Festival Reflection

• Judges vs me:
• I believe that my impressions compared fairly closely to the judges'. They said that we performed well, but that sight reading could use work. I agree with that.
• Festival vs Pre-Festival:
• This concert was definitely improved upon from the pre festival concert from what I heard while being there and singing. There was a lot more participation at festival, and we did not make the big mistakes that we did at the pre festival concert.
• Strengths and weaknesses:
• Strengths:
• No big mistakes
• Good participation
• Acted seriously on stage
• Weaknesses:
• Sight reading went poorly
• Loud off stage
• My Contribution:
• I believe that I fit well into my section. I always try hard, and contribute as much as I can.

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls Written Assignment

       I believe that the meaning of the poem is that peace comes to an area when everyone leaves it. I took this meaning from it because of the way it describes the beach after the traveler leaves. It says things like; "The twilight darkens" and "The little waves, with their soft white hands efface the footprints in the sand", along with the whole piece/poem being calm and peaceful. Because the piece is all about calmness and serenity, someone would sing the song in a beautiful, softer tone.
      The high point of the song is at measure 43, when the dynamic is moved up to forte, making it the strongest/loudest part of the piece, after a crescendo from metzo piano. It also states that the traveler never comes back, which is important. It's important because it resolves the listener's curiosity towards whether the traveler would go back to the beach. Making this portion or passage the loudest is an easy way for the listener to be able to tell that it is the most important, or the climax of the piece, along with if they were paying attention to the words.
      I know that a specific challenge for the guys singing the song is that, for basses mostly, a majority of the piece is higher than they are used to or comfortable singing. Another challenge with this piece is that it is a 3 part song, where all parts will be singing different things at the same time. We are getting better with multiple part, but it is still hard for us sometimes. Lastly, the piece has quite a few dynamic changes, which can be hard to remember.

April Is In My Mitress' Face Video Reflection

Strengths:
I believe that I did well at making my vowels open and tall, while having good knowledge of the pitches in the piece.
Weaknesses:
My biggest weakness was not taking big enough breaths, which lead to me running out of air and having to take a quick breath in the middle of phrases. I was also not very confident in my rests and timing on my entrances.

April Is In My Mistress' Face Video

Carol of the Bells Vocabulary

• Allegro
• A fast tempo marking
• Staccato
• A style of playing notes in a detached, separated, distinct manner
• Sempre
• Always
• Crescendo
• A directive to a performer to smoothly increase the volume of a particular passage or phrase
• Simile
• A directive to perform the indicated passage in the same manner as the previous passage
• Ritard
• A directive to perform a passage with a gradually delaying tempo

Posture, Breathing, Vowel Formation, and Articulation

Posture:
Standing; the proper posture for singing while standing includes having your feet flat on the floor, shoulder width apart, with little weight on the back of the feet. moving up, the knees should be ever so slightly bent as so that they are not locked. Continuing on, your hands should be comfortably at your sides. You should be standing tall, with your back straight, and your shoulders rolled back. Lastly, this includes your head and chin up, facing forwards.
Sitting; the posture for sitting includes everything from standing up that relates to the waist up, excluding that the hand can also be resting on your legs. Then for the waist and below, your feet and legs should be facing forwards, and again, your feet should be flat on the ground.
Breathing:
Good breathing should expand low, near the stomach, instead of high up in the chest. The breath should be full, and take in as much air in an efficient, preferably quiet way, as possible. Normally, this is achieved by keeping the jaw open when breathing, often times having the mouth in the formation of the upcoming vowel. Also, if it relates, the breath should follow queues by the conductor.
Vowel Formation:
Vowel formation should always include an open jaw, and should never include a wide mouth or lip formation. The tongue should never get too close or touch the roof of the mouth.
Articulation:
Articulations should be clear and easily defined as what letter(s) they are pronouncing. these help the audience in knowing what words the choir is singing, adding clarity, so they should stand out without taking away from the vowels. Articulating normally includes making d's, t's, c's and k's, and sometimes p's stand out.

Song Recommendations

1. My first recommendation for Bel Canto would be My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark by Fall Out Boy
2. My second recommendation would be On Top of The World by Imagine Dragons

I chose both of these songs, as it can be seen, mostly for the pop concert that will eventually be coming up. I can not say that i know if either of these songs have arrangements already made, but if either or both of them do, I believe that they could be good songs for our chior to sing that we would all like, but could sound nice as well.