Singing Rehearsals

For the practical singing performance, it was chosen that the song ‘Lost Without you’ by Freya Ridings would be sung. This song was selected as there is an emotional connection, in relation to the passing of my grandad and the grief that has followed. This allowed acting through the song more achievable. As confidence and singing overall is identified as a weakness, being vocally exposed, made rehearsals challenging. It also slowed the ability to perform it to its full potential due to having nerves. During the rehearsals, a strength that was identified was the determination to sing an entire song to an audience. Last year, lack of confidence led to only singing one line of the song as a solo for the singing ensemble in the showcase. Therefore, it shows that confidence is a developing skill throughout rehearsals. A weakness that is identified was the lack of expression to portray the appropriate character throughout the song. This skill is shown to be a priority by Otswald stating, “audiences read actions, not minds, so you must allow your characters’ thoughts and feelings to be manifested physically.” (Ostwald. D, 2005). This took a while to accomplish due to a lack of practise of styled facial expression. These would have been shown if there was time taken to use a mirror to practise in to ensure the correct ones were chosen and displayed. The skills developed from rehearsals was the techniques and strategies used to build a successful emotional performance and also how to use time appropriately for an upcoming show. To develop emotion in the song, a Musical Theatre technique such as the use of breath is applied on the end of the words, for example, "pain." This produces the idea of crying which creates a more believable performance. Due to a lack of experience in singing, a lower version was used to support the vocals.


Grandad

During the rehearsal process, there was a discussion of my grandad. This was about the memories of him and the grief and feelings since his passing. A good memory that was discussed was his passion to never miss a dance show, he would always ask for his ticket months before the show or constantly ask "when's your next show Savanna?" and "when am I going to see you Dance? I really enjoy it, you're very good at it." This personal grief stimulated the acting through the performance such as picturing my grandad standing in place to change the eye line. The memory was used to add contrast. For example, smiling on the lines, "To love someone so much, to have no control." This created natural acting and convincing performance. The result of the discussion was therapeutic. This was helpful to control the emotion from not getting too overwhelmed and losing control which causes voice breaks and makes it difficult to complete the song. Therefore, the discussion was identified to be an advantage towards the end result.

 

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/b8ZurHBTooA



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