So Sing Performance (GC2,3,4)

As a part of our musical ensemble unit another performance opportunity that we have to be apart of our own music show called 'so sing'. This is an event where lots of different schools and theatre companies come together to perform, we were given the chance to put together a musical medley of old and new songs. In order to get ready for this show we have had some rehearsal as a full ensemble and some individually and in smaller groups, this gave us the chance to learn the lines first before coming together to work on how we sing it and adding in different elements.

We began the start of the first rehearsal by splitting off into smaller groups and looking into the songs that we were less familiar with and then we could go over the lines and the different phrases. i picked a group that were mainly working on the song 'Keeping your head up' by Birdy. i think that this song was my weakest at this point. in this group we went over the song once and then went back over it and took it slower, and went over each line and worked on the rhythm and the phrasing of it. When it came to coming back together as a group we went through our set and started to decide which parts would work well as ensemble sections and others as solos, i put myself forward for a solo in the song 'Human' as i felt that was the song that i was most confident with and also it sat really well in my range, compared to others where they had much more of a higher range, like the girls in the group.

During the rehearsals for this event i made a lot of effort in trying to be really forward with my ideas and make myself seem really intrigued. i did this by coming to every rehearsal for this show, knowing all of my lines in the songs and having gone over my harmony lines in my own time, to make sure that i can pick them up first time. To seem really invested in the rehearsal and the show i tried to put forward some ideas when it came to the choreography for the singers, this involved simple gestures and rhythmic movements that fit to the songs, i feel that being proactive and putting forward my ideas it made me seem like a good team leader and an ensemble member. For this performance the demands for an ensemble performance are different to others that we have done in the past as the need for musicality was higher as it is a singing show, however as a performer and an ensemble we still had to think about your physicality, with the dancing and also our verbal, with the pronunciation of our words. 

I feel that for my solo section in this performance i showed a great deal of mastery as i didn't just stand their and sing my lines, i tried to put emphasis on different words to bring more meaning, as well as thinking about how i held me self to show confidence, i tried to keep my body open as well as keeping it moving as well as showing the edginess behind the song. When it came to performing as a group i think it is really important to blend when singing in a group so you don't stand out. I mainly did this by sticking strickly to the notes and not sliding or riffing any of the notes at this can make you stand out, as a male in a mainly female group, it is hard to fully blend as a low pitched voice cuts through everyone more than a middle pitched voice.