it's snowing

[qarylla]

A light dusting of snow is coming down. I noticed it sometime shortly after I woke up, and went to one of the other rooms for a better view. My long run is today, and this will be a welcome change. Running in snow isn't necessarily harder than just running in the cold, but it is definitely prettier.

Yesterday's voice lesson was a little odd. Because I don't have a particular piece of music that I know I want to prepare (and for some reason just have a hard time even thinking of the solos in the G&S pieces I've done), the lesson is a bit more focused on producing tone and the physics and physiology of producing the appropriate notes. It's mostly what I need, but she has me practicing with Happy Birthday as one of the songs I have mentioned being acceptable for the audition. I am fairly certain that I will switch from happy birthday to working on the choral music once I have a score. Part of me looks at all of the things I want to do this spring and just sees insanity, but if I get to bed by a certain hour and wake up at something approaching now (4-ish), then I should be able to do school, rehearsal, and exercise (oh, and run a game that doesn't completely bite) without going too mad. I figure I will appreciate spring break more than I ever did in college for the opportunity to not be doing 50 things at once.

greenlily, do you have some sheet music for simple vocal pieces (something like the Fur Elize for the voice)? If so, I'd love to borrow a little something. I have one more lesson before the auditions in February.

My mouth is mostly feeling better from the tooth pulling. I didn't want to do anything Saturday morning as there was that stupid dull ache that mostly meant I noticed my jaw constantly. Eating is still a little difficult, but that is mostly because for some reason sandwiches are made huge! The right side of my mouth feels a little bruised from Friday, so eating a standard sub style sandwich is just much harder than normal. I've been drinking a lot more water than normal, because the idea of drinking soda for the last couple of days just felt wrong.

Maybe I'll finish something today. I'll get ready, do my run, and then come back and finish one of the socks from last year or something.

Comments

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

greenlily, do you have some sheet music for simple vocal pieces (something like the Fur Elize for the voice)? If so, I'd love to borrow a little something.

You're welcome to borrow anything I've got, but in that sentence you're asking for two different things. They make simplified versions of Fur Elise for beginning piano students, is that what you're asking for? 'cause, as far as I know, they don't make simplified versions of songs. You just start out by picking really really simple songs.

The simplest thing I own is something called the Folk Song Fake Book. A Fake Book is a book that has just the singer's part, no piano accompaniment (so the pianist has to "fake it", hence the name). So your voice teacher might not like it. And you might not be into folk music. But this book has over 1,000 songs so there's bound to be something in there you know. Want to try that? I can't get out of my office anymore for long enough to get to your office, but I could meet you after work someplace and hand it over.

[stevie-stever.livejournal.com]

I have a boatload of choral anthems, church and otherwise, that I've dragged my feet in returning. I can copy some of these, plus I have many others, for high and middle voices (I don't remember at all what your voice-type is, sorry). Not to mention I have several anthologies for musical theatre, oratorio, and art songs, G&S scores, G&S selections, you name it. Depending on your voice type, some and be sung in the key they're currently in, others can easily be transposed. And what I lack, I'm sure greenlily either has or has access thereto. ;-)

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Oh right, that's something I forgot to ask...qarylla, did you and your teacher talk about whether you should be auditioning as a soprano or an alto? Obviously, the music director will listen to your audition and place you in whichever part he thinks you are. But if constantly trying to sing the alto part against all the other parts is so stressful for you that it's going to keep you from enjoying the show, you should think about at least writing down "soprano" on your audition form and hope the music director recognizes that as a request.

And if you think that's going to be an issue for you during the show, start talking to your teacher about it now--make sure she understands that one of your goals is to be comfortable enough with singing G&S choruses that you can actually have fun with it. Most teachers aren't going to assume that good choral singing is one of your goals unless you specifically tell them so.

HTML Nazi

[jiggliusceasar.livejournal.com]

Do you hear cat butt or ♥ cat butt?

Also, greenlily's tag is messed up.

[qarylla.livejournal.com]

That is something that I keep meaning to ask her. You'd think that I would have thought about it already. I do mean to keep up voice lessons through as much of the show as is reasonable (aka, until it is too f'in unweildy for me to do that much extra stuff), so I would be having her help me with whatever music I end up singing.

I don't mind singing alto. I think most of my problems have been with a lack of practice (my fault), so I have a harder time remembering what I've heard note wise to reproduce it. Well, and during Ruddigore I just had completely blocked ear canal or something, so I couldn't really hear any sound (much less what I was producing) beyond my nose.

[qarylla.livejournal.com]

I used to borrow fake books from the local library all the time when I lived in Maine. I tried playing them on the clarinet. I don't think it ever occurred to me that they were just the vocal parts. I was just interested in the transcription.

My voice instructor wanted me to email her for a copy of her vocal health guide, so I tacked on a question about voice parts. I imagine that this is something we would have discussed after she thought I had a reasonable level of technique (she is having me move my face in ways that feel fairly decidedly unnatural, which is having the effect of opening up areas of my body and allowing what tones that do come out to be a little more even from one part of my range to the other).

[inferno-girl.livejournal.com]

It is Katie.

I friended joo!