Doing the concert "au naturel"

So there we are on Alderney (see previous post) without our suitcases or our concert gear. In the end, we decided to give the concert "au naturel". It's certainly a very different feel to give a concert in civvies. Particularly weird for the girls as they were singing arias in jeans, rather than in a dress, and apparently the movements felt very strange.

We added a bonus number especially for the islanders from our latest show, Love, Lust and a Damn Good Chardonnay, about a transvestite serial killer in New York. Went down well. Back to the digs (the superb hosting of John and Kate) and up at 6.15, to discover that all the flights had been cancelled. So we spent all day on 15-minute scramble alert in case the fog lifted briefly. Don't let anyone kid you on this one, it's incredibly tiring being on standby for so long. Well, the Jersey workshop and then the concert had to be cancelled. So the day came and went, and we were back this morning to find another cancelled flight and no hope of getting off the island by air.

Fortunately (?) one of the small boat owners offered to ferry us across to Guernsey that morning. The girls declined (the boat was the size and shape of a large pick-up truck) but the guys got on. The baritone and I stayed out on deck - wet and cold but sort of fun. Not a bad journey (only a force 5 gale), but not one I would care to repeat! So we are now in Guernsey (the girls are still on Alderney) waiting for a ferry to Weymouth (no flights out today).

Hopefully we will be home by tomorrow morning. I'm looking on it as an adventure. More later.

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Always carry your rubber chicken...

As a musician you need to be flexible. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men etc etc.

I'm on the Channel Islands with Hatstand Opera doing a workshop and concert tour. It's a fairly hefty schedule, four different islands, four workshops and four concerts (8 shows) in four and a half days. At least, that was the theory. Until THE FOG happened. Apparently it's a fairly unusual occurance, but we have a combination of sea fog and moderately high winds, and the islands have had all flights cancelled for more than two days now. We were on Alderney when it happened - Island Three in the series. But I digress.

This is our third trip out here (it's actually my sixth, and the first one was 25 years ago). This year we started in Guernsey, then boat to Sark, boat back to Guernsey and small aircraft (8-seater) to Alderney, then theoretically plane back to Guernsey and bigger plane to Jersey. With me so far? Well, for some reason we got to Alderney but our luggage stayed in Guernsey. Fortunately we had time to remove the music bag, and Fred, the rubber chicken, but we had very little else. Fred features in one of our songs and we felt we had to have him with us. But because of weight restrictions and a mess-up on the booking front, the aircraft wasn't big enough to take us, the other passengers and the Hatstand luggage. So we arrived on Alderney minus our concert gear (DJ's, dresses, overdresses, props).

The workshop went well, with most of the school turning out for it (age range approximately 8-15). As the voice wizard I introduce the kids to healthy voice exercises, including sirening (pitch gliding up and down). One young boy actually went off the piano - more than 3,500 cycles per second. This time I also did a fair amount on the adolescent voice, with some of the information from our Developing Voice course (last weekend). It certainly felt relevant as a number of the back row had beards!

The evening concert was fascinating. When you have no costumes and no props, the audience really gets to discover whether you can do the job. Fortunately we had our Hatstand workshop shirts (and a change of underwear), but that was all we had. Except the soprano. Ah, sopranos. She had managed to pack two pairs of jeans, her makeup bag and a pair of high heels. I suppose we shouldn't have been surprised.

Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk for the latest downloads:
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86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
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Why is singing so scary?

Even when you get to the status of Martin Freeman, star of the Hollywood film Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and cult figure in the The Office, singing hold a certain terror. In his own words, "It's improvised singing. It's not the world's great ambition to hear me sing, trust me. The world doesn't need that - it's got war. I'm hardly Aldershot's Sammy Davis."

Apparently it even outweighs appearing naked on screen - Martin was the shy naked body double in the hit film Love Actually. In the new film Confetti, Martin and Spaced star Jessica Stevens had to learn a high-kicking, tap dancing MGM musical number for their wedding scene. "I didn't find the dance-steps that easy to pick up either but, in the end, I loved doing it. I think most actors are show-offs and have at some point spent afternoons singing along to West Side Story. I'm big fan of musicals, but I hadn't been in one since drama school 10 years ago." It took two years to edit down the 150 hours of material recorded for Confetti into a 100-minute film.

And improvised singing is not the only difficult thing for "the new face of M&S menswear" "I was asked to do a reading at a wedding and I couldn't do it. It was really embarrassing. It was impossible for me to get through without breaking down. It took me about 20 minutes to do and in the end one of my brothers had to get up and put his arm around my shoulder for moral support before I could do it. I'm sure everyone thought I was just another luvvie, auditioning for a role."

So performance nerves and wedding speeches don't just paralyse the man next door. But why is singing (or giving speeches) so scary?

Singing first - I find that mostly it's because the performer doesn't feel that they know what they are doing. Perhaps singing is not a comfortable mode of expression, or perhaps they just don't know what to focus on. In my audition coaching I will often spend time with actors on the focus of the story, or the emotion that needs portraying. Or I will provide simple techniques that enable the actor to make the appropriate sounds.

With my performance coaching, I might work with speech-makers (or recently a powerpoint presenter) on the purpose of the speech, the reason for you giving it, and offer hints and achievable goals on breathing, grounding and focus. And of course, to speak in the way that fits you, rather than how you think you SHOULD speak. One recent (and very nervous) auditionee for a lead role in Phantom went into the final audition with several clear goals for each song. He was able to notice when his nerves were about to take over, and was able to shift his focus to some of his personal goals. He came out satisfied that it was the best audition he could do that day.

And you can't ask more than that!

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86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
Looking at a Voice (endoscopy video download)

Belting it out...

In my coaching studio I work with performers to sing in the style of the piece as it was written. This usually makes it easier to sing, even for someone who has never sung in that style before. I am firmly convinced that music is written with a definite style in mind, and if you change that style, you had better be making strong, conscious decisions to change it.

That doesn't mean that you can't change the style - I spend half my audition coaching sessions working with West End clients on how to adapt their repertoire to a particular audition or show. Having said that, Musical Theatre pieces, particularly the women's songs, are written with specific gear changes and vocal/emotional qualities in mind. The more contemporary you get, the more the songs require specific voice qualities, although even the classic book musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein require opera singers to modify what they do in Verdi.

It's to do with the tension and excitement that we, the audience, perceive in the sound. Broadway Belting has a particularly exciting sound - often edgy, "full-out", and with the possibility of falling off it. The singer does seem to be giving everything they have to make the sound. In the production of belt, there is an element of that, but most clients working with either Gillyanne or me on the Vocal Process Belting Explained course say that when they get into the appropriate vocal position, it feels so much easier. That's even though from the outside, it sounds just as full-on and 'dangerous'.

Now as far as I am concerned, any voice can make any sound. However, not every brain can sing every style. Performers usually resonate with one or two musical styles, and those are the styles they work best in. Of course it is possible to train in different styles, and I have many colleagues who do just that. However, they have made a conscious decision to learn the musical and vocal styles that are alien.

The fascinating thing about Belting is that so many people want to do it. We have had jazz singers, pop singers, gospel singers, classical recitalists and opera singers all wanting to learn how to make that big, free sound. I have to say, Belting Explained has been running for many years now, and it's our most popular course. It's huge fun. Can you imagine what it's like when 40 people in a room finally 'get it' about making open, loud noises? Gillyanne's process to Belting is so clear and straightforward, she even had a group of voice scientists yelling away in the middle of a conference!

Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
Looking at a Voice (endoscopy video download)