13/03/13

HEY IT'S KEETS!

Okay. Lemme just start off by saying that today's practice was AMAZING. Really. Right from runs we were focused and determined and on task! Barely anyone walked and we managed to finish the entire 3 rounds around the school AND make it to practice early! The energy level was super high throughout the practice and even though it dropped a bit in the middle, we managed to pick it back up right after we RAN down to sing. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope we can keep this up because it felt really really good right? Right. There were a few areas that we can still improve on, but judging from the efficiency with which we worked today, I think we can overcome these challenges. 

ON WITH BUSINESS

Warm-ups

So today we ran through WHY we do warm-ups and WHAT it does for us when we do these things.

Table and chair

We do this exercise to engage our core muscles so that we can project our voices when we sing. Also our core muscles look something like this. Just FYI. And please don't laugh at the picture. It was the best one I could find. *Sniff* 

Beating exercise

To energize ourselves if we're feeling groggy or tired or sleepy

The person getting slapped gets relaxed. (Or at least their muscles do)

And the person getting slapped gets stress relief. Kidding. Not really.

We then did the '1,1,2,1,1,2,3,2,1' warm-up in solfege. Kim made a section pulse the doh so that we could keep in tune and then Mr. tay introduced another warm-up to us, 'mi mae ma mo moo'. He said that this was to help with our diction, especially with our vowels. He also said that the 'm' before the vowel helps us place our voices better and starting with the 'I' vowel helps our voices sound more focused.

Practice

Practice itself was another half-lecture, half-practice. Today, Mr. Tay was teaching us how to ... sing la. What did you expect? How to cut up a whale? Pshh no.

sinceIi ASSUME most of you have taken down notes while Mr. tay was going through his slides, I’m not going to put anything up on the blog.

Ave Maria

MUSICALITY. for most of us who are in the main choir, we need to learn when we need to give way to the soloists and when we need to come out in our own parts. Mr. Tay went through this during practice, but if you need help, go look for your SLs! I’m sure they'd be glad to help!

at 'dominus tecum', don't do a fortepiano the first time we sing it through. it's only on the second time that we do that.

at the third line on the second page, remember to CLIMAX at the last ‘jesus’, which means getting more intense and slightly louder. 

please please go look at the translation provided by anthea on the previous post. I’ve mentioned this before but having the meaning of the text of the song in your head as you sing  is really really important especially when the song is in a foreign language. write it in your scores, yeah? have a look at the video on the previous post as well. it might help.

ecce crucem domini

sorry sops but this piece was pretty bad for us :( it's okay though! we can always improve, right? right. 

at mysterioso, the rhythm needs to be fixed and we can do this by subdividing. a lot.

at part F, please don't be afraid to come in! and be very deliberate when coming in. and please don't be late.

at the end of part G, we practiced the slowing down portion. subdivide and you should be able to get this part easily. 

unfortunately, this is the part where a lot of people switched off. it's also the part where Mr. Tay had to repeat himself over and over again just so that we could get this part. guys. I know it's been a long day and that you're really tired, but we cannot afford to switch off. it's way too close to SYF to be doing this. Kay? Kay.

announcements:

there will be SYF auditions during camp. not actual auditions mind you. it'll just be auditions to see where we're weak and how we can improve on these areas in our own small octets.

Miss Jenifer Tham will be coming down for a workshop tomorrow. BE NICE. there's been a change of venue to LT1 instead of the Audi.

bring PE attire. there WILL be runs.

for new members, bring your $12 tomorrow to give to your SLs

for everyone else, bring your choir fees tomorrow if you haven't already given them to your SL.

yup that's about it!

GREAT JOB TODAY GUYS! KEEP IT UP!

love,

ankita

Practice on 8/3/12

Hi everyone!

Warm-ups today mainly comprised basic solfege and tuning exercises, from singing a simple 'do re mi fa so' scale in unison to going into a 4-part split, each section taking one note of a series of chords: 'do mi so mi do', 'do fa la fa do', 'ti re so re ti', 'do mi so mi do'. Our coordination still needs a bit of work, as seen from the intermittent jumbling up of the hand signs. x)

For Ave Maria, (which we spent the most time rehearsing in order to help us memorise it), one of the issues was our lack of good phrase-offs, meaning that we cut off too abruptly at the end of a phrase. If one phrase follows after another without any rests in between they should almost sound connected. Another thing we worked on was to know when to come out into the foreground and when to be in the background, lending support to parts with the melodic material. To practice this we bent at the knees whenever our respective parts were supposed to be in the background, and straightened up when they were supposed to be in the foreground. It made a tremendous difference, and the challenge now is to achieve the same effect but without these physical aids. So when singing this song you must be conscious of when to really sing out and when to yield to other sections. Also, for certain parts to sop 1s are really counting on the alto 2s to provide them with a solid foundation, for example at the last system of page 2 where the sop 1s tend to have a drop in energy from F to the D in the 2nd bar. Remember that this song is to be memorised, with all these details & dynamics & everything in by 14 March!
We made pretty good progress for Ecce Crucem Domini, hitting a tempo of 144 and incorporating most of the dynamics. However with the increase in tempo we must be even more certain and precise about our entries and cut-offs. Be careful not to come in too loudly at section E (Radix David) or it'll ruin the effect.

We also worked a bit on Laudate Dominum where the altos had trouble with the rhythm on the 5th page onwards. Draw sticks in to help you with the rhythm and if you still can't get it, please go and ask your SL. Then, we ran through the SYF set piece, which was good on the whole except for the fact that we are still breaking between 'our' and 'home' at the very end. D:

Keep up the great work everyone, and look forward to choir camp because it's going to be an unforgettable time of fun and bonding :D

-Quianna & Ankita

6th March 2013!

HELLO!

Wednesday - good job with runs! (:

What happened on Wednesday was half lecture half practice. I'm not going to put up everything that Mr Tay went through in his lecturethingything because some of it is already in your MgChoir booklets, and the rest you should have taken down. There are some rhythm/solfege exercises that are pretty good so check with your SLs/buddies!

As for the practice part,

It's been said before but we really all need to work on our musicality. Singing shouldn't just be about getting the notes and rhythms, it's also about bringing across the meaning of the words, and knowing when to be in the foreground and background.

Which means it's not enough to know just your part! Look through Ave Maria and note down which part should be in the foreground when - generally, moving lines. We should also improve on our text inflection - which syllables are stressed and unstressed. Again, if you missed it, check with your SLs/buddies.

One more thing to take note of is PHRASING! Which is important because you don't breathe in the middle (DEEP BREATH) of phrases. Read that previous sentence and do the breath. Weird, right? So stagger your breathing, and keep the energy up or

IT'LL BE LIKE this and the energy suddenly disappears???

Which is not very nice. Also, when we come in, we need to be precise, prepared, and disciplined. It sounds better. Really.

And lastly, Ecce and Ave Maria have very different atmospheres so we need to be able to switch really fast!!

Things to do:

1. Memorise SYF scores by choir camp.
2. If you haven't already, go check out GREGORIAN CHANTS. Seriously. It's that easy. Just click that link.
3. Hand in forms for the choral exchange + choir fees for the year to your SLs
4. Practice solfege!
5. Check out what the lyrics to Ave Maria mean HERE 
6. Drink lots of water, sleep lots, and take care of yourselves (:

See you next practice!

Anthea

1MARCH2013

HELLO it's Anthea.

Yesterday we learnt Dona Nobis Pacem, Laudate Dominum, The Heave- basically all four new scores. Ms Tham was mostly focussing on giving us the macro view of all of the pieces rather than working on details. Here are some things to note:

1. For Dona Nobis Pacem

- Dona Nobis Pacem means Give Us Peace
- Remember the balancing of the chords - check with your SLs/buddies
- Most of it is with D flat do, some of it in A do. ^
- Again, crescendoing shouldn't just be 2 straight lines but *~blossoming~* into the last third or so

2. Laudate Dominum

Seeing as about a third of us already know this, we did this pretty quickly. Mostly, just catch up from your buddies and section leaders, and seniors! Seniors still need to learn though, near to the back there are some amendments to the score that we didn't perform.

Here's a video of us singing it with PLMGS 2 years back, at Cantabile:



It was posted on our MGCHOIR youtube channel where there are also videos of the rest of Cantabile 2011, and links to our competition performance in Prague last year!

3. The Heavenly Aeroplane

- It's supposed be really groooooovy so make sure you try to get that vibe! Here's a video of a choir who seems to be singing the same arrangement as us. There are mixed versions on youtube if you click around.



4. Let there be peace on earth

- Use D for the do

Another video! I couldn't find any good videos of an all-female choir but if you find one feel free to post it in the choir facebook group, or send me the link and I'll put it up here.




In the spirit of getting the overall big picture please note that you shouldn't be following these videos and using them to learn the piece exactly. Rather these videos are just to let you get the feel of the pieces and how they should (vaguely) sound when finished.

Also, if you didn't hear Ms Ng say so, on 23 March there's the SYF choral showcase at Dunman High School, from 9am to 12.30pm, and it's compulsory.

See you next week!

Anthea