Term 3- Extra Rehearsal

Monday 11th of May 2015

We organised an extra rehearsal so we could perform our songs from start to finish. We started with a quick vocal warm up lead by one of our group members. We did some humming to get the vibrations in our mouth, we sung sirens to use our whole range and we also did major scales for pitching. After our warm up we went from the beginning, starting with Dear Future Husband. We identified that we needed more energy to make it exciting; we therefore added simple movements to make it more fun and energetic. The harmonies for the song went really well and needed very little work. After we went on Lady Marmalade. Vocally we were singing it well, but we had to put in more effort, we realised if this was going to be our showstopper, we had to really perform. This song was a little hard to do because not everyone was here to rehearse, therefore the rap we weren’t able to work on. None the less we defiantly worked on performance qualities and energy.

term 3- lesson 4

Wednesday 6th of May 2015

Over this week:

This week we had the task of learning our songs and ensuring we were comfortable with them. I personally went home and sung  through them everyday, this helped me learn the lyrics. I really worked on the harmonies in Dear Future Husband because I knew I was struggling slightly. I asked my other group members for help, this was good because it allowed me to constantly practice.

I personally have been working on the pronunciation of certain lyrics in Lady Marmalade. the lyrics are in french, however I sat down everyday and worked on them. I know know how to sing them with confidence :)

In rehearsal:

We were organised once again, we all knew what we wanted to do. As we already broke the sections the previous week, we could now work on the technical aspects. Ensuring the harmonies were correct and the tuning/pitch were up to standard.

As we already broke the sections this week we looked at the performance quality. Ensuring we knew how we wanted to handle the microphones etc. also the positioning of each other was significant, this was because we split off into different harmonies. We agreed quickly and we each got a chance to take centre stage.

When singing with the microphones we would really work on the energy, at times the songs sounded boring, however after a little pep talk we all worked harder and gave a performance, rather than just sing. It was important to sing it like the real thing because it would show us where the mistakes lied. After rehearsing the performance qualities we then noted down what we needed to work on in the other rooms. Which was timing and harmonies.

Once in the smaller room, we just kept running over the songs. We stopped at the parts that didn’t sound as good as others. For example the 2^nd time we sung the chorus in Dear Future Husband it should’ve gone up a key, we weren’t doing that. Therefore we worked on the transition of the part before going into the chorus. One member broke it down on the piano so we could see how much we needed to go up. This was useful because it allowed us to see the difference, it also made the song sound more brighter.

We stuck to our original plan. The week before we decided to clean up both pieces and to look at how were going to perform them. We also decide on the order of the songs. We went with Dear Future Husband first, this would allow us to get comfortable with performing to the audience. We then are going to end with Lady Marmalade. We chose to end with this song because we feel as a group it’s a showstopper, and allow us to show of our individual talents and our ensemble work.

Overall I believe the progress we have made is really positive. We have finished both the pieces, we now just need to keep practicing. We decided as a group to set up another rehearsal date on this upcoming Monday to work on performing the songs full out, one after the other. My goal this week is to keep going over the harmonies and to be confident in what I am doing.

Term 3- Lesson 3

Wednesday 29th of April 2015

Over this week:

Last week, it was our groups individual task to go home and familiarise ourselves with the two chosen songs. We had to learn our harmonies and solo sections in Moulin rouge  ‘Lady Marmalade’. The reason for doing this is because when we do get the rehearsal space we could focus more on the performance quality and making sure we are all together. I personally found this difficult at times because finding the space or time to practice. My peers in my other classes don’t steer nicely to hearing the same songs repeated, which leaves time at home. Although this hard, on the weekend and mornings I do try and practice. I feel like I have progressed from last week, I believe the structure and confidence has improved in the song. 

In rehearsal:

In todays rehearsal we were organised. Once again I came prepared with lyrics and highlighters so we could break the song into sections and individual/ensemble parts. This seems to work well with our group because we can visually see what we are doing.

We listened to our second song, which is ‘Dear future husband’ by Meghan Trainor. As the song went along we attempted certain parts to see if our voices were comfortable with it. Then we broke up the lyrics into 3 sections and split the parts. This allowed the progress to go much faster and we got a lot done in the time limit. I feel like we managed our time better this week, we knew what we were going to do in each room.

Once we got into the room with the microphones, we knew straight away we wanted to work on ‘Lady Marmalade’. We wanted to look at the performance side and ensuring we knew how we wanted to hold the microphones etc. We decided for this song we were going to hold the microphones, this allows our body to move more and express what we are singing.

We then got moved into a smaller room, this is where we started to look at the technical aspects of the songs. We looked at the harmonies, ad-libs and the tuning of the song. This was useful because we could dissect the piece and work on the parts we needed to.

I personally need to go home and work on the harmonies in ‘Dear future husband’, I got another remember of my group to record it for me, therefore I just need to practice. Another goal is to learn the lyrics by next rehearsal. This gives the opportunity to sing full out and not be held back.


This is the break down of our lyrics:

(An example)

We stuck with our original plan to work and break down the songs, by doing this it saved time. We are comfortable with our choices. However we could have sung through the songs more to get comfortable without stopping and starting etc.

Overall I believe we got a lot of work done today. We now have two songs for our performance. We have refined and cleaned up Moulin Rouge and now just need to learn the lyrics and perform with intention, similarly with Dear future husband, however need to spend more time working how we are going to perform it, standing/sitting etc.