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A recording of my singing teacher and I coming up with harmonies for 'Roses and Wine'

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University of Surrey-Stag Hill Campus 25

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University of Surrey-Stag Hill Campus 25

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A snapshot of me performing 'Creep' by Radiohead

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Across the semester, I decided to opt towards exploring my chest voice range with more powerful vocal timbres however I wanted to focus on a softer head voice timbre this time round. For this reason I decided to perform ‘Roses and Wine’ by Alani. Working with my singing teacher Jedd-Owen Ellis Clark, there were various different vocal exercises that I was required to do. One example of this was sliding up to a top note of G#5 to go from a louder sound to a much more quieter sound which greatly aided my vocal control. As well as this, I decided to sing this first verse an octave higher in a head-voice register, to provide a sense of contrast and also because I felt it would develop this lullaby-like feel to the song. As well as this there are moments within the song where there are various pauses that she takes as moments of contemplation. One example of this is when she takes a pause after the line ‘Then ran out of time’, illustrating the singers frustration towards her partner for not putting in enough effort into the relationship.

The arrangement aspect of the song was quite a prominent part of the creative process. One part I found particularly difficult to arrange harmonies for was the backing vocals for the line ‘Then stay with me till the bitter end’ due to the unconventional chord progression that was utilised within this song. In order to come up with these harmonies Jedd and I went through the song section by section and decided on lower and higher harmonies together.  Within this song the pre chorus goes from Eb to F and then to a Db7 chord. I then decided to organise a few rehearsals with my two backing vocalists Sarah Nelson and Alice Lane to help distinguish and arrange these harmonies to suit the vocal range of the performers.

On the 19th March 2023, the University of Surrey held their third annual edition of the Univision song contest. Inspired by Eurovision Song Contest, the competition consisted of various universities across the UK competing head to head to become the Univision champions. Working in the same way as the Eurovision song contest, the competition consisted of a two stage voting system, where the first stage consisting of an audience vote and the second stage consisting of a jury vote. The competition itself consisted of acts of varying different genres from pop to hip-hop.

Representing the University of Surrey was third year undergraduate music student Scarlett Furness, with her original track ‘I don’t want to hold my tongue’ centred around the nostalgia around being driven home at night. Utilising a stripped back acoustic arrangement with acoustic guitar, the song consists of various different vocal harmonies on the pre chorus section of the song, particularly on the words ‘you’ and with the vocal adlibs on ‘ah’ which are sung up an octave and in three part harmony on a recorded track. What was particularly striking about the song was the fact that after the line ‘Don’t want to play the blame game you’ the pre-recorded backing track consists of the singer yelling the word ‘you’, representing the singers subconscious thoughts. In addition to this, there were many different places within the arrangement such as within the start of the second verse where the track builds up in texture with a varied strumming pattern and bass line. Another aspect of Scarlett’s performance that I noticed was the fact that she tends to look inwards from the audience perspective which brings the audience in to the performance. This is something that I aimed to do within a lot of my own performances this semester such as the lunchtime recitals because before there was a sense of self consciousness when I was on stage previously.

The lunchtime recital on 8th March featured a diverse set-list ranging from classical repertoire to jazz and popular repertoire. One particular performance that struck me was Alice Lane’s performance of the popular jazz standard ‘Trying Times’ by Roberta Flack. Utilising a jazz band arrangement consisting of cello, piano and bass, the piece began with a short vamp, during which Alice introduced each member of the band. This is an aspect of the performance that particularly struck me as this is the first time I had seen this being done before. I particularly find the introduction of pieces much more daunting than the performance of the actual piece itself, due to the fact that introductions for pieces create the audience’s first impression of yourself as a performer. As well as this, within a singing performance I tend to completely immerse myself in the music, which I feel like I cannot do as easily when it comes to introducing people.  Upon speaking to Alice after the performance, she mentioned that the vamp over the introduction made her feel much more comfortable speaking to the audience and it almost let the audience in to her world on stage.

Another aspect of Alice’s performance that particularly struck me was the way she uses her vocal timbre for articulation and contrast. One example of this is where she changes her vocal timbre from ‘whisper-singing’ in the bridge section of the song where she repeats the words ‘Can’t break free’ and the instrumentation is also brought right down, before then breaking into a climax at the chorus with a powerful belt and full band accompaniment. The whisper timbre that Alice utilised further emphasised the singers subconscious thoughts that they quite literally cannot break free from.  This provided a wonderful sense of contrast which also provided a wonderful storytelling aspect of the song that I wanted to incorporate more of into my own performances in order to develop my own interpretations of the songs that I sing. This storytelling aspect is something that I decided to incorporate when I performed Sara Ramirez’ version of ‘The Story’. This begins with a piano accompaniment within the start of the first verse before breaking into the full band accompaniment. In terms of how I approached this, I decided to sing this in more of a head voice register and then when it came to the second verse of the song, I decided to sing chest voice.

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A video snippet of our band performing 'Kiss' by Scary Pockets. Loved performing this :)

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Over the course of this year, I have been fortunate enough to have taken part in a band with a few of my course-mates. Over the semester we have had the opportunity to take part in various different performance opportunities such as lunchtime recitals and performance assessments. Formed within the first semester this year, there has been quite an expansion in terms of the different types of repertoire performed, with more of an emphasis on experimenting with funk and soul genres.

Our band had the amazing opportunity to take part in Matt Sutton’s individual project performance. Held on 3rd May, this involved us playing an eclectic and well-renowned medley of songs from the 80s with famous hits such as Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’. Prior to this, we were lucky enough to have taken part in an exciting band coaching session with bassist and senior lecturer from Southampton Solent University, Pete Wilson. Within this coaching session, we received feedback on how we could connect better as a band. There was one situation where we were performing ‘Purple Rain’ and I forgot the lyrics in the first verse. This usually does not happen during live performances and I started to panic. During the feedback session however I was told to just carry on and that the band would be able to pick up from where I left off. This was beneficial for me as I learnt the importance of carrying on and entrusting the musicians I play with that we will efficiently coordinate when errors occur in live performance.This taught me how to be adaptable to changing performance situations, which is particularly important for performing in ensembles. Moving forward this is something that I will consider for any live performances that I do in the future.

In addition to this, our band received feedback on how we integrate as an ensemble and ensuring we are playing in such a way that we do not overpower the other musicians.This is something that I have been mindful of moving forward.

I am generally not accustomed to singing these genres as I tend to gravitate more towards pop ballads, so I had to adapt my singing style to incorporate different vocal techniques such as vocal ad-libbing to adhere to these new styles. There are many different instances of this, however one particular example of this is when we performed a Scary Pockets version of ‘Kiss’ by Prince for Matt’s dissertation performance. Formed in 2017, Scary Pockets are an R&B inspired band, bringing on a roster of musicians every week to perform covers of popular songs. I found this cover particularly challenging to perform due to the fact that it was already very stylised, utilising a sparse arrangement of electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. The cover itself deviates significantly from the original song, an example being that in the original chorus, the line ‘I just want your extra time for your’ is followed by a kissing sound, which is excluded in the Scary Pockets version. In particular, there were many challenging vocal riffs in this cover such as in the second verse when the lead singer utilises a glissando on the word ‘your’ which is a beat early and incorporates distortion which rises from a G5-A5 followed by a run on the word ‘kiss’. This was a feature of the original cover that was outside of my vocal range. In order to derive my own interpretation of the piece I decided to alter this slightly by lowering this to an E5 followed by a run on the word ‘Kiss’. I also had to consider how my alterations integrated with the band, as I wanted to make sure that the variations on the vocal melody were not overpowering the band in any way.

In this performance, we also performed a cover of the renowned rock classic ‘Purple Rain’ by Prince. This song was particularly difficult to cover due to the fact that much of the song is sung at a free tempo in the third verse of the song with the line ‘Honey I know, I know I know times are changing’ and I wanted to make sure that I was not singing that line too slowly so that the band could still come in at the same point .This was a recurring issue during rehearsals and in order to combat this, I decided to listen to that particular section of the song repeatedly so that I knew the point at which I was able to come in, but as a fallback plan there were also hi-hat hits that the drummer incorporated within the song so that the band could come in on the word ‘Changing’.

Over the course of the semester, as a band we have tried to develop unique approaches in order to see how effectively we cope when things do not go to plan. One example of this is when, in the penultimate rehearsal before a performance we would have a ‘sabotage’ run through of the different pieces. This is where the drummer of our group would test us by intentionally making mistakes such as omitting certain fills to see how the rest of the band would cope. This would test us on our oral musicianship skills by testing how well we knew the pieces but also tested us on our adaptability to a changing performance scenario and almost emulate a real life recital or performance scenario on stage.

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Performance 3B Classical Recital programme

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Performance 3B Classical Recital programme

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Concert Management- Classical 3B performance recital

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Concert Management- Classical 3B performance recital

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I coordinated the classical performance 3B recital on the 31st May 2023. Since the programme itself consisted of classical repertoire, there was not much equipment required for this concert.

My role as a concert coordinator was heavily centred around email communication prior to the recital. This included contacting the concert management team to coordinate logistics regarding setting up on the day. However unfortunately both the manager and assistant were unresponsive to my email correspondence, which therefore meant that my role had expanded to include responsibilities of both the manager and the assistant.

Prior to the recital, my role as a coordinator was to work with the events coordinator to liaise with all of the performers and request information on their assessment pieces for the recital programme. This was a relatively straightforward process and most of the performers were able to provide this information in sufficient time. However due to unforeseen circumstances, one of the performers was unable to attend both their technical rehearsal and their recital slot. Although this did result in a gap within the tech schedule, this proved to be beneficial as it allowed for more buffer time in rehearsal. This was particularly  important due to the fact that there was a large list of people performing and it was essential to ensure that every performer gets sufficient time to rehearse their pieces before the recital. As well as this, due to the fact that there was a bank holiday the week before the concert I didn’t receive any information on the Tonmeisters that were scheduled to record the recital until the day before. An unforeseen situation occurred where the Duty Tonmeister originally scheduled for this recital had swapped with two other Tonmeisters and went on to explain that they were unable to arrive early at studio 1 to get the equipment required  until 9am which was the start of the first rehearsal in the tech schedule. For this reason I made the decision to postpone the tech schedules to start a little later than planned. However I decided to stick to the original time due to the fact that I was aware that there was quite a long list of performers and I wanted to ensure that the technical rehearsals do not run into the recital time. By doing this it meant that I was able to be adaptable and furthermore make quick decisions in the interest of the performers.

On the actual day of the performance my roles and responsibilities included setting up the piano in the correct position. In addition to this I learnt about the importance of the piano lid being lifted at full stick for more resonance for the solo piano pieces, which required a great attention to detail. This is done by raising the lid of the piano and ensuring that the stick is placed in the second slot from the top and ensuring that the stick is perpendicular to the lid of the piano. From this point onwards the timings of the tech rehearsals mainly adhered to the original schedule, although there were some points at which the tech rehearsal timings had to be altered due to personal circumstances of the performers.

In order to facilitate a smoother organisation of the recital and ensure that the recital doesn't run over, I took the initiative to ask the performers about any specific requirements they have for stage set up during the tech rehearsal, including whether they would like the piano lid to be raised at half stick or at full stick. I then wrote down these requirements on a spare copy of the programme and worked with Shiv Varma to help set up the stage in between these transitions. Additionally, I was also responsible for giving the photocopies of the assessment pieces to the two examiners  at the start.

As previously mentioned, one of the performers dropped out at the last minute. This was a problem due to the fact that that it would create a gap in the middle of the programme. In order to combat this, I contacted one of the last performers in the set to ask if they can fill that slot, because if they had filled that slot it would just mean that the recital would finish earlier than planned. However upon contacting the performer they mentioned that they preferred to stick to their original performance slot. Although this slot wasn’t filled, in hindsight this worked in favour  because this empty slot turned into a 20 minute break, which I explained to the examiners. This illustrates my adaptability to changing situations and ability to make decisions under pressure.