PLANNING
I chose 5 songs as a shortlist for my solo cover to help me decide the best song for me and my abilities and to be able to set a realistic goal and therefore be able to perform it. These are those 5:
Never, Never, Never- Shirley Bassey
Has some challenging high notes that I cannot currently perform in chest voice as it is too much strain
Impossible- Shontelle
Contains difficult runs, not a big fan of the song overall since it was re-done by James Arthur
Bleeding Love- Leona Lewis
Repetitive notes in a higher range and challenging vocals overall that I thought would be a good fit for soft vocals, but I wouldn’t do well with power
Can’t take my eyes off you
I have a personal connection with this piece of music and so when I discovered the original key was just out of my possible range, I had the reluctance to transpose it. I had originally chosen this song but then switched after feeling like I had changed it too much
Choice: Feeling Good -Michael Bublé
Just touches upon my lower range feel like I could play about with it more and be able to do some of it in chest voice to really give it power but without too much strain. I once attempted this song back in primary school and failed miserably because I was too shy. I want to honour my attempt by having a second try while now much older and hopefully improved since then.
I will be arranging this piece myself rather than using a backing track, a friend of mine will be playing the guitar to accompany me, I have written him out a type of lead sheet which gives dynamic markings and instructions for each section. This is it below:
This sheet is written so that my friend would understand. It specifies the feel for each section and assumes he already knows each part and chords.
I had high hopes and ambitious plans for my solo performance.
I was originally going to seriously push myself with my song choice and instead went with my safest option.
I had challenging activities planned to help me improve my singing ability, activities and warm-ups as well as a schedule for learning my parts and coming up with parts to change
I had a lack of self confidence which caused me to abandon this almost entirely and take the easy road.
RESEARCH
As it turns out, the meaning is quite straightforward and should be easy. I also made note of the key changes and structure of the piece. I am thinking of using the key changes as literal steps up, as the key goes up, so will my energy and power hopefully. Other techniques I will use: Implementing emotion that matches the lyrical content, giving certain words that ‘lift’ when singing to show joy subtly. Thinking about the subtext of the lyrics, showing that peace and softness perhaps with a breathy head voice, to begin with. I could improvise over the instrumental section, using the scales and small runs.
Improvisation in A minor backing track for practice:
The specific vocal tone I would like to use requires strong breaths from the abdomen for better control and to smile- the face opens up and stretches. This automatically makes your tone change to create a more ‘happy’ sound.
So far, I have not actually been ‘feeling good’ most of the time when practising as I could sense premature failure.
This is making singing such a joyful song difficult and I am unable to have that “lift” in my voice that I have mentioned above except for a few times home alone.
I have Looked up the lyrics of the song to read deeper into them to try and connect with them more for my performance.
Em
Em7
C7
B7
Em
Em7
Am7
C7
E
D
G
B7
Am7
B7
Am
Am/G
F
E
Am
F
Fmajb9
F
Am7
C
B
E
D7
E7
After some practice, I find I struggle to sing the song in the original key (). I have decided to transpose the key.
I will but researching how to transpose all the chords to understand better as a musician.
If I would like to move from E minor to A minor I would need to move down a 5th (or 4th up) like displayed on this helpful diagram I used.
By using this, I worked out what the chord changes needed to be and these were the adaptations we made:
My friend and I (the accompanying guitarist) worked together to change up those chords, for instance, the Am/G is to include the bass note which I thought gave it more movement and helped me pitch some of the notes especially when it came to singing after the key changes.
Also, to my understanding, key changes within the music can be quite challenging for singers. I've tried my best to note them out on my sheets. I am thinking of ways to get around the struggle. One solution I found was to let a few beats of the bar pass, in order to use my ear to tune to the new key and adjust while practising.
eValuations
I faced many challenges during this project, the most significant one being communication issues between the guitarist and me
I asked him to learn chords for the song to be my accompaniment when performing but he seemed confused in the structure as well as the overall direction I wanted to go in with my arrangement.
To combat this issue I wrote out a rough instruction sheet with dynamics and ideas for varying techniques to keep things interesting.
This meant we would be on the same page when we needed to be most.
There was only one sharing session, a week or so before the performance.
No-one had really heard what I had been practising until then.
The Performance
When practising at home, I had this nailed or so I thought. When it came to the performance, my nerves got the best of me and I didn't fully commit to the music and trust in my ability which resulted in some strained notes, and a lack of confidence which doesn’t match the song lyrics or intention I had when deciding to perform the song. I for some reason decided to change my ending while on stage but I was not prepared properly, and I struggled. I am quite disappointed overall with my performance; despite the amount of effort and planning I had put into it, the outcome- I felt- did not fully express and show that. I know I can do better when by myself. I think I need to control myself psychologically and try not to get into my own head especially while in the middle of performing.