Room for growth

I’ll admit, my three hours per day is coming in fits and starts.

I’m certainly not perfect, but I will always be pushing myself to be better than I was yesterday, so I’m going to say the last two weeks leaves room for growth. Not that I did nothing - that’s not the case at all, but was I focused on music three hours a day? Maybe for four of the 10 days in question.

Here’s what I did do:

• I made my practice plan for Elijah, and I’ve mostly stuck to it. As promised, I’m sharing a picture of said schedule above!

• I’ve been spending quite a bit of time transferring markings sent by the conductor into my score. These will make the rehearsal process much easier, and because there are a lot of markings to transfer, I definitely didn’t want to leave these to the last minute. It’s also easier to learn the specified articulations, etc. as I go rather than trying to add them in later.

• I recorded new audition videos! They are edited and posted on my Youtube channel, and I’ve linked a few of them in the media page here on my website.

• I started reading The Science of Storytelling. Stay tuned for my thoughts on this.

I always learn something (often its several somethings) when I’m tackling a new piece. Back in the spring when I was singing The Copper Queen, it was the art of vocal pacing. With Elijah, it’s singing in the lower part of my range for an extended period of time without pressing, or trying to manufacture the sound as I think it should be. Truth be told, the mezzo solos in Elijah sit in a part of my voice that I’ve always struggled with. Not because I can’t sing that low, but because it’s not where my voice naturally wants to sit.

That said, being a singer means continually being given new toys to play with, and I’m finding that if I just sing the dang music with my own dang voice - without trying to sound like a dang contralto - the music sings just fine. Without major effort on my part.

Basically, I just need to remember to do all the things I regularly tell my students to do (Don’t press…let your air do the work….keep the “point” on the voice and just sing the way you speak). What a comfort it is to know that I actually do know what I’m talking about!

Alright, here is my to-do list for this week:

• Keep up with my three-hours-a-day of music work. I’m going to be setting a timer to hold myself accountable to this.

• Keep going with my learning for Elijah - I’ve got three more weeks!

• Keep reading The Science of Storytelling

• Spend some time emailing companies this week (my admin time was spent transferring markings last week), and also catch up on some bookkeeping.

• I also need to reach out to my teacher and set up a lesson!