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Sound Lab Reflection #2

Body Mapping

Singing and is an overall sport to the performer as it takes many parts of the body to create the ideal sound. One area of the body I never truly focused or learned about and is my tongue and jaw. When singing we focused a lot of the working of our breath and diaphragm, never anything above it. I never pay attention to the jaw and mouth area while singing, although it plays a huge role in the overall quality of the sound. In the article it explains how the tongue or “free tongue” is often mis-mapped. This mis-mapping stems from not knowing the function of the tongue and its placement. One aspect I focused on was tension being created in my neck and jaw causing the sound being produced to be closed off and tense. During my lesson this week, my teacher focuses on breathing exercises and I mentioned how the importance of jaw and tongue placement. Without the jaw being released it can’t open up the mouth to release the sound and resonate. In choir we also focused on opening up the mouth and massaging the jaw to make the body aware of it and why it is important. The article references how we should pay attention and think of the jaw it as an appendage such as an arm or leg. Which can also tie into full body warm ups when singing. We typically stretch our arms and legs but never the jaw. The tension in the neck and jaw also play a role in the movement of the tongue, which was something that never came into my mind while performing.

Ice Breaker Activity

For my ice breaker activity it can be used in many social settings, not just in a music class. For my activity the group stands in a circle and someone says their name and a fact about themselves. Someone in the circle, does not have to be the person next to them says either “I did that too” with their name or a fact related to what they said. Once one person starts talking to the rest of the group needs to stay quiet and attentive to what the person is saying. There should be no talking over one another or fighting to say something. This game teaches engaging into conversation with one another and interactions among someone you may not know very well. This also is a helpful exercise for learning not to talk over others and making sure everyone has their chance to speak on a certain topic. Each person has the choice to speak as much as they want or as little as they want depending on their comfort level. It is a clever way to get the class to get to know each other and talk about their lives and how similar they actually may be. In an environment where we are meeting the people we will spend the year with it is easy to get caught up in your own thoughts and impressions of everyone but if we find out more about each other in a casual, comfortable way we can grow closer as peers.

Assignment #4

Aqua Nibii Waawaaskone

“You are not Alone”

I had the opportunity to meet Aqua and perform with her with my high school. She is a Canadian Indiginous singer. This piece “you are not alone”. Was written for the red dress women in Canada who disappeared from their homes. I got the chance to listen to Aqua and her views on the issue and her passion for it. Justin Trudeau is also giving little input and support to the red dress project and how important the issue truly is. The name is this project came from dredging the river in winnipeg to search for the bodied also known as “dragging the red’. The lyrics to the piece reflect on the musician knowing what it's like to be living in fear of the issue and how she wishes she could say to these women “You are not Alone” and she is fighting with them.

The history of the story explains how Indigenous women being missing made up 16% of the homicides from 1980-2012. This number is growing and growing each year and without awareness and spread of this information it will continue to progressively get bigger. There are more than 1,200 girls to this day missing who have been found raped outside their community for the sole reason of being or Indigenous descent. Aqua is very passionate about her work and her impact she makes. Listening to her describing the piece to us before the performance them made us want to work harder to impress her and represent her well. Before meeting Aqua and hearing her story I was unaware of the Red Dress Project and how uncivil these acts were. She gave me a newfound respect for these women and anyone in an Indigenous community who have to live in constant fear just being of their culture. This also made me aware of how much music can impact ones views on a powerful topic. The audience and the performers were moved by her story.

Lyrics

you are not alone

not alone

you are not alone

not alone

you are not alone

Verse 1

see you laying on mother earth, mother earth

wanna lie next to you

hear you crying out, crying out, crying out

i cry too

Verse 2

see you falling down, falling down, falling down

i’m falling too

hear you screaming out, screaming out, screaming out

i’m screaming with you

Verse 3

see you trying now, trying now, trying now

i believe in you

hear you speaking out, speaking out, speaking out

i want to thank you

Verse 4

dancing in the light, in the light, in the light

you are so bright

even if you’re feeling broken, feeling broken, feeling broken

you are not forgotten

Sound Lab Reflection #7

During a recent masterclass for my studio teacher, I performed a piece I had never sung before for an audience. I went into the performance unconfident with what I was performing. I knew my lyrics but not well enough to not think about it while singing. I began singing and initially lost track of what I was singing. The piece was at a fast tempo and I was not confident in the breaths I was taking. I lost air and couldn't end my longer phrases in each repeated part. As the second verse came I forgot the first word which ruined the whole second half. My nerves got the best of me and I was tense throughout the whole performance. Even while my teacher was helping me with my breathe I never got to a point where I felt as if I had impressed by teacher or myself. In the article Pattern of Joy, I can relate to how martha states she isn’t happy with her job and she feels as if she's losing herself. In music I constantly stress about what assignments,performances are to come that it sometimes becomes a situation where I am losing myself to my work and forget that this is what I truly love to do. Also Joe writes about how loves to perform Irish music but refuses when he has the chance. This relates to how I love being but when I have an opportunity to perform for others I get nervous and shy away in fear that I won’t be good enough or getting judged by those why are known as “better”. “It’s as if it was obvious that I’m not going to succeed, so then I prefer to stop painting.” This is stated by Ghislaine in the context of her drawing. I can relate to this feeling sometimes in the practice room when I’m wanting to practice to become better but I feel as if I can’t because I don’t have the tools to on my own without a teacher. This is something I want to grow from and I know that with more skills and independence in the practice room I can achieve this.

Reflection #10

This article speaks about how posture can be affected by the way we are sitting and the negative effects it has long term. For most of my elementary school life I was sitting slumped over at a desk which to this day affects how I sit. This article made me become more aware of the way i’m sitting day to day, which then reminds me to always sit up straight whenever the thought pops into my head. While singing posture is very important to create the proper sounds, all these years of slouching have become my comfortable standing position that I eventually fall into whether I am singing or just standing from day to day. An interesting point the article made was that those who are slumped over at their desk are unaware of what's going on around them. I found this interesting because knowing myself I only truly create the perfect aligned posture when I am being told how to do it or it is brought up in a classroom scenario.

Reflection #8

Adaptation/Learning

I would apply this process to figure skating as I've been doing it my whole life and I can see how this process may assist the process. Step 1 is to have the intention. In this case the intention may be to land a jump. Then the next step is to take action, this about the task at hand and do it with confidence and the intention to land it. Assessing and relocating may take a couple attempts to see where you went wrong. One way of doing this is to video take yourself doing the jump each time to see how you can change your form to successfully land. Of you came close to landing you may only need to try it a few more times for the proper results. This can also be a frustrating process. If you need to stop for reasons such as frustration,injury or ice time ti may be a good idea to film your last attempt so you know what you need to do for next time.

Reflection #9

Reflection Day 1

Today I am going to experiment with my knowledge of text in a few different ways such as memorization of English translations, IPA and memorization. I experimented with singing each phrase of their specific vowel sounds making sure I am phrasing correctly and solidifying my vowels. Then I moved on to writing in my IPA and my translation for my German and French mainly focusing on the German. This helps me with my pronunciation of each word. After knowing each phrase in IPA I can begin to memorize each one until I have a complete memorized piece.

Reflection Day 3

This day I focused on breath placement and making it through each phrase. One challenge I have is having enough air to sustain each phrase without breathing in between words or sneaking in breaths where they aren't needed. My German piece tends to have areas where I tend to breath in the wrong places causing the whole phrase to be messed up when I skip areas to breath and place them where it isn't needed. I experimented with placing my breaths exactly where they should be and how much air I will need to last through the whole phrase

Reflection day 4

Today I focused on final touches to my pieces before my lesson with Margie. I made sure I had all my IPA written in for each song and knowledge of even my newer pieces. I want to now focus on the technique of my voice opposed to just learning my pieces. I began my practice with an experiment on my breathing where I would breath in for 5 and hiss out for 10 then once I felt confident with that I moved onto breathing in for 7 and hiss out 12. Once that was complete I moved onto taking the proper deep breaths each time it was needed in my pieecs.

Reflection #11

My goals this semester were to improve my skills overall as a performer and gain the confidence I need to process in singing. One challenge and fear I faced was from my GIM courses where I thought I would struggle in. I overcame this fear by practicing and focusing at the task and hand to make sure I was prepared for each class. Next time, I want to coordinate the time I take the study and practice so I have a schedules out week without cramming. Another goal of mine is to stop procrastinating with my work and have time to study and review. Being fully prepared is an issue I am always worried about. I want the confidence to be able to speak my opinions in class as well and come up with valid points to share with the class. Now that ive gone through one semester I know the goals and expectations I have to live up to to excel in the years to come