ArtsEd Workshop

On Thursday we had a workshop with ArtsEd, we didn't do a lot of practical but I enjoyed what we did. We started with the usual artsed warm up "hey my name is joe..." I really love that warm up, because it's so fun I think it gives you a lot of energy. Afterwards we walked around the room and started creating a character from a different walk. What I found especially interesting about that exercise is when we make the character talk. When we just walk around, I personally, started to think about what that person was like, what they'd eat, think, do, etc. but then when we started making them talk I discovered a whole new side of them, I didn't think about what their voice would sound like, what they'd say, how they'd say it, it just came out naturally and it fitted the character but also made them brand new which was really interesting.

Afterwards we watched artsed promo DVD and had a chat with the head of acting. ArtsEd sounds like a really great place and I'd love to go there. I think it something that suits me way more than East 15 for example, I have no doubt East 15 is a great place to be but I think isn't for me.

Mock Audition

On Friday we had our mock audition.
I thought the process was great, it was really what I expected, it was professional, the MD, director and dancer where really really nice and gave really good feedbacks. However I was really not happy with what I've done.

The dancing was better than I thought it'd be and I learnt a lot from it, this is what I was most pleased with surprisingly. She told us how she wasn't a dancer before and that it was all about acting through it and pretending you were doing great. I am definitely not there yet because I find it really hard to pretend everything's going right when all's going wrong but by the end of the session I managed to be more relaxed, have facial expressions and go for it which was a big step for me in dance.
The feedbacks I got for it was I needed to relax and stop stressing.

The singing feedbacks I got were not as bad as I thought they'd be but I still wasn't really pleased. I was told to go for it more and stop worrying so much about the notes. Vocally I was kind of ill so obviously it didn't help me being confident, What happened in the acting is that it was a song I can really relate to, and I started feeling like it was getting too "real" and to "me bringing my personal life into an audition" and switched to fake mode, which obviously wasn't the smartest decision.

The feedback I got for acting matched what I thought. I need to prepare more, know every detail of the play and characters. I also need to connect more with the character and not copy what I've done previously even though I felt connected before.

Laban Movement

Today we worked on our monologues with Laban's movement. I really found it useful as it showed my a lot of different ways to say the monologues, different though process, etc.

Name	Wight	Space	Time
Punch	Heavy	Direct	Quick
Press	Heavy	Direct	Slow
Slash	Heavy	Indirect	Quick
Wring	Heavy	Indirect	Slow
Dab	Light	Direct	Quick
Glide	Light	Direct	Slow
Flick	Light	Indirect	Quick
Float	Light	Indirect	Slow

Voice Class - Structure

Voice Class Structure

I decided to divide my warm up with 3 major sections: breathing, opening up/resonance and articulation. 

I started with the breathing as I thought it was the most basic and that you can't really get anything done without it, I then continue with the longest section: opening up the voice and resonance which is all about warming up the voice specifically and helps you connecting with your technique. The last section is the articulation, I decided to do it last as it is the most "technical" and requires to be warmed up to do it efficiently. I tried to follow a "big to small" structure throughout the warm up. The potential 4th section (up to how much time there is left) will be a game the whole class knows from last year which involves the whole body as well as the voice.

Breathing

In this section, I start with a simple and very basic breathing exercise to connect and focus on the breathing, this exercise is followed by a similar one which extends the breath a bit more and requires more effort and focus. After this, I introduced the voice in the exercises to start connecting it with the breath. The last exercise of this section is also an introduction to the following one (opening up/resonance) as it requires a strong involvement from the abdominals.

Opening Up/Resonance

I start this section with a gentle sound (mouth closed) on a note people feel comfortable with and gentle taps on the body, which helps them relax and start to open up and feel where, when and how their voice resonate. This is followed by a series of various lip rolls going from basic ones to more advanced ones, some of them are specifically for the range, others are more for placement and technique.

Articulation

This section starts with a mouth warm up followed my a tongue warm up (tip and back separately). 

This is followed by a few tongue twisters

Voice Class - 3rd Section

Articulation - 5 minutes

30 Seconds

Mouth Warm Up - move around the jaw, tongue, tip on the tongue, lips, etc. whole mouth. Don't forget to use your breathing throughout

15 Seconds

Tip Of the Tongue Warm Up I - t-t-t-t-t-t 

15 Seconds

Tip Of the Tongue Warm Up II - d-d-d-d-d-d

30 Seconds

Tongue Warm up I - yayaya without moving the jaw and then while moving the jaw

30 seconds

Tongue Warm up II - gagaga without moving the jaw (two fingers space between lips, tongue against back of teeth)

Up To The End

Tongue Twister I - Two tiny tigers take two taxis to town

Tongue Twister II - good blood, bad blood

Tongue Twister III - Gobbling gorgoyles gobbled gobbling goblins

Voice Class - 2nd Section

Opening up/Resonance - 10 minutes

45 seconds 
Tap on mmh - mmh on any note and gently give yourself some taps (all over the body)

45 seconds 
Tap on ah - same thing on ah. change notes whenever

1 minute
Low to high Sirens Lip Roll I - Siren on a lip roll from low to high. Start with shoulders up and drop while going on high notes.

lip rolls - lip rolls engage the diaphragm, reduces throat tension, strengthens upper register and reduces vocal fatigue, it is ideal to use it in a warm up

sirens - sirens help you warming up all your range, it stretches your vocal chords. It also helps you connecting with your technique.

Shoulders drop - dropping the shoulders while going on the highest notes will help you not to be tensed and therefore give you a better warm up and technique

1 minute
Low to high Siren Lip Roll II - Siren on a lip roll from low to high. Drop the knees while going on high notes.

Knees drop - just like the shoulders, this will help you not tensing up your body

1 minute 30
Full Siren Lip Roll I - do a siren on a lip roll. From low to high and back down

1 minute
Full Siren Lip Roll II - do a siren on a lip roll. Once you reached your highest note, try and make it bounce here, then before going down, try making a higher note. Don't force it

Bounces - I've never seen/heard this exercise done by professionals, but to me, it has really helped me extending my range. Like the throat pulse exercise, it makes you realise how much further you can go.

45 Seconds
Siren on n - sirens on a n, nasalised

The n sound - place resonance in the nose is really useful, it helps especially with the high notes. Warming it up is important so it doesn't sound too nasal.

30 seconds
Siren yawn on ah - yawn on ah on a sirene

Yawn - the yawn will help you dropping and relaxing your jaw as well as giving a right placement to the sound and keeping the larynx down (so singing with the abdominals and not with the throat)


Exercises: 7.15 minutes
Explanation: 3 minutes
Total: 10.15 minutes

Voice Class - 1st Section

Section 1 - 5 Minutes: Breathing

30 seconds

Breathing - Breathe in for x hold for x and out on x

1 minute 30
Throat pulse - Breathe in as much as possible, breathe out, and when you feel out of breath do pulses with your throat

Throat pulse - This exercise helps extending our breath, and using it fully. Often, we start feeling out of breath and just take another breath, sometimes in an inappropriate moment, this helps us realising how much capacity we still have after that moment when we start feeling out of breath.

1 minute
Counting - Lie down on the floor, breathe in, hold, and count till your out of breath while releasing the air with a clear diction (beat will be given)

Clear diction - this will help with connecting different techniques together (breathing, diction)

1 minute
Ah! - Lie down on the floor, breathe in as much as as possible, hold for x and let the air go on a quick "ah" as loud as possible

Lying down - doing exercises lying down helps exploring different areas of your body that can be filled with air, it also helps breathing correctly, without rising the shoulders.

Exercises: 4 Minutes
Explanation: 1 minute
Total: 5 minutes

Healthy Voice

Maintaining A Healthy Voice

Task 2 - Maintain a healthy voice

Alimentation and Hydration:

What drinks - It is important for your voice to be hydrated, water is obviously the best thing to drink, it can be cold but also hot, mixed with honey which will help warming up your voice. Other than water, fruit juices are excellent for the voice especially pineapple juice as it contains a natural anti-inflammatory which will help soothing the voice. It will also moisten and hydrate your moth and oesophagus. Shortly, it will make your voice sound clearer. Note however that for a full effect, you must drink it around two hours before the show. Decaffeinated tea is also commonly drunk 

What food - eating healthy is the key thing. But some particular foods will help soothing your voice such as chicken, fish, almonds, rice, eggs and yellow vegetables.

What to avoid - dairy products, they produce phlegm and make it harder for you to sing high notes. Anything that dries your throat or irritates it such as alcohol, lemon, coffee, tea, spicy food, etc. Fried food, so any kind of fast food which will make your throat feel sticky, especially if you drink anything cold afterwards. Sodas are also to be avoided, they will put a lot of unwanted air in your stomach. Finally, anything ice cold is to be avoided as it will tighten your throat and make it a nightmare for you to sing at your potential. 

When? - it is important not to eat just before a show, having a full stomach makes it hard for the diaphragm do its job with your breath. However, it is also important to have energy to get through the show. A normal meal would be eaten from one to two hours prior your show, two hours being the best time. However, if you need to eat sooner to the show, it is recommended to eat easy to digest food such as eggs.

Bad Habits That Will Affect Your Voice:

While some habits are well known for being bad (smoking for example), others can be a surprise to some people.

Rest your voice - your voice needs a few "naps" during the day, especially if you are using it a lot (show or teaching). Over used vocal chords will get irritated and using a tired voice will result in a bad performance/higher risk of infection.

Sleeping - Sleep is important to maintain a healthy voice, a lack of sleep will result in a stressed voice and a stressed voice will be more likely to get injured, your voice is a muscle and works like any other muscle. Try to aim for 8 hours of sleep per night. Make sure you don't fall asleep with a fan blowing on you, this will dry your voice.

Use of the Voice During the Day - do not scream or stress your vocal chords, again, this will irritate your throat. Avoid noisy places as much as possible, if you can't use a proper amplification technique instead of just screaming to be heard.

Clearing your throat - Clearing your throat is really bad for your vocal chords. What happens when you do it is they slam together and then are pushed apart and slammed again, etc. Eventually, clearing your throat can result in nodules. (explained in the "smoking" paragraph). When you feel the need to clear your throat, try to take a sip of water or swallow your saliva. This will make you feel the same way and will not damage your vocal chords.

Smoking - This is an obvious one. Smoking provokes a lot of damage to your body, and your voice. People who tend to smoke a lot will develop vocal nodules (small swollen spots on both of your vocal chords), this will not only be painful but with the time affect more and more your vocal chords and damage your voice. At times, they might even stop you from talking at all, some nodules (large ones) can only be removed thanks to surgery. Smoking will also decrease your vocal range and dry your vocal chords, making them swollen and irritated which will provoke mucus to build up, this means you will constantly feel the need to clear your throat. Not ideal. Finally, smoking also affects your breathing, and as actors or singers, breathing is obviously probably the most important part. Someone who smokes will finds its ability to take deep breaths highly decreased.

Task 1 - Voice production and association with vocal technique 

Use Correct Techniques 

This is why vocal technique is so important. If you follow every advice listed above but use a bad technique when you act or sing, it will result in the same problems.
Exercise regularly is also very helpful for your voice, it'll especially help with your breathing. I personally find exercising really helpful as it forces you to take deep breaths from the diaphragm and really engage your abdominals while releasing the air.

Voice Production

There are two essential elements needed for your voice to work: breathing and your vocal chords vibrating together. 

Breathing - when you take a breath in, your diaphragm does down until it is flat, to have more space for the air in your body.  When you exhale, your abdominal let the air out and the diagram expands again. Of course, to make a sound you need to use your vocal chords

Vocal chords - sound is created by the vibration of your vocal chords and is carried  (heard) thanks to the air coming out of your body. The more vibrations there are, the higher the pitch will be.

Therefore, voice production can only happen when the two elements are combined.

Vocal Technique 

Vocal technique will make it easier for you to sing/act but will also help you maintaining a healthy voice. Again, it is mostly related to the two elements I mentioned above. The air is probably the most important element of vocal technique as it controls everything else. 

Using a correct technique (engaging the abdominals) will help you maintaining healthy vocal chords. When you sing from the throat, your vocal chords will get irritated and hurt. It can get more dangerous if you continuously use a bad technique and provoke serious voice issues such as nodules. Taking enough air inside your body (using breathing correctly) will help you engaging your abdominals properly and therefore have a better sound and vocal health.

Everything is related when it comes about vocal health.

12/10/15 Audition Technique

Today in Audition technique class I performed my Shakespeare monologue from All's well that ends well. I was really happy because I had really constructive tips, I changed a few ideas behind the text and I feel like I've really improved on it since I last worked on it. I performed it with one of my classmate being my step mother. It really helps having someone, I felt like I could connect more. However I still lose a bit of connection towards the middle.
Targets: work on the bits where I lose connection with the text and being able to connect as well as when I'm talking to someone when no one's here

06/10/15 Vocal Technique

Yesterday in vocal class I felt like the group was much stronger than before. I really tried to do the exercises as well as I could. 

I think the one when we partnered up was very useful at the beginning but then I felt like my partner was just putting her hands somewhere on me for the sake of it. However when we did it without the partners, Ike put his hands on my shoulders and I realised it was tensed so I tried to relax but then I was tensing my chest to try to breathe in fully I think. I realised that when I think about doing the exercise I tense something, anything, whereas when I just focus on relaxing it's fine.

06/10/15 Extra Session

Today I worked on my audition song "not for the life of me" I felt a massive improvement towards the end, especially on the belted notes.

memo:
relax the jaw
smile for the belts
tongue forward
sound forward
stand still

I also felt more comfortable with the song and started playing with it a bit more and discovering what possibilities I had with it.
I need to go over it while applying all of the memos above to see how it's like now and keep improving.

Audio:

Whole Session - https://soundcloud.com/anne-munoz-1/not-for-the-life-of-me-session-17-minutes/s-qWNFN
30 seconds bit - https://soundcloud.com/anne-munoz-1/not-for-the-life-of-me-30-seconds

5/10/15 GEN MT

Today I felt like the cat was harder than last week, I think it's because I focused on my breathing a lot and gave more energy at the beginning.
I was breathing through the whole exercise, I noticed that around the 6th minute, I always have a sudden rush of energy, I'll try to use it for longer next time.

28/09/15 General MT

Last monday in our warm up we did the cat again. I found it easier than the previous times. I think it's too early for me to say if I find it effective/helpful but so far I understand it's purpose.
I think once I can do it properly without feeling like I'm gonna have a heart attack I'll be more focused on the breathing. So far I haven't really been focusing on that but I think I have been breathing regularly without holding my breath
Target: focus on my breathing/breathe consciously 

01/10/15 R&P

Today in our R&P class I sang Cabaret, from Cabaret. I think I forced too much on my voice in the ensemble class so my throat hurt quite a bit and I was uncomfortable so my technique vanished and it's been a bit of a nightmare. I found the yawning exercises very helpful cause it made me relax which helped me remembering the basics (tongue forward, larynx down, mouth open). I think because I knew my throat hurt I got scared and focused on that too much.
Target: don't think too much when I perform alone and try relaxing as much as possible

01/10/15 Ensemble

Today in our ensemble class we worked on freedom's child, I feel confident throughout most of the song except the oos as I find it hard to find the first note.
Like I think I push my tongue forward almost automatically now. All the time except when I'm feeling uncomfortable, because when I do all my technique disappears. But as we were all singing together I felt comfortable so my tongue position was good. When I noticed that I started focusing on opening my mouth which is far from being automatic at the moment.
Target: open my mouth as much as I can automatically.

28/09/15 Voice Class Research

Remember! this doesn't have to be focused on singing (voice for ACTORS)
20 minutes

Structure: 5 minutes to explain the exercises. 15 minutes left. 15/3=5.
Devide in 3 sections.
1. Breathing/Body warm up to prepare resonance
2. Opening up/Resonance/Articulation(?)
3. Game

massage throat.
sirenes (opening up) on rrrr to develop articulation
mmmh or aahhh + tap the body (resonance)

Game: Dominique's thing to help connecting the voice to the body and projection.

24/09/15 Sight Singing Theory

Quizz:

Q.1: Clefs
Q.2: didn't know the English/American names (STAVE!)
Q.3: in order from bottom to top: mi, sol, ti, re
Q.4: in order from bottom to top: fa, la, do, mi
Q.5: didn't know. (KEY SIGNATURE!)


I think I didn't remember the names because I felt comfortable in the lesson, I already know what we're learning at the moment so I got confident, too confident and I forgot to learn the English names. Because when I'm in the lesson I automatically translate to the french names in my head.

Target: learn the English vocabulary.

Vocabulary:

4/4: time sig
b/#: key sig
b: flat (bemolle), lower semitone
#: sharp (diese), higher semitone
Stave (portee)
Clefs: cles
Semi Breve: ronde
Minum: blanche
Crochet: noire
Quaver: croche
Semi quaver: demi croche

24/09/15 R&P

Today in our R&P class we brought the songs we had to prepare during the class. I had prepared Always True To You In My Fashion from Kiss Me Kate (Cole Porter)
I didn't perform it as we didn't have enough time but it was interesting to watch other people doing it. I think the feedback Nancy got could apply to me (fully open the mouth and connect with the song). I have never acted through a song, for some stupid reasons related to fear and I'm hoping to change this ASAP as obviously there is no way I'm getting into drama school if I don't properly act through the song.

Earlier during the week Ike and I worked on Always true to you. I felt like the belt notes got stuck in my throat. Ike told me it was due to my tongue's position and made me do a few exercises which was really helpful. I try to focus on my tongue all the time now and make sure it's forward, I find it really useful and can really feel the change.

We also worked on my Shakespeare monologue (Helena from All's Well That Ends Well Act 1 scene 3). I felt really disconnected from that monologue before. We have practiced it as a "duologue" where I had to convince the person I was talking to to give me a hug. I found it really effective and it helped me engaging and connecting with the monologue.

24/09/15 Ensemble

Today in our ensemble class we learnt a bit more of Freedom's Child from The Civil War (F. Wildhorn).
I'm singing the alto part and most of it is fine for me but we're supposed to sing the refrain an octave lower than the sopranos and that's really low for me, I feel like I can't make any sound come out even when I engage my abdominals, I sang it the octave higher the last few times and it felt more comfortable.
I tried to focus on my tongue's position most of the time and make sure it was forward and against the back of my teeth.

Blog & Posts Informations

Labels:

Monday - Warm Up/Team Building #GenMT

Monday - Audition Technique #AudTech

Tuesday - Practical Vocal Technique #VocalTech

Wednesday - Sight Singing Theory #SSTheory

Thursday - Ensemble #Ens

Thursday - Genre & Music Sourcing #P&R