Second Rehearsal

Our Second Rehearsal- 13/2/11

...In which we are all at ease and play a bit.

I led this rehearsal with vocal work in mind. I tried to show that singing isn't the only way of using your voice to make a beautiful or simply effective sound, and that as complicated as "music" is, just stretching and exploring your throat noises whilst naturally finding a beat can be just as productive.

Firstly, after bouncing and shaking and stretching, some vocal warm ups: "The lips, the tip of the tongue and the teeth" and "Ab Eb Ib Ob Ub" repeated with diction and clarity to the extreme and well as running your tongue around your teeth are good; think of how strong your tongue is, that small protruding muscle in your mouth that, teamed with the smack or softness of lips, can give words anything.

To increase your range and make the break in your voice more natural, place the tip of your tongue behind the back of your front bottom teeth, and the back of your tongue on the back of the roof of your mouth. This should lift your soft palette, the soft part of the top of your mouth, and give you a yawning sensation, making your voice smoother. Do some sirens or series of notes, test your extremities like this. Also if a note is too high for you to reach try and recreate the yawn feel; it instantly becomes easier.

"Pop-a-kettle-pop-a-kettle-pop-a-kettle-pop-a-kettle-pop-a-kettle-pop-a-kettle-pop-a-kettle-on"... "Siiiii-Aaaaaaaaa"... have fun with them.

Concentration Exercises

1...121...12321...1234321... etc, clap on 3, stamp on 5, plus a potential body tap on 1 and a click on 7. This is something I really enjoyed working on with everyone as the brain and voice and beat combination had a fantastic effort behind it.

Break 1: Knees-Clap-Knees

Break 2: Knees-Knees-Clap-Knees

Break 3:Knees-Knees-Clap-Clap-Knees-Knees-Clap-Clap-Knees-Knees-Clap-Knees

BREAK IT DOWN NOW

Break 4: Knees-Left-Right-Clap-Knees

Break 5: Knees-Left-Right-Clap-Knees,Knees-Clap-Knees,Knees-Left-Right-Clap-Knees

Break 6: Knees-Clap-Left-Right-Clap-Left-Right-Clap-Left-Right-Clap-Left-Right-Clap-Left-Right. (or right left)

With rhythm... we'll get there. I liked the determination with this, and how it can be used as a focusing method- BREAK 6- sudden participation. It also opened up the possibilities of body percussion, which became useful in the next exercise.

Spontaneous

Rhythmical, and

Occasionally

Melodic

Improvisation

1- Low Sounds, harsh, guttural, primal

2- High Sounds, wail, cry, fawn

3- Percussive Mouth Sounds, useful for finding a tempo, move with it

4- Hum Any Note, hopefully resulting in haunting discordance

5- Body Percussion, physical, expressive, explore

6- Lowest Note Sustained, drone, tribal

7- Highest Note Sustained, beautiful? Chilling? A little bit painful

8- Follow The Leader, feel the right time, be inventive, make it your own

9- Improvise, be comfortable and play, bring up a contrast, support the whole piece.

This worked. Think of how to create interest, keep it moving; what can you do to shift the mood? How can you relate to what's happening around you? Every time it was different, yet always raw. We heard some combinations go better than others, and this will help throughout our devising process, as every time we do it something fresh will arise.

We recorded it, but were reluctant to listen back in case it didn't sound as good as it felt.

Singing

With Sam and Pete singing Tenor together, and Helena, Claud and I on Alto, we attempted "Balulalow", which looked simple, sweet and English to begin with, but then revealed lots of ridiculous time signatures and clashy harmonies. Nevertheless, it is a challenge, and a few of us took copies to look over. We then looked at block harmony in the form of backing vocals of a song off The Lion King score, which took no time to sink in and sounded pure and strong. Everyone's voices left a positive, lasting impression, and it was good to see where everyone was with their voice, their rhythm and their confidence with them.

In order for musical waffle to not make it sound more complicated than it really is, here are a few terms we used in our rehearsal and their meaning, to decode this wondrous, mostly Latin nonsense:

"In 3 4" - three beats in a bar

"In 4 4" - four beats in a bar

"Soprano"- higher female voice part

"Alto"- lower female voice part

"Tenor"- "higher male voice part

"Bass"- lower male voice part

"Staccato"- short, quick- how the word sounds

"Legato"- smooth, ditto

"Crescendo"- get louder

"Diminuendo"- get quieter

"Forte"- loud

"Piano"- Quiet

"Glissando"- Scale

"A Capella"- No backing, only vocals

"Vibrato"- Wobble in sound

Lets break out of our comfort zone please?

Impressed and Excited.

<3