Week 14 - This is It

Less than a week until juries. Yikes!.... But the weird thing is even though I still feel I have a ton of stuff to do to get ready I am not very stressed out at all, there has been so much going on that I think I just busted my stress meter so now all I have to do is make it through next week alive and then I can worry about everything else going on this summer. But right now Its all about finals week, and especially barriers. I am feeling confident i almost all of my music, the only one that could really be a close call is Intermezzo my German piece, it seems like every semester so far my German song has been the last one for me to get down, so I think next semester will be one of me focusing on my German piece first if I have one. So I think this will be a weekend full of practice, score studies, and finishing up my voice notebook. With the end of the semester this close in sight I don't see a reason to let stress take over and ruin everything I have been working for... Barriers, here I come!

Week 12/13- The End Is In Site

This week I am going to blog about the last two weeks since I am pretty sure that I spaced and forgot to do one last week. Anyways, last week was a very slow week, it was just kind of one of those off kinda distant feeling weeks. But I spent a lot of time working on my French piece trying to make sure I had it ready for the recital that Thursday. And when it cam to the recital I thought it went really good except for the whole pencil thing, and I may have messed up a couple entrances, but Phil, being as amazing as he is, was able to cover them up so no one could actually tell. By the time this week rolled around I had managed to get out of my haze from the previous week. I was able to get some really good practice in and at this point all I really have two do is memorize my last two pieces. And also this week I have been able to get some really good time working on things for my voice notebook, and the more I work on finding info, the less worried Iget about memorizing information for barriers (which are less than two weeks away). But I am feeling confident and I think it will talk a lot to bring me down at this point in the semester when I think back on how far I have come, and how much more improvement I will make in the semesters to come. :)

Week 11- If I Fall Now It Sure Is a Long Ways Down.

I can't explain why but I feel like a weight has been lifted of my shoulders this week, It could have to due with the fact that I no longer have to worry about my speech class. But either way I just feel more relaxed, which I feel could be very vital to my surviving the rest of the semester. I sang on recital this Wednesday and I felt it went great, and every one who was there said it was the best they have ever heard me sing. So that mean I am going to set the bar higher for myself once again. If I keep my goal at a constantly unreachable distance then I will no choice but to improve more. I want people to say its the best they have heard me sing every time I sing. This weeks lesson was good, we took the time to do some nit picking at my aria, along with touching on a few other pieces. Including my French which I will be singing on studio recital next Thursday. I don't quite have it memorized yet, but I am planing on using free time I have now on getting my songs memorized so I can focus on the little details. I am going to want to sound amazing at barriers, and that is my goal. And now that I have an open class period now that speech is over I am going to devote that time period to getting work and research done on my voice note book. Barriers, you don't stand a chance!

Week 10- This Climb is Starting to Feel Smaller and Smaller every Day

This week has been fantastic, after last week I feel like I have made a ton of progress. I basically have my aria memorized so now its a matter of working on the little things and just my overall singing technique, and I am planning on singing my aria for recital next Thursday and I am starting to get pretty excited! Along with that I feel as though the rest of my songs are coming along nicely and a lot of the are on the verge of being memorized. I was able to get in a lot more practice time compared to the last couple of weeks, and I am loving every minute of it. At this rate I think i can finish out this semester really strong as long as I don't distracted by anything or lose focus. And on top of all of that I feel like I am on the verge of a really good breakthrough. I am feeling really confident about a lot of my school related work and I am hoping that this improvement keeps up, and that I can keep having lessons as good as the one that I had this week(which was probably the best one i have had yet this semester if not since I have been taking voice lessons. This are looking up!

Week 9 - Time To Regain My Footing

As far as time spent in a practice room goes this week wasn't very good, its been a crazy week with the whole musical going on, (and I'm only in the pit). Besides that I got some time to sit down and take the chance to listen to recordings with my music sitting in front of me, and I feel like I am starting to get good ideas as to how my rep can sound, and techniques as to how I sing my rep. I felt really good about my lesson this week, I feel like I made a couple small breakthroughs in said lesson. We talked about how my upper range was good but I needed to focus on putting more wight into my lower range to sound more like a bass, and how you have to sing the two parts of the range differently to get the same sound for both. And we also talked about and went over using the tongue to adjust vowel sounds and some articulation instead of just using my lips. So now that I have a good idea about how that works I have something I can really focus on during my practice time this next week.

Week 8 - The Aftermath of the Storm

This week was not very good when it comes to practice, I was still getting over the sickness that I got from home over break. And to go along with that we had tour this week so I was doing my best to save my voice for tour instead of doing extensive damage by practicing too much. But by the end of the week I was starting to feel better. Now I just have to brace myself for the musical next week.

Week 7 - There's a Storm a Coming. This Can't Be Good.

Home sweet home.......NOT! More like home sweet sickness and disease. I got to come home on break to a house full of sick people, and ended up getting sick myself in a matter of a day or two. So this week consisted of listening to my music while I wasn't at work.

Week 6 - I Think I Can See My House From Here..... Nevermind, Thats a Rock

Another good week of practice for me, I have been making a lot of improvements in the last few weeks and I am overall feeling good about my rep. In this weeks lesson we worked on my German song more in depth and I now have a better idea of how the diction works in it.Now its time for me to really start focusing on the memorization of my songs.

Week 5 - Insert Personal Mountain Climb Reference Here

This week felt really good over all. My songs really feel like they are coming along, along with practice and rehearsals with Phil (who is awesome might I add). In this weeks lesson we went through the second half of my aria and glanced at the words for my German song very briefly.

Week 4- This is Tiring.... I Knew I Should Have Brought Cookies

I wasn't able to get in as much practice as I would have liked to, but the practice that I did get in I thought went really well, and i felt like I was able to make some good stride in a couple of my pieces. Rehearsals with Phil have been going really good too. I have been feeling really good about this semester.

Week 3- Deep Breaths, This Is Going to Take Some Work

Practice has been going okay at this point. The first half of my aria is starting to come along pretty good. Some good strides in my basic notes, and still some work to do in terms of diction. But over all my rep is all coming along really well.

Week 2- Staring Up at the Penultimate Climb

This week I got the rest of my songs for the semester including my second English piece Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind and my aria for the semester Non piu andrai. Practice is going good, there has been a lot of work with my diction, pronunciation, and rhythm. Main parts of the songs are coming along though.

Week 1- New Begginings

To start out this semester we chose About half of my songs for this semester. These songs being Nocturne my French song, Linden Lea my first English piece, Che fiero costume my Italian song, and my German song Intermezzo. Practice for this week went well, I got my songs towards the end of the week so I didn't have time for a whole lot of practice, but either way I am feeling really good about this semester.