SO SING! REHEARSALS (GC1, GC2 & GC3)

GC1- For this performance, I need to focus on my musical skills the most, followed by physical. Verbal is not necessary as I am only singing and doing some simple choreography.  I need to ensure my physical and musical skills work well together for myself and also with the rest of the company as this performance is based on creating exciting medley work in a large group, using harmonies, countermelodies and different types of accompaniment.

GC2 & GC3- So Sing! is a performance we have been given the chance to perform in, organised by our college which invites schools, colleges and theatre companies or artists to come and perform and enjoy others performances throughout the night. For our piece we are doing a medley of modern and well known songs. It is important we show our expertise as we are hosting and want to show what we are capable of.

Initially, we began with doing some counter melody warm ups to get used to singing contrasting parts at the same time, as some of the cast had never done it before. This is really helpful for developing a successful ensemble as it needs you to all work together but separately at the same time. I helped my peers by explaining why and how counter melodies work from my previous experiences with it; this gave me and them more confidence in rehearsal.

When rehearsing with the lyrics we found it hard to develop well because we were being held back. Therefore we split into groups to rehearse the songs we were least confident on. My group and I chose 'Tears Dry on Their Own' and 'Keeping Your Head Up', as these verses is the ones we were least confident on. We began by decided to split the time equally and work as a group, repeatedly singing through parts and trying out our own harmonies to suggest to the rest of the group. I found this rehearsal really useful because it allowed me to voice my ideas and discuss them further rather than proposing something to the whole group straight away. It gave me confidence running the songs with people I am comfortable and confident around whilst helping me learn lyrics. When returning to the main group, we all knew our lyrics much better and this allowed us to consider some movements and work on harmonies and vocal accompaniments during some solos.
For the coming rehearsals I made sure I was contributing and being engaged throughout the session, I was prepared with my lyrics now learnt and harmonies practiced alone and with groups in my spare time. 

As for my solo, I received it quite late in the process so I worked on it out of rehearsal a lot, disciplining myself to at least practice once a day. As I have one of the verses from 'Tears Dry on Their Own', the octave was quite low due to Amy Winehouse's style. I struggled a lot to reach these notes and project my voice enough to be heard well over the piano and guitar. Other soloists and I from the same song all worked together trying our different ways of sing our lines higher, making them our own. This allowed me to perform it with much more creativity and personality, creating a better performance for the audience.

As for the movement, we all developed some simple gestures directly linked to some of the lyrics, including reaches and hands on our hearts, all of which look really effective as an ensemble, but not as a solo. We also rock slightly t the beginning of the first song, during solos, again this would not look right as a solo, however when the whole company is performing such a simple movement all in unison it creates a wholesome feel, making it aesthetically pleasing for the audience. This also displays our skills sets. I worked with our choreographer to try out moves, in a discussion of trial and error during runs of the piece.