Unit 1 - Skills development in performing arts

Thursday 13^th October

In today’s lesson we were recording the song that we had been practicing over the past few weeks. The song that we were recording today is called “Seasons of Love” from the musical RENT. This song is then going to be played at the ‘Ceremony of Achievements’ within college. I have never recorded a song in a studio before so I was very nervous. Because I have never done this before, I am able to develop this as a new skill.

When I got to the recording studio, Danielle was recording her part. We each had to go into the recording booth individually to sing our own parts. Once Danielle had finished recording, it was my turn. I went into the booth with Callum so he could show me what to do and where to stand to make sure that the microphone picked up my voice. When I got into the booth, I put on the headphones and Callum positioned me in front of the microphone. I sang the song through once but I made a few mistakes as I hit the wrong notes at some points and came in too early at another point. This was probably due to nerves because it was my first time doing something like this. This may have also happened because I did not carry out a full singing warm up before I sang through the song, therefore my voice was incapable of hitting the high notes. My lecturer, Cara asked if it would be possible if I could sing it again. I agreed to this and this time it was a lot better. The first time I sang through the song it acted like a warmup so my voice was warm and prepared me for the second run through. 

Once I had finished singing the song through for the second time, I came back into the studio and Cara played the recording back to me. This meant that I was able to hear myself singing with the backing track and would give me some idea as to what the final recorded piece would sound like. At first I was really shy and hated the sound of myself singing but as the song went on, I gradually became more confident and realised that it wasn’t too bad.

Overall, from this lecture I have gained a new skill of singing in a recording studio because I have never done this before. Although it was exciting, it was also very nerve racking and at first I didn’t really want to do it but after I had sang through the song twice, I became more confident. I will hopefully get more opportunities like this in the future so I am able to build up my confidence.