Thursday 27th September - Lena Urquhart
In todays lesson Lena gave us the assignment brief which explains the course in full detail, it explains the milestone completion dates:
Milestone 1: w/b 10/12/13
Milestone 2: w/b 11/03/13
Final presentation: w/b 20/05/13
She also gave us the different tasks and the criteria references. Lena explained each task in full detail and what we would need to do to achieve either a pass, merit or distinction. Task 1 is Performing technical singing exercises. Task 2 is to show improvement in vocal technique RL (reflective learners). Task 3 is to sing back musical phrases. Task 4 is to take part in rehearsals of musical material TW (team workers), SM (self-managers), and finally task 5 is to perform sung musical material in character with confident use of physical and vocal expression. These tasks are based on pass grades, to achieve merit and distinction you must achieve the same but in a more developed way.
Lena explained to us the meanings of some of the words used in the handout for example pitches: 1 note, Intervals: 2 notes, Tempo: the speed, Dynamics: loud or soft etc.
She also explained the term 'note bashing' which is 'playing a song/piece note by note on the piano, checking each against what you are singing, to get accurate pitch.' (from web definitions), Lena gave us a demo by playing 'food glorious food' from the play Oliver! on the piano.
We then one by one had an assessment with Lena which was our initial skills audit, she filmed us on her mac and she accompanied us with the piano. She assessed us on intonation, voice placement, tone, projection, breath control, flexibility, range and musicality, so that she could get an idea of our capability and so she could assess how much we progress through the lessons.
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Tuesday 18th September
Our second lesson of drama with Rachel Maddix.
In this lesson we all started off by sitting to the side of the room and Rachel decided on a specific scene, for example at the train station, or at a car boot sale etc. Our task was to one by one create the image by thinking of a certain pose to do which would be seen at each scene. For example in a car boot scene you might do a pose where you are pretending to take money from a buyer, and after that Rachel made us stop doing a stop frame image and start acting it out for a short amount of time. She then made us jump from scene to scene, she did this so we could get a hold of changing from character to character in a small amount of time. This was effective for us as drama students because it enabled us to learn how to play multiple roles.
After that activity we got into small groups of 3-4, i was with Emily, Joe and Beth, first of all we had to do a little presentation to the class as if we were professers from a top university and we spoke to the group about 'the messages behind fairytales', we chose the fairytale 'Goldylocks and the three bears' and we told the group that the message to kids is that you should not steal or go into houses which are not your own. We had to talk formally and act as if our knowledge was actually reached through lots of research etc. This was effective because it taught us to use our acting skills to put across information.
After we'd all explained our fairytales we then had to in our groups go through the fairytale describing every little thing as much as we could using all 6 senses, this is essential for storytelling because obviously the difference between story telling and acting is that you have to describe the story instead of acting it, which means you need to go into great detail so that the audience can make the picture out in their head, and also you need to not let go of the audiences focus and attention. We did this to strengthen our storytelling abilities and to get us used to speaking to an audience directly.
In this lesson we all started off by sitting to the side of the room and Rachel decided on a specific scene, for example at the train station, or at a car boot sale etc. Our task was to one by one create the image by thinking of a certain pose to do which would be seen at each scene. For example in a car boot scene you might do a pose where you are pretending to take money from a buyer, and after that Rachel made us stop doing a stop frame image and start acting it out for a short amount of time. She then made us jump from scene to scene, she did this so we could get a hold of changing from character to character in a small amount of time. This was effective for us as drama students because it enabled us to learn how to play multiple roles.
After that activity we got into small groups of 3-4, i was with Emily, Joe and Beth, first of all we had to do a little presentation to the class as if we were professers from a top university and we spoke to the group about 'the messages behind fairytales', we chose the fairytale 'Goldylocks and the three bears' and we told the group that the message to kids is that you should not steal or go into houses which are not your own. We had to talk formally and act as if our knowledge was actually reached through lots of research etc. This was effective because it taught us to use our acting skills to put across information.
After we'd all explained our fairytales we then had to in our groups go through the fairytale describing every little thing as much as we could using all 6 senses, this is essential for storytelling because obviously the difference between story telling and acting is that you have to describe the story instead of acting it, which means you need to go into great detail so that the audience can make the picture out in their head, and also you need to not let go of the audiences focus and attention. We did this to strengthen our storytelling abilities and to get us used to speaking to an audience directly.
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Preparing to sing
Lena Urquhart
lesson 2 - 20/09/2012
In todays lesson we did more focus on physical warm-up routines, the main things to look at are your body, the head and face and controlling the airways.
There are different exercises to get your posture right for example for the body walk about slowly, or on the spot, lifting the knees quite high: slow down and gradually come to a halt, ready to walk again. You should be perfectly balanced, feet slightly apart. Another one is do some pelvic thrusts (like Elvis Presley) to focus on different angles of tilt. The ideal position is with bottom tucked slightly in and pelvis up and forward. The simplest message is 'don't stick the bottom out'!.
Also for the head and face, the postion of the head is vital for ease of movement in the jaw and mouth, and also the flow of air from the lungs. However any exercise involving the neck should be slow and gentle to avoid discomfort or damage. A few example exercises involving the head and face are, drop the head forward and feel the slight tension at the top of the spide; turn it slowly from side to side. Lift the head slowly and look at the ceiling; again feel the tension in the neck and throat. Also, mobilize the face by pulling as many funny faces as you can; screw up tight, open up wide, elongate and stretch, particularly the mouth.
Controlling the airways: breathing and feeling is about teaching a group of singers how to breathe and posture is very important for this, so a few exercises for this is start with simple slow breathing, keeping the shoulders down. Imagine you are filling a bottle with water: it starts filling from the bottom. The air must follow the same path to the bottom of the lungs. Let the air flow in and out naturally, and put on hand on your abdomen- your tumb should be roughly over your navel. Breathe out sharply on the sound 'PShhhh'; the abdomen should move backwards towards your backbone. Don't let the chest collapse. At the end, let your abdominal wall bounce back to its normal position and you will automatically breathe in. Repeat this several times.
In the lesson we memorized two bar melodies which was very successful in heading towards our target of memorizing four bars. Lena played two bars on the piano and we had to hum it back to her correctly. We also learnt about raising and falling arpeggios which rise in semi tones, and we had to sing along to it with the words 'vee ee ah yah yah vee'. We also learnt about the notes on the piano and octaves which are 8 notes for example from one c to the lower or higher c. I learnt that a 'c' on a piano is left of the two black keys, an 'f' is left of the three black keys and a 'g' is right of the 'f''. So, because we learnt those three notes we took it in turn to play blues with Lena.
lesson 2 - 20/09/2012
In todays lesson we did more focus on physical warm-up routines, the main things to look at are your body, the head and face and controlling the airways.
There are different exercises to get your posture right for example for the body walk about slowly, or on the spot, lifting the knees quite high: slow down and gradually come to a halt, ready to walk again. You should be perfectly balanced, feet slightly apart. Another one is do some pelvic thrusts (like Elvis Presley) to focus on different angles of tilt. The ideal position is with bottom tucked slightly in and pelvis up and forward. The simplest message is 'don't stick the bottom out'!.
Also for the head and face, the postion of the head is vital for ease of movement in the jaw and mouth, and also the flow of air from the lungs. However any exercise involving the neck should be slow and gentle to avoid discomfort or damage. A few example exercises involving the head and face are, drop the head forward and feel the slight tension at the top of the spide; turn it slowly from side to side. Lift the head slowly and look at the ceiling; again feel the tension in the neck and throat. Also, mobilize the face by pulling as many funny faces as you can; screw up tight, open up wide, elongate and stretch, particularly the mouth.
Controlling the airways: breathing and feeling is about teaching a group of singers how to breathe and posture is very important for this, so a few exercises for this is start with simple slow breathing, keeping the shoulders down. Imagine you are filling a bottle with water: it starts filling from the bottom. The air must follow the same path to the bottom of the lungs. Let the air flow in and out naturally, and put on hand on your abdomen- your tumb should be roughly over your navel. Breathe out sharply on the sound 'PShhhh'; the abdomen should move backwards towards your backbone. Don't let the chest collapse. At the end, let your abdominal wall bounce back to its normal position and you will automatically breathe in. Repeat this several times.
In the lesson we memorized two bar melodies which was very successful in heading towards our target of memorizing four bars. Lena played two bars on the piano and we had to hum it back to her correctly. We also learnt about raising and falling arpeggios which rise in semi tones, and we had to sing along to it with the words 'vee ee ah yah yah vee'. We also learnt about the notes on the piano and octaves which are 8 notes for example from one c to the lower or higher c. I learnt that a 'c' on a piano is left of the two black keys, an 'f' is left of the three black keys and a 'g' is right of the 'f''. So, because we learnt those three notes we took it in turn to play blues with Lena.
Thursday, 13 September 2012
Unit 30 singing skills for actors and dancers
Leena Urquhart
Lesson 1
The purpose of the assignment is to develop and demonstrate singing skills and performance over the year.
In the lesson we spoke about the different muscles i as a singer will need to work on in order to succeed.
The main muscle used for singing is the vocals folds (aka the vocal chords), which are a tiny paired muscle found in the voice box in your throat or the larynx, the larynx vibrates to produce vocal sounds. Another important thing to focus on is your posture when singing, you must stand and keep your feet spread shoulder witdth apart, stand up straight, push your shoulders back and keep your chin pointed up so you are able to project. We also spoke about the diaphragm which is a layer of muscle positioned in and to the bottom of your rib cage, this is another important muscle in your body used when singing, it contracts and allows the lungs to expand.
We were also asked to do breathing exercises whilst at home, by lying in bed and breathing in without raising your shoulders and pushing your stomach out, you then need to breathe out through a small gap in your lips and see how long you can push the breathe out for, using your muslces to push out every last bit.
The most important vocal abilities are how well you sing in tune, how well you reach high and low notes, understanding what your tone is and how to improve it and also how to project the voice and how to control and use the breath.
We spoke in the lesson about musical memory which is the ability to remember music related information, such as the progression of pitches or tones and melodic content.
In singing it isn't just about singing the right words and hitting the right notes etc it is about how you characterise it and how you perform it, to make it individual.
In the lesson we did a short warmup, in which we were asked to sing 'Vee Ay Ah Oo' and were accompanied by Lena on the piano, and every time we went up in semitones. We did this to warm up our vocal chords.
Lesson 1
The purpose of the assignment is to develop and demonstrate singing skills and performance over the year.
In the lesson we spoke about the different muscles i as a singer will need to work on in order to succeed.
The main muscle used for singing is the vocals folds (aka the vocal chords), which are a tiny paired muscle found in the voice box in your throat or the larynx, the larynx vibrates to produce vocal sounds. Another important thing to focus on is your posture when singing, you must stand and keep your feet spread shoulder witdth apart, stand up straight, push your shoulders back and keep your chin pointed up so you are able to project. We also spoke about the diaphragm which is a layer of muscle positioned in and to the bottom of your rib cage, this is another important muscle in your body used when singing, it contracts and allows the lungs to expand.
We were also asked to do breathing exercises whilst at home, by lying in bed and breathing in without raising your shoulders and pushing your stomach out, you then need to breathe out through a small gap in your lips and see how long you can push the breathe out for, using your muslces to push out every last bit.
The most important vocal abilities are how well you sing in tune, how well you reach high and low notes, understanding what your tone is and how to improve it and also how to project the voice and how to control and use the breath.
We spoke in the lesson about musical memory which is the ability to remember music related information, such as the progression of pitches or tones and melodic content.
In singing it isn't just about singing the right words and hitting the right notes etc it is about how you characterise it and how you perform it, to make it individual.
In the lesson we did a short warmup, in which we were asked to sing 'Vee Ay Ah Oo' and were accompanied by Lena on the piano, and every time we went up in semitones. We did this to warm up our vocal chords.
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Tuesday 11th September 2012
Lesson 1
- Sharing Meaningful memories: We did this exercise by speaking to everyone in the class separately and telling each different member of the class different facts about us for example about our bestfriends, siblings, our style etc. We did this to get to know eachother, to feel more comfortable around one another and to try and account those facts when asked.
- Self Analysis: We got into pairs and were asked to analyse one another, in the way we walked, talked, moved etc. We were asked to do this because it is important to realize your personal identity in order to be able to change it to be able to play different characters in Drama. It also makes it easier to work with people, groups, things, ideas etc.
- Memories from primary and the 6 senses: We got into pairs and told eachother about a specific memory from our childhood in primary, which we remember well, then we had to describe the same story but centered around a specific sense, for example smell, you had to describe to your partner what you smelt at the time of your memory. We did this to think more in depth about all 6 senses because in most cases we majorly think about sight when speaking about memory.
- Typical narratives in childrens theatre: We had a discussion as a group to speak about the differences between childrens and adults theatre, for example there were differences in humour, content, etc In childrens theatre 'Once upon a time' and 'happily ever after' are commonly used because most childrens plays have a preset genre of 'The damsel in distress', the 'baddy' and the 'valiant knight' who saves the girl, and of course everything ends happily. Everything is very eccentric and make believe. We did this to focus on the aspects in which we had to adapt or exaggerate for the particular genre.
- Purpose for difference in childrens and adults theatre: Again as a group we discussed this and found that if a child was to watch an adults theatre piece they would never really understand it, and they would get bored and not really enjoy the piece, so it is essential to change your characteristics as an actor for the particular audience.
- Creating character using formula: After doing self-analysis individually we were asked to change the way we spoke (tone, pitch, speed etc.) and the way we moved (posture, pace, gestures etc.). We did this as we were focusing on the formula voice+movement=characterization, because in changing your characteristics you do not conform to your personal identity there fore becoming a character.
- Keeping change in voice and movement: After we were happy with the character we had made, mine for example was very squeaky and high pitched and also very good posture but figgity, we had to enroll that character into a short fairytale piece suitable for young children to watch, and at the same time using the 6 senses to improve the childrens understanding of whats happening in the play, we did this to concentrate on sticking to a certain role and not going out of character.
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