaks in-between lines when the other person is speaking.
At the end of the lesson, Cara set us a target. This target is to learn the first 2 pages of the duologue which works out to about 10 lines each. We will assess this on Monday 5th December.
