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