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I concert coordinated a Piano Duo concert performed by renowned Jazz musician David Newton and Scottish pianist Euan Stevenson. The event was organised by Guildford Jazz, a local communal not-for-profit Jazz organisation.

My main duties as concert coordinator included laying out and arranging chairs for the audience, attaching flyers of Guildford Jazz’s upcoming events to the chairs, overlooking the Tonmeisters and Concert Manager’s duties of setting up soundcheck for the pianists, as well as making sure the venue was ready for the performance.

During the soundcheck, the Concert Manager, Ben, was experimenting with different lighting options for the performance which the pianists and the Guildford Jazz team had to decide upon. They also asked for my opinion and eventually decided upon a soft lighting choice over bold red and blue lighting as the softer lighting matched the playful Jazz ragtime tone of the pieces. Prior to this concert, I had not considered lighting to play a big role in evoking a performance’s tone, but will now keep this in mind for my own performances.

I had the opportunity to network with the team at Guildford Jazz when setting up the concert and learned of upcoming events they were hosting and an opening for a student ambassador role within their team. I also aided the team in selling raffle tickets to the audience during the intermission, interacting with the audience and asking if they were enjoying the show.

As there were not many Concert Coordinator duties to complete during the actual performance, I was invited to sit in and watch the performance which was very beneficial for my own performance practice. I noticed the pianists were conveying the cheeky, playful tone of the repertoire through their body language, often smiling to each other throughout the performance and swaying along to the rhythm. There was a moment when one of the pianists played an incorrect note, but took this opportunity to improvise. This is a technique I’ve come across in my wider reading when making a mistake during a live performance – “I have learned to see mistakes as an opportunity to challenge my creativity, whether it’s making up lyrics, adding extra notes if I have gone flat, or scatting for a few bars” (Singdaptive), which I hope to implement in my future performances.

Singdaptive. So, You Made A Singing Mistake… Available at: https://blog.singdaptive.com/so-you-made-a-singing-mistake/ (Accessed 4 January 2023)

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This semester I joined the recently ratified society, Surrey Voices Choir led by my BMus music peers Scarlett Furness and Kat Welch. The choir is split into three-four part harmony, performing Pop/Indie tracks such as 'When The Party’s Over' by Billie Eilish, tracks by Norwegian musician AURORA, and original songs.

We typically start practice with simple vocal exercises such as ‘1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8’ to relax the body and warm up the voice led by Kat, which I have started implementing in my own vocal warm up routine. Kat’s voice has a natural lower range, which is a register I have struggled developing within my own voice, so Kat shared an exercise to access this lower register which includes dropping the jaw to lower the larynx. After utilising this vocal exercise in my performance practice, I have improved the tone of my lower register in my voice.

Within the choir, I sing soprano along with three other people, or high soprano with one other person when the soprano line is divided into two voices in certain songs. As we are a small choir consisting of fourteen people, it can be obvious to an audience when one person sings off pitch, so I’ve found that the challenge of staying on pitch among different voices has greatly aided my pitch accuracy within my own performance practice. Similarly, it can be challenging to maintain a good sense of rhythm when singing within a choir as there are times when I or other members of the choir will sing a particular line early or late. This also happens when I perform with multiple accompanists in my own performances, so I’ve found that performing with the choir has helped me stay on rhythm which has improved my practice with accompanists.

After numerous choir rehearsals we decided to enter Live From Surrey!, which would be the choir’s first live performance. We planned on performing ‘When The Party’s Over’ and an original song composed by Scarlett’s friend, titled ‘April’. We first we had to create an audition video to enter (a clip is shown of above). In the extended video, we made some pitch errors in ‘When The Party’s Over’ as the original vocal range is very wide spanning between E3-E5, so certain voices had difficult sudden jumps in the melody. However, we tackled this problem by practicing each voice individually until each part was confident in their respective melodies, which I’ve found to be a useful process in my own performance practices when singing with backing vocalists.

During the final live performance, Scarlett accompanied the choir with piano and guitar, and started us off with the wrong lyrics when we performed ‘April’. We couldn’t make it seem that these lyrics were intentional, so we seemingly joked about it to the audience which made them feel included. This also helped create a relaxed environment within the group and as a result the audience was more supportive.

Overall, we stayed on pitch throughout the entire performance, projecting a powerful sound. There were times when I or other members of the choir sang the wrong lyrics particularly during ‘April’, but I made the mistake of letting the audience know I sang the wrong lyrics by my facial expressions, similarly to what I mentioned in my reflective statement, which I will improve on in the future.

After watching the performance back, I realised I did not smile or show any emotion throughout the performance as I quite nervous, disconnecting myself from the audience. Jedd always tells me showing emotion in your face during a performance is essential and is something I have also learned from my wider reading – “Blank faces are boring. Harness the emotion of the song and show it on your face” (OpenMic, 2021), something I plan to implement in future performances.

OpenMic (2021) How To Have A Good Stage Presence As A Singer. Available at: https://www.openmicuk.co.uk/advice/how-to-have-a-good-stage-presence-as-a-singer/ (Accessed 4 January 2023)

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I attended a Lunchtime Recital that took place within the University’s Department of Music and Media on 16th November 2022 where three Classical musicians performed a variety of pieces. The performers included Seth Lyons on Classical Guitar, Ben Webster on Saxophone accompanied by Tom Armstrong on Piano, and Thomas Risley on Piano. Seth’s performance in particular informed my performance practice and made me aware of a mistake that I often make during performances. Seth performed a six-movement classical guitar concerto for which an intricate plucking style was an essential technique to perform this rhythmically challenging piece (Fig. 1). Despite Seth delivering a fantastic performance where she successfully achieved an emotive sense of storytelling, during the second movement the audience was made aware that Seth played an incorrect note which disrupted a particular riff. She made a nervous smile, and it was clear from her facial expressions that she was starting to panic, which highlighted the error to the audience. However, she overcame this by successfully re-attempting the riff, carrying out an expressive performance throughout the rest of the piece. During a peer-review of the recital, Seth noted that the reason for this error was because she was nervously anticipating the difficult riff, and the real mistake she had made was informing the audience of the incorrect note by her facial expressions instead of keeping calm which would have made the error seem like it was part of the piece. This was proved when Seth revealed that she also played an incorrect note during the fifth movement, but the audience did not notice as she didn’t reveal it through her body language. I realised that “most of the audience won’t even realise there’s a problem as long as you don’t freak out” (Connolly Music, 2017) as audiences will not likely be familiar with the repertoire, and so will not be aware of any incorrect notes if you don’t translate that through body language.

This habit is something I often commit in my own performances and rehearsals as I start to panic when I make a mistake such as singing a note that is slightly off-pitch, forgetting lyrics or when my voice flips when switching between different vocal registers. Particularly in rehearsals, my facial expressions expose these mistakes and I often interrupt a practice mid-song which I realised has negative effects as this disrupts the sense of storytelling that needs to be conveyed when performing and also effects my accompaniments’ performances. I often stop practices mid-song when I make a mistake as a result of an unrealistic expectation of wanting to sing a song perfectly all the way through and worrying about what the audience thinks of me, as well as nervously anticipating upcoming high notes, difficult riffs and runs instead of focusing on the meaning behind the song I’m performing and conveying that message to the audience. Realising that the “process of trial and error and learning from mistakes is artistry” (Bolton, 2010) is something my singing teacher Jedd and I have been working on this term. The first step I took was to make sure I practice a song all the way through regardless of whether I make a mistake or not, and ensuring I concentrate on the meaning behind the lyrics I’m singing rather than upcoming vocal challenges within the song. So far, this has helped my performance practice especially with a song I’m performing for the January recital that has many difficult vocal passages – ‘Leave Me Lonely’ by Ariana Grande. After singing the song the whole way through during a rehearsal, I thought there were passages where I didn’t project a powerful sound and sounded weak, but I ensured my body language did not express this disdain. To my surprise Jedd mentioned a lot of these moments sounded great and had the right amount of power. From this I have learned that it’s “important to remember how much worse everything seems when you’re the one on stage” (Singdaptive), so there are often times where I feel I have made a mistake, but they may sound great to an audience. When there are vocal passages within songs that didn’t sound its best and could be improved, I make sure I practice the song more to lower the chance of that error occurring during a live performance. By focusing on the meaning behind the lyrics I’m singing, I’ve found that I “convey the message of a song… [and] struggle much less with worrying about what people think” (Singdaptive). I implemented this in a Lunchtime Recital where I performed 'When We Were Young by Adele', for which I received positive feedback that I had a good sense of storytelling.

When I performed at this Lunchtime Recital, I felt quite awkward in regards to my stage presence. I walked out quite quickly from the green room, and when the song started, I didn’t know whether I should hold the microphone stand or keep my hands by my side. I also kept walking away and towards the microphone which affected the sound and may have distracted the audience. At the end of the performance, I was uncertain about whether I should bow or not, and instead I kept looking at my accompanist Robin to wait until we both walked towards the green room. Due to my nerves during live performances, I have always struggled with stage presence and often feel I am quite awkward on stage, so I wanted to focus on improving my stage presence this year particularly after this lunchtime recital and after attending Live From Surrey!

Live From Surrey! took place on 4th December 2022 at University Hall and featured a vast array of live bands and solo acts. I was inspired by Phil Chev’s performance, specifically by his stage presence. The first song he performed, 'Easy', was in an uptempo Jazz style which is quite different than my usual acoustic intimate song choices. Despite the genre differences, I noticed Phil took small steps to deliver a prominent stage presence such as making eye contact with the audience, breaking away at times and closing his eyes to connect emotionally to the song. In Fig. 2 when Phil performed 'Fields' (which is more akin to the styles I typically perform), Phil did not do much in terms of movement, but did sway along to the rhythm at times which generated a connection to the song.

These steps that Phil carried out to evoke a strong stage presence were similar to the feedback I received from Jedd after I performed at the Lunchtime Recital which was that sometimes the best stage presence can be to stand still and not execute much movement. This was supported by my wider reading where I learned “Several moments of complete stillness and/or silence, contrasting sound and action, is one of the most effective tactics you can employ to hold your audience’s attention” (OpenMic, 2021). By achieving this, the audience is not distracted by constant movement and are able to emotionally connect to the performance, which is essential to the more personal, storytelling acoustic genres I usually perform. So far by applying these changes in my rehearsals, I’m able to focus more on the lyrics I’m singing, conveying a stronger sense of storytelling and have received positive feedback on my stage presence.

During this semester, I have worked on switching between different vocal registers more seamlessly and have discovered I have more control within my voice to achieve this compared to previous years, so I’m able to decide upon projecting a stronger or softer sound depending on the timbre of the song I’m performing. Singing exercises set by Jedd have helped attain this control, as well as some exercises recommended to me by my accompanist Robin Bailey who often performs in Musical Theatre productions. Robin informed me of an exercise that evokes nasality within the voice and focuses on strengthening the core to accomplish breath support, which has vastly improved my vocal control, particularly over my mix register.

I felt encouraged to experiment between different vocal sounds after watching Electric Dreams at Live From Surrey! The lead singer, Teerna sang powerfully, but there were also certain moments when she projected a softer sound when she wanted to, such as in ‘Runaway Baby’. This helped inform my practice of ‘Bad Dreams’, a song I will be performing during the January Recital. The original singer, Faouzia utilises a powerful vocal belt during the chorus; however when I first rehearsed the song with Jedd, I asked him if I should use this powerful belt or implement a softer mix register instead. Jedd thought it would be helpful to trial the two sounds and see which one sounded more suitable for the song, as shown in Fig. 3. We ultimately decided on the powerful belt as it matches the intensity of the piano, but it was interesting that I’m now at a stage where I’m able to experiment between different sounds. I still hope to gain more control over my voice to experiment with different styles by continuing with the exercises I have learnt.

Bibliography

Bolton, G. (2010) Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development. 3rd edn. London: Sage.

Connolly Music (2017) How To Recover From A Mistake While Performing. Available at: https://www.connollymusic.com/stringovation/how-to-recover-from-a-mistake-while-performing (Accessed 5 January 2023)

Singdaptive. So, You Made A Singing Mistake… Available at: https://blog.singdaptive.com/so-you-made-a-singing-mistake/ (Accessed 4 January 2023)

OpenMic (2021) How To Have A Good Stage Presence As A Singer. Available at: https://www.openmicuk.co.uk/advice/how-to-have-a-good-stage-presence-as-a-singer/ (Accessed 4 January 2023)