I’m still trying to work out how to manage this new blog set-up and have just managed to lose loads of things that I wrote after trying to add a picture…alas i’ll have to start all over again. The video of instructions for blogs on the a-n website is far too quick for someone like me, and I haven’t got a clue how to use this toolbar!
I’ve had meetings with my two collaborators about how the works are going. Lynn, who is mainly dealing with video and editing, feels that my voice is rather nervous and shaky, that I should probably be singing in the middle of my range rather than attempting to sing things that are more demanding, and also that my songs need more variety. I think that I could tackle this by warming up more thoroughly before starting to sing, and always taking pitch pipes with me to make sure I’m starting on a note that will be comfortable for the whole range of notes in the song.
I talked to my voice and singing teacher, Lucy, about this. She discussed with me what my range of voice actually is, and emphasised the need to be totally in command of the song, know the melody and the words off by heart, and warm up really well, and to attack the song with intent, not half-heartedly. Obviously being relaxed and not nervous helps as well. Lucy also said that the expectations of your audience are important. For example I am an artist who uses my speaking and singing voice in my work, and am not a professional singer. when the audience is aware of this, their expectations will adjust accordingly. Nonetheless, I need to work harder to improve and strengthen my voice and performances.
I was feeling a bit down after the meeting with Lynn, even though she made some valid points, and wondered whether I should really continue doing live performances. Did my work really need to be live? Always? Sometimes? a mixture of live and recorded sound?
I had a commission to do a new work as a result of a mini-residency at the Asylum Chapel, Peckham, South London, and decided to see what would happen there before trying to reach any tentative conclusions. Most of the performance sound was recorded and edited previously, and I sang live at the very end. I wanted a big contrast between the recorded, past sound, and the live sound which was really “in the moment” and present to the audience. This seemed to work pretty well, and I regained a lot of confidence after the evening went well. I warmed up my voice properly, and we all rehearsed for the programme before the evening performances.
I’ve tried several times to upload an image here, but have failed and so I’m going to stop here and continue once I find out how to add a photograph.
