W4D4 - B and B opening night!!

It's going to be a quick one tonight. I was up chatting with my parents, Menno and Lee, and my auntie Lill and Uncle Lorne. To summarize my day:

Yoga

Dance - we choreographed a number to Footloose, which was so much fun!

Song Soiree lesson with Shannon Hiebert - It was a very informative session. I'm realizing more and more how much I don't know, and I don't say that in a negative way. It's just amazing how much deeper you can go. Like I said in a previous blog post, when I used to learn music, all I did was learn the right notes, rhythms, memorize the words, and add some emotion. Singing is so much more than that. But it is such a habit for me, that even when someone asks me to JUST think about what you are saying when you sing, I struggle with that. It seems basic, and simple, but I'm used to being disconnected with the text. It's not like I don't feel things when I perform. I've gotten this far, so something must have been going right, but there are ways of digging much deeper, which with then allow for a completely authentic performance. I'm used to making it hard, when really it's not. Here again, text is so important. If you can communicate the words, the music is almost pointless. They go hand in hand, and more and more am I seeing that it doesn't matter is you have an amazing voice. If you can't communicate, the voice means nothing. You might be able to get by for a while, but eventually people with see through it and you are going to have to change something. Today Shannon and I were working on "Now have i fed, and eaten up the rose," by Samuel Barber, and she basically changed the entire song just by working through the poetry. When you think about communicating the truth of the piece, the singing becomes secondary and fixes it's self. We must remember that sing is just talking on pitch. You should be able to make up your own melody for each text, not that it would be the same everytime, but make the line sing itself. It is poetry, after all, meaning the poet probably heard the music of the line when he/she wrote it. Through this I understand that things that I am in control over. I may not love where my voice is at right now, but THAT IS OKAY. "I love and approve of myself." That is my new saying. (Thank you LEE) Something like the text, I can control. I can do the homework, and interpret the poetry, which will then take pressure off the voice and allow it to just bloom. It's when i stop waiting for something to change that something with happen. And it's not going to just change over night. It's slow and grooling, but it's good change!

Next I had lunch and then the Claudio version Beatrice and Benedict dress rehearsal

Had a wondering nap in the sun

Ate Supper!

Opening night of the Leonato version of Beatrice and Benedict, which went very good! It was an awesome audience! The energy was electric:)

And now it's time for bed.

Over and Out!