Unit 64 - Singing techniques and performance

Wednesday 21^stMarch

Final performance

Today was the day that I was taking part in the singing performance. ‘Escapism’ is a show which takes the audience on a summery journey. The performers were myself, Kellyann, Molly and Robert. We were accompanied by Cara on piano and Sam on guitar. We then also had Paul and Graham on the sound and lighting desk. 

All of the cast arrived at The Chapel today at 1pm to get ready for the show. We ensured that we met quite early so that we had enough time to get ready. At 1pm, we spent time getting into our outfits, doing our hair and putting on makeup. Once we were ready, we headed down to the performance space. We were then able to have a small rehearsal in the space before the audience started arriving. During the rehearsal, all of the cast ran their solos to ensure that all of our voices were warm and ready for the performance. The rehearsal also gave Graham and Paul, who were working on the sound and lighting desk, time to ensure that everything was set up in the right place and working correctly. Then, at about 2:30pm, the audience started to arrive. We were due to start the performance at 2:40pm but some people were still arriving at this time so we had to start the show a bit later. 

Just before the audience started to come in, I began to feel really nervous. I think this is because I had never really sung a solo before apart from the singing performance last year and the theatre in education performance earlier this year and I was singing solo a lot during this show. Singing isn’t my strongest aspect within performing arts and therefore I have had to work very hard on this performance during rehearsals. Once all of the audience were in, lyric sheets handed out and I was given the heads up to start, the performance started. Here is a video of the full performance:

Everyone did really well during the performance and I was very happy with how everyone performed. Before I sang my first solo I was really nervous but once I had sung for the first time, my nerve started to calm down a bit and I could relax a bit more. I spoke to some of the audience members after the performance and they all really enjoyed it. 

On reflection, I have watched back the video of the singing performance with my lecturer and together we looked for the strengths and weaknesses within the performance.

My introduction to the performance was very clear. You could understand every word that I was saying and I believe that it drew in the audience. The first song was ‘We’re going to Ibiza’ which was sang by Molly – Kellyann, Robert and I were on the backing vocals. This song was very well sung by Molly because she sung clearly and used the microphone very well. Some areas for improvement during this song and something that we would apply if we were to do this again is to make the ‘woahs’ much louder and more energetic. We did have some microphones in fornt of us to pick up the backing vocals but I don’t think they picked us up enough. The harmony during this song sounded good and in tune. Another point of improvement would be to make sure that everyone was moving in time with each other and in the same direction. I did stick to the choreography that we had planned for this song but the others in the group may have forgotten this slightly. Molly performed this song really well and has come a long way since the start of the rehearsals for this performance where she wasn’t a very confident singer. However now she opened the performance with her solo with confidence. 

Molly then introduced me to the microphone to sing my first solo ‘In the summertime’. My lecturer gave me some really good comments about this solo. Firstly, she said that I had great characterisation and channelled my inner flapper. My voice was loud and clear the whole way through the song and my notes very well held and rounded. Altogether, the song was very uplifting, fast paced and jolly. 

Next was ‘Colours of the wind’ which was sung by Robert. Originally, Robert was meant to be singing ‘Wouldn’t it be nice’ by the Beach Boys but he changed his song the day before the singing performance. This made me very cautious and I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go. However, I was pleasantly surprised as he knew all of the lyrics and had clear diction throughout. An improvement that I would give Robert is to make sure that his intonation was clear throughout the song because there were parts when this wasn’t clear. This would have been improved if he had more time to rehearse but unfortunately there wasn’t any more time. Another improvement I would give him is to make sure that he is breathing in the right places because he was sometimes breathing in the wrong places which caused him to run out of air but this would have also come with more practice. 

Next was the first group song ‘The lion sleeps tonight’. This song was quite hard to sing for all of us because for most of the song, we were all singing a different note to create the harmony which meant that we had to all listen to each other to make sure that we kept in time but also making sure that we didn’t move onto anyone else’s note. To create the harmony Robert was singing base, Molly was singer tenor, Kellyann was alto and I was soprano. During the song, Kellyann and Molly did get some help from Cara as she was able to interchange between these harmonies to help the girls. I think this really helped them both and it sounded really good. I managed to stick with my harmony all the way throughout the song and I was also loud so that the audience could hear me. Each verse was sung by a different person and these were all very clear. The whole song was very tuneful. 

Kellyann was next with her solo ‘Lost boy’. There are some points in this song which sounded really lovely and were very tuneful. Kellyann has come a long way since the beginning of the year in regards to singing. She used to be very shy and wouldn’t sing in front of anyone but today she managed to sing into a microphone in front of a full audience. There are a few improvements that I would give to Kellyann which she could then apply if we were to do the performance again. Firstly, her standing position. All the way through the song she was stood in a defence position which may have restricted her lungs from fully swinging out to enable her to perform to the best of her ability. For the future, she needs to stand in a nice relaxed neutral position with her feet slightly apart and hands either by her side or on the microphone. Also, at some points during the song, she was slightly behind the beat. If she had had more time to work on her piece, she could have worked on this.

I was up next singing my second solo ‘Mr Blue Sky’. When selecting my solos for the singing performance, I made some big adaptations to this song to ensure that it contrasted with my other solo. Therefore, the version that I performed during the performance was a ballad version of the original song. I think this worked really well and I worked with my lecturer a lot during the rehearsal process to make sure that it sounded good. Some comments from my lecturer include that the diction and the melody were very clear throughout the whole song. The higher notes during the song were very tuneful and this is because I have spent a lot of time during the rehearsal process working on developing my upper register because this is something that I struggled with at the start of the year. However, my lower range wasn’t so great and to improve this I could have sang a bit softer and come closer to the microphone to make it sound my tuneful. The backing vocals throughout the song sounded good and clear and added texture to the piece. I think that the audience were really gripped with the song and enjoyed it. 

‘The sweet escape’ was next which was sung by all of the cast. The whole piece was very dynamic and uplifting. It drew the audience in and this is evident in the video where audience members start to sway from side to side. I managed to execute the rap part perfectly both times. This is something that I had to work on quite a lot during rehearsals because it is very difficult due to its fast tempo. 

The song that finished off the whole performance was ‘Summer holiday’ where we invited the audience to join in with us. I felt like during this song the cast had to sing much louder to keep the audience in time the piano and the guitar. The audience loved getting involved with the song and were very enthusiastic about it. 

In conclusion, I think that the performance went really well. As stated above, there are a few things that would be amended if we were to do the performance again. The feedback which I received back from the audience was all very positive and it gave me a buzz after the performance. I think that the programme of songs worked really well. All of the songs related to feeling of escaping whether that be a summer holiday or just getting lost and going on an adventure.