Blog Three
Within college I am able to practically explore different aspects of my industry by challenging myself not to shy away from things such as script writing which I currently have the job role of partaking in when creating our second year new musical finding hope. As well as script writing I have joint collaboration with the audio-visuals team, both of these departments grant me experience and furthermore increase my chances of employment for shadowing work and work experience behind the scenes of a production.
In my last Blog I discussed targets that I felt were realistic and achievable and very vocal and practical based as by practically completing work I am able to demonstrate my improvement more effectively. As a performer it's important to be well rounded and a versatile competitor as the industry is very particular with who they provide employment to. Employers within the industry ideally want to be transfixed by their Performers as for many people within the industry it is their only profession therefore when auditioning and applying for the job position you are expected to be working at the best of your ability.
A skill I need to improve if I wish to develop as a Dance teacher is Patience, this skill requires the ability to tolerate stress and hardship without reacting in an outbursting negative way. I would ideally like to teach all styles of dance therefore being able to communicate any progression points delicately is key when ensuring I don't cause any deterioration from potential students. A target I am setting for myself is to grow more patient, I will achive this by helping those around me with any aspects of work they may struggle with wether it is practical or theory. I feel as though setting this target will benifit me as it will help me face challenges that may occur in the future this allows me to think of quick solutions and discover new ways to handle situations that will overall educate the students.
As a whole I would consider myself a strong confident Performer however addressing potential issues is a key part of what allows me to develop my skill to be the Performer I am. I am currently challenging myself vocally and I have continued to do so since my last Blog I previously discussed aspects of singing such as;
. portraying emotion whilst singing.
.pronunciation of vowels and completing words within songs.
.Breath control.
I have and will continue to explore multiple Musical Theatre Songs in order to enhance the emotional representation of the character and feelings I am trying to convey, a Song I thought best suited the skills and requirements I needed to achieve was Burn from the Musical Hamilton. The Song Burn is one I have explored quite vigorously in order to ensure I make consistent progress over time.
I work on my singing both Professionally outside and inside of college hours, I have worked on the previous song in depth on countless occasions therefore I can highlight areas of improvement linking towards the stills and targets I set for myself. When it comes to emotional portrayal a target I am setting for myself is grow in confidence when key and volume.
As I briefly mentioned vowel pronunciation is something I suggestively struggle with within singing therefore after listening back to the Audio Clip provided I highlighted words and phrases within the lyrics that I felt I could emphasise as a way to help my development process.
By working on achieving my goal of better Vowel pronunciation I am inhabiting a common but beneficial technique that supports tuning and provides Increasing lung support aswell as push my voice and range in a higher "head voice" resonance. A perfect further example is if I begin to reduce the air flow I have I am most likely to produce a rougher "chestier" sound. If I am able to correctly pronounce the Vowels within the lyrics I Perform, my performance as a whole should effectively improve as I will have more control over the placement of the sound wether it comes from the front middle or back of my mouth.
It is a common misconseption that body language has no impact of the delivery of your voice, How you stand whilst singing will determine how much sound and power you are able to produce, in order to prevent myself from falling into the habit of reducing and straining my voice whenever possible I practice singing and challenging my range whilst standing with the back of my body and the back of my head against the wall. Once I am in this position I instinctively relax my jaw in preparation for my vocal warm up. I begin with the single vowles such as A, E, I, O and U i go up and down my vocal range a few times in order to identify where I am capable of achieving up to. Once I have completed this small section of my warn up I briefly begin humming exercises this contrasts the vowel pronunciation task as now your lips are expected to be tight where as in the previous exercise if my mouth wasnt open enough I would be tarnishing my own progress as the sound I aim to produce would be restricted. My target when improving my vowel pronunciation is to undertake more vowel based vocal warm ups which I will do every Wednesday outside of college and every Friday within college.
I aspire to achieve better breath control and it is a skill i am setting as a target until i am confident i can perform efficiently without it causing an issue. Similarly to the previous targets i have discussed being able to control your breathing patterns will round the tone of your voice and reduce and shakes that could occure whilst Belting.Breath control permits your body to prepare its self for more extreme range challenging notes without causing any damage, I intend to continue to practice this skill in order to achive my target as I can ensure that I know my own limitation and see that I apply the correct amount of pressure to my larynx and vocal folds. When My singing results in substandard coordination I am able to identify the cause is a lack of air flow and an insufficient technique revolving around the larynx. Diaphragmatic Breathing is the most efficient way to harness good control and proportion when singing. I find it helpful when using breath from My diaphragm to engage my core. I am setting a realistic target for breath control as I aim to achieve up to 40 seconds of an outwards "S" sound without having to take a breath in-between I can currently perform this up to 30 seconds.
I am confident that I will achieve My targets and therefore I would like to further development my flexibility, although flexibility isn't a nessesity I enjoy practically exploring and challenging myself as its not only something that enhances how technical the performance looks but it also requires strength, I will be challenging myself to make progress within my walk over in order to do this I will use core strength and the ability to handle my own weight within my arms. Its important to me that I achieve this skill as I wish to explore a career pathway within dance and eventually have my own studio, flexibility engages a variety of muscles and depends heavily on strength, focus and trust within your body therefore in order to achive this I will begin doing regular circuit work outs and practice my tricks on mats within college hours when supervised, by working towards achieving this skill I'm taking a step to benefiting my placement within the educational system after college as after receiving a placement withing Leeds University I am expected to take acrobatic lessons as a part of my curriculum. Flexibility will help me achieve my end goal which is to be a performer within the industry as i can clearly demonstraight how i use motion through my body and each movement. I am gradually enhancing my potential to be an excelling well rounded performer with technical ability.
I will record the progress of each of my discussed targets on the 1st of each month up until May to ensure I do not stray from any of my Deadlines, by restricting my targets to a deadline I am ensuring I continue to produce sufficient levels of skill and improvement.
