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Fig. 3 - Jedd and Sarah practicing vocal exercises

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University of Surrey-Stag Hill Campus 5 copy

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University of Surrey-Stag Hill Campus 5 copy

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Fig. 2 - Chord progression of 'How many things'

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Fig. 1 - Recording of Jedd and Sarah discussing the chords for 'How many things'

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The focus of my performance practice this semester was to discover methods to overcome my performance anxiety which is defined as “a performer’s concern for, or fear of, the outcome of the performance” (Klickstein, 2009). This negative outcome is something I regularly become fearful of in my performances which was exacerbated by the transition from performing with no audience in performance videos in previous years to performing in front of live audiences again this year. This has awoken my stage fright and ultimately has hindered my stage presence in many ways as I’m afraid to move around the stage during performances, usually remaining glued to the microphone stand without being conscious that there are other ways to deliver adequate stage presence. I also forget to implement diaphragmatic breathing in my singing when my stage fright occurs which is an essential technique that singers must employ to effortlessly tackle difficult vocal passages. I discussed this issue with my vocal coach Jedd Owen-Ellis Clark to which he suggested participating in as many performance opportunities as possible to become more accustomed to performing in front of an audience. During this semester, I have performed in many lunchtime recitals including providing backing vocals for other students’ performances such as Teerna Mukhopadhyay’s Performance 3B set. In this set, Alice Lane (who was also providing backing vocals) and I were required to include performative aspects such as two-step dance movements that swayed alongside the beat of songs. Singing backing vocals has been an effective method in tackling my performance anxiety as I have felt that performing with other singers on stage has made me feel less awkward and introduced me to different performative methods that other singers employ which as a result has strengthened my stage presence.

I was particularly inspired by Scarlett Furness’s stage presence when she performed the original song ‘I Don’t Wanna Hold My Tongue’ at Univision 2023. Univision is a competition that is based on the Eurovision Song Contest in which one musical act from different universities compete against one another to claim the Univision title. Scarlett explained her song is Indie/Prog Pop about “the nostalgia of being driven home late at night” (Instagram, 2023). The arrangement of the song featured Scarlett accompanying herself on guitar alongside pre-recorded harmonies and percussion entering after the first chorus. I noticed in Scarlett’s performance that her stage presence was not hindered by the guitar, but instead she used various methods to ensure playing an accompanying instrument reinforced her stage presence. These methods included swaying alongside the beat, and delivering specific facial expressions to emphasise the meaning of the lyrics. An example of this is when she sang the lyrics “Oh my god” with a sarcastic facial expression, accentuating the frustration behind this phrase. There were also moments in the choruses when she speaks the lyric “No” followed by the harmonies shouting that lyric in pursuit, but Scarlett emphasised this change in tone by moving away from the microphone whilst also lifting her guitar up. From watching Scarlett’s performance I realised there are ways to deliver an effective stage presence without having to move around the stage which I aim to implement in my own performance practice.

Scarlett’s performance was also successful in achieving a storytelling aspect, which is another method that Jedd suggested to confront my performance anxiety. Jedd elaborated that by focusing on the story that is conveyed through performance, it will aid in delivering a confident performance instead of focusing on mistakes that may occur. Scarlett conveyed her storytelling by establishing regular vocal phrases that set the scene of the nostalgic era she portrayed amidst a lively chord progression that alternated between two chords. After introducing tranquil vocal harmonies, Scarlett utilised a quick-paced chordal progression that differed from the previously heard simple chord progression in the verses to emphasise the self-titled lyrics “I don’t wanna hold my tongue”.  I learnt about the importance of utilising chords to convey a story in my own arrangement of ‘How many things’ by Sabrina Carpenter which I performed during my Performance 3B recital. I originally intended to perform this song acapella as the lyrics portray someone ranting about a broken relationship, so I thought there would be an ample opportunity to deliver an interesting storytelling aspect in my performance in a free tempo manner without harmonic constraints. However when I rehearsed the song with Jedd, Jedd highlighted specific chords within the song that emphasise the sadness behind the lyrics (Fig. 1), an example being a G# minor chord over the lyrics “thought of us” (Fig. 2). We concluded that a harmonic accompaniment was essential, but there are other methods to deliver the ranting defeated nature of the lyrics such as adding a talkative aspect on the phrase “I still make excuses for you constantly”. Overall, I have found that focusing on these aspects has helped me convey a more confident stage presence.

Following my practice in Performance 3A, I expressed how I discovered more vocal freedom with the new techniques I have been utilising regarding my mix register. I aimed to feel more secure singing in this voice, as I have found switching between different vocal registers to be challenging and can result in my voice flipping into a falsetto. To achieve this, Jedd suggested a vocal exercise which will allow me to move my larynx in different positions to obtain different vocal effects, utilising posture and jaw positions in the process. As heard in Fig. 3, the first exercise takes advantage of a lower larynx position to provide vocal definition in a lower tessitura, whereas the second exercise implements a higher larynx position to achieve vocal twang thereby strengthening my mixed voice.

I noticed when watching a Lunchtime Recital on 26th April that Teerna Mukhopadhyay utilised these techniques as she effortlessly switched between different vocal registers delivering a confident performance. She performed an arrangement of ‘Girls’ by The 1975 alongside Matt Sutton, Henry Earl and Matt Stevens. The original song is sung by a male singer who has a different vocal range to Teerna; however, Teerna addressed this issue by singing the song in the original melody, followed by singing the chorus an octave higher utilising her vast vocal range. The band also included a modulation to a higher key which allowed Teerna the opportunity to display more of her mixed voice register. I was particularly inspired by the ad-libbed outro in which Teerna belts the lyrics “Cause they’re just girls” in her mixed voice sustaining a difficult passage that centres around a F5 note. In my repertoire for Performance 3B, I tried to include songs that explore my mixed range, such as ‘Breathin’ by Ariana Grande in which the last chorus reaches a F5. In the live performance, I found this note very challenging to achieve and felt the resonance wasn’t as powerful as I had hoped, but this is something I aim to achieve in the future with more practice as my mixed voice develops.

References:
Instagram @univisionshow. “Meet Scarlett Furness.” Instagram, 2023, www.instagram.com/p/CpNr5gINdGS/?hl=en. Accessed 2 June 2023.

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Klickstein, Gerald. The Musician’s Way: A Guide to Practice, Performance, and Wellness. 2009. 1st ed., New York, Oxford University Press, USA, 2009, p. 135.

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Teerna Mukhopadhyay, Matt Sutton, Matt Stevens and Henry Earl performing 'Girls' at Lunchtime Recital 26th April

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Fig. 8 - 'Somebody to Love' countermelody

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Fig. 6 - 'Toxic' original melody in chorus

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I continued participating in the Surrey Voices choir this semester which has been a very rewarding experience that has taught me many useful techniques that I hope to employ in my own performance practice. The student-led choir specialises in re-arranging popular music songs ranging from genres such as pop and indie rock into acoustic folk covers focusing on establishing beautiful harmonic layers. The choir performed at the Ensembles Concert which took place on 9th May, where we performed arrangements of the pop classic ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears and the rock ballad ‘Somebody to Love’ by Queen.

The original arrangement of ‘Toxic’ is very production heavy including tightly compressed synth strings and drums. The vocal style is also heavily produced including crisp reverberated nasal-toned singing. Scarlett and Kat aimed to make this arrangement more appropriate for an acoustic setting, stripping the arrangement to piano and vocals in a Jazz-esque swung rhythm differing from the straight 4/4 rhythm of the original. To ensure we kept this swung rhythm, we as a choir provided rhythmic clarity with clicks accompanied by the piano in a quasi-staccato rhythmic pattern (as shown in Fig. 4).

As I sing soprano in the choir, typically we would sing the main melody line whilst the other voices would undertake the harmonic textural elements; however, with this arrangement the sopranos established a higher melody line as the altos sang the main melody. As part of the sopranos, our melody consisted of the well-known synth string interludes highlighted in the second bar of Fig. 5, but we performed this in a breathier head voice register to ensure we did not overpower the timbral quality of the alto’s main melodic line. This significantly differs to the vocal practice I have learnt in my solo performances, as I usually aim to project a more powerful sound for ample resonance. Nevertheless, I have discovered how to utilise a less resonant sound amongst my choir peers to achieve a blended sound. This difference in vocal techniques between solo singing and choral singing was highlighted by Ekholm in my further reading where she explained “The attainment of this ideal, known as “blend”, may require singers to modify significantly their normal solo vocal production” (Ekholm, 2000).

The breathier vocal tone of the sopranos and heavier nature of the sound produced by the altos and tenors switched in the chorus when the sopranos took over the main melody line, working efficiently as a team to ensure this tonal switch was carried out well. The main vocal melody of the chorus differs from the original as we added embellishments on the last Bb of the melody as presented in Fig. 6 which inspired me to successfully implement vocal embellishments in my own solo performance practice when re-arranging songs.

We also performed ‘Somebody to Love’ by Queen which was an ideal song selection for the choir as Freddie Mercury’s extensive vocal range displayed in this song provided ample moments for all the voices to shine. The arrangement we performed at the concert was similar to the original arrangement with minimal changes (as shown in Fig. 7), but the main changes included more emphasis on the countermelodies of the original song such as the lyrics “I work hard (he works hard)”. The challenging part of this song was maintaining the rhythm with this extra emphasis on countermelodies, which is an essential element of choral singing as "the rhythm and timing of a song need to be synchronised in real time" (Delius & Müller, 2023). An example of the countermelodies and melodies we undertook is presented in Fig. 8 where the countermelody enters on the third beat of the bar whereas the main melody enters on the last beat, therefore it was imperative that we executed this well. Overall, I felt we achieved this well with minimal mistakes during our live performance, although in many practices this proved to be difficult. We decided to tackle this issue by having each voice practice their rhythms separately which proved to be a successful method as we were made aware of our parts. I aim to implement this method when performing with multiple people, as well as my own solo performance practice when there are challenging rhythmic qualities to tackle.

References:
Delius, Julia A.M., and Viktor Müller. “Interpersonal Synchrony When Singing in a Choir.” Frontiers, 11 Jan. 2023, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1087517/full. Accessed 1 June 2023.

Ekholm, Elizabeth. “The Effect of Singing Mode and Seating Arrangement on Choral Blend and Overall Choral Sound.” Journal of Research in Music Education, vol. 48, no. 2, July 2000, pp. 123–135, www.jstor.org/stable/3345571. Accessed 31 May 2023.

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Fig. 7 - Surrey Voices performing 'Somebody to Love' at the Ensembles Concert.mp4

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Amelie Bradley and Anaïs Willequet performing in their tech run

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I concert coordinated The Department Benefactors Concert which took place on 26thMay and featured performances from students who had received scholarships and awards to thank their benefactors. As there was no Concert Manager assigned, my role consisted of the duties of both Concert Manager and Concert Coordinator, ensuring that the tech schedule and concert times both run smoothly, as well as liaising with the departments’ Concert Events Management team. My role also consisted of supervising the event and informing the Concert Assistant, Amelie Bradley of her roles and responsibilities. There were a few communication errors throughout the event which resulted in adapting to impromptu situations; however, the event was successful and took place in the scheduled time.

After receiving information on the concert a few days prior to the event, it was clear that the main responsibilities at that point was creating the tech schedule and the programme for the event. Emma White and I worked well together to divide these tasks between us as Emma handled the latter task whereas I created the tech schedule.

The day before the event, it was assumed that there was going to be a Tonmeister helping to set up equipment and record the concert; however, when I arrived to set up for the event, Amelie and I discovered there was a miscommunication and the Tonmeister was a BMus Music first year student. Although it was helpful having Ben’s help for the event, we realised there was no one there to help set up tech and record the concert. I explained the situation to Tom Armstrong, and we resolved the issue by concluding that the concert does not need to be recorded, and as the concert was acoustic the only tech we needed to set up was getting the Steinway piano ready. As I or other members of the concert management team had never set up a Steinway piano before, Tom taught us how to do this. Amelie, Ben and I untightened the clamp on the wheels of the Steinway to position it in the centre of Studio 1 for the resonance to have full effect. Tom also showed us how to lift the top board of the piano, delegating the tasks between the three of us with me and Amelie lifting this part and Ben ensuring the short stick of the piano is put into place. I learnt from Tom that the short stick of the piano is usually positioned for quieter settings, whereas the long stick is used when the sound of the piano needs to be projected better. As this concert was acoustic, we decided upon using the short stick as we didn’t want the piano to overpower the performers who only planned on utilising the piano as accompaniment.

Ben had an exam the day of the concert, so he had to depart halfway through the tech run. As I had only been informed of this on the day of the concert, I had to be adaptable and efficiently delegate the tasks that were meant to be split between a team of three into two, which I felt Amelie and I carried out well, such as folding the programmes.

An issue I faced within the course of the tech run was arranging the lighting for the concert. Admittedly, I did not think about the lighting of the performance until the third tech rehearsal when the pianist enquired if the lighting will be harsh as they could not read their sheet music. As I and the rest of the concert management team did not have experience with operating the lighting in Studio 1 and this task would normally be entrusted with a Tonmeister, I decided to ask the Studio technician Johno Madgwick if he could operate the lights. The lights system had recently changed at that point, so we could only acquire a spotlight. The spotlight was positioned towards the back of the stage, so the concert management team and I decided to move the piano back towards the spotlight to ensure the pianists would be able to read their sheet music. However, I recalled from Sophie Gurney, Maddi Lawrence and Shannon Do’s rehearsal that their performance consisted of a trio of two flautists and a cellist in a semi-circle arrangement. With this arrangement, Sophie and Maddi would be able to read their sheet music with the light provided from the spotlight, but Shannon may be challenged by this. They suggested leaving the main studio lights on as the single spotlight would make their performance difficult. This new lighting was more beneficial for most of the other performers, but Michelle Wong who performed the grand opera ‘Harald’s Saga’ by Judith Weir requested specific lighting with hit points for certain cues. However, Michelle understood that we did not have a tech team for the day and compromised by performing with the studio lights on. After speaking to Johno, he explained that if we were to arrange specific lighting with hit points, this information would need to be provided days in advance. When I coordinate concerts in the future, I will check with the performers in advance if they require specific lighting to ensure their performances are set to the best possible standard. Similarly, in concerts where I will be performing, I will inform the tech team of any lighting requirements in advance.

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Michelle Wong performing 'King Harald's Saga' in her tech run

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Fig. 4 - Surrey Voices performing 'Toxic' at the Ensembles Concert.mp4

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Scarlett Furness performing 'I Don't Wanna Hold My Tongue' at Univision