Spring break is SO close.

Today was a good day. I have a stupid cold so I thought I was going to be awful, but it actually went quite well. I sang Into the Night and Kiss Me Not Goodbye. Being plugged up makes singing almost easier in some weird way, but I'll take what I have to work with I guess! I sang Kiss Me Not Goodbye on recital today and it went alright. I surprised myself with the high notes so that was pretty cool. However I really need to work on getting a brighter sound on my chest voice notes. I think I'm making pretty good progress on all my rep. I think I'm getting pretty close to having everything memorized. That is going to feel super awesome once that's all done. What I need to do is start really working on Vanilla Ice Cream. I have to do that one on a recital  because it will be completely awesome, but that song super frustrates me especially in like the beginning because it is so in the middle of my range which makes it a tid tricky when deciding when I want chest voice and when I want head voice. Oh and I'm getting really excited for our studio recital!! I super love my Italian piece. When practicing I've been getting a touch frustrated with my tongue because I'm trying to do duckas and kitties and todays, but it just never seems to get any easier. I just keep doing them though hoping that one day it'll just be a piece of cake. So that's really all I've got today. Not much going on in the brain of Jackie today. ta ta for now!

Things are becoming more difficult.

Yesterday's lesson wasn't exactly what I'd call successful. My stupid voice is just so tired. I've been really careful and stuff, but it's just really difficult to stay away from all the sicknesses floating around and not overwork my  voice. Tour is tomorrow, work all weekend, choir dress rehearsal on Sunday, choir concert Monday, sing in recital Tuesday, tour on Wednesday. My poor freaking voice. I think I'm deciding that I will sing through the Cohen for the choir concert but none of the other songs because there's no way I will have a voice the next day after all this junk. I am just getting so fed up with everything around here. I'm not going to blog about everything that's pissing me off because that's probably just not a good idea. Also, it is that time of the month so I am just double irritated about everything. Anyways. We went through Chanson d'amour yesterday and it went pretty well. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp for the most part on most of my rep so now I can really start picking everything apart and working on all the little things. I'm pretty sure I've got the French down pretty well for that song. My trouble spots are just the half steps on that one spot where I want to take a whole step every time. Another thing that I'm having a tough time with is getting up to the f on like the o ma rebelle and ou mes baisers parts. It's not really singing the f that's hard, it;s just singing it cleanly. I think I need to approach it differently. I always get all nervous and think great the f is coming up and then I strain for it. I think I need to maybe cut of the note before it just a touch early so I can relax myself instead of just gushing a bunch of air up and hoping what comes out is right. If that makes any sense at all. We started on Nacht Und Traume but didn't get too far. We talked about the ich-lauts and auch-lauts which was pretty helpful because I was lost on how to do those. We did La conocchia last and that one went pretty well. Its starting to get easier switching from head to chest so that is always nice. And I don't think I have any more complaints today so I think this blog will stop here.

Alright, in my lesson Tuesday we started out with some buzzes and then we did duckas kittys and todays up and down five. I totally forgot about those when I've been practicing so they are making a huge come back because I super suck at those. We also did some i's while I was turning my head side to side. That was a really interesting exercise. It was hard but like easier at the same time if that makes any sense?! Yesterday when I was practicing I worked on Vanilla Ice Cream and La Conocchia and I used that method in both of them and it really helps keep  when I have too much tension and strain in check. We worked on Kiss Me Not Goodbye too. That song is a lot harder than I thought. There's a lot of switching from head to chest, but it's short so it's not too taxing at all. It went pretty well, but I just have to be suuuuuper aware of dipthongs. They were pretty much owning me. La Conocchia was next which may be making a run for one of my favorite songs. I'm working real hard on switching to from head to chest which I'm finding is a lot easier in some parts versus others. I also need to look at a few of the high spots and do a little bit of modifying. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Phil came to my lesson to help. He is awesome. We started on Vanilla Ice Cream but I couldn't get very far because I was getting pretty tired. Choir is calling for some pretty intense singing since we're getting down to the wire and all. BUT  I promise I am being very careful and am using a lot of caution!! There is no way I'm going to blow out my voice again. I feel like I'm finally at a point where my voice is almost 100 percent healthy since high school. I get really upset sometimes because I feel like I really did a lot of damage in the past that maybe limits me now, but I am finally feeling like I can do this instead of having to which brings me to the last thing that I've been putting a lot of focus on....confidence. I think a lot of my worrying and stressing is all in my head. Okay no, I KNOW that it's all in my head. Ever since I sang in studio a couple weeks ago and Katie Hansen made the comment that I need to get an ego that's really stuck with me. I know I've made bounds and leaps of improvement since I started, but you can never be too confident. So that's my game plan for life basically. It's weird because I'm a really confident person when it just comes to life, but when it comes to music I lose it all. However, it is a work in progress, and I promise and I know it's going to get better.

I have to make this quick. Glee is on in 15 minutes.

Okay so today in my lesson we sang through la conocchia, chanson d'amour, and nacht und traume. I still had a bit of missed pitches in la conocchia, but that part is easy to fix. The hard part is going to be switching form my head to chest voice so many times. I was trying to do it all in my head voice today and when I tried doing it alternating head to chest it just sounds weird because I can't make a smooth transition yet. Now that I finally found my head voice I just don't want to ever leave it! hahaha no, but seriously, it is really hard to switch from head to chest. That'll definetly be one of my main focuses in practicing this week. Chanson d'amour is still tripping me up a bit with the french in a few parts, but overall I think that one is actually going pretty well. I discovered today that I'm kind of losing my buzz. Ha that sounds funny...let me rephrase....I am losing the buzz when I'm singing. That's better. I need to remember spoon tongue and in the nose. I have been doing a little bit of close throat too. I just need to remind myself of these things! I know I know how to do it, it is just being consistent at it. Mr.Phil came to my lesson today which was awesome...shout out to Phil....the last song we went through was nacht und traume which I just freaking LOVE. Ugh it is so beautiful. Cannot get enough. But it's super hard. I think my german is a little bit sloppy so I need to do some hardcore listening on that, and there's some tricky rhythms which I hate to admit it, but aural skills is going to come into some serious handy with that. Now I just gotta get those memorized by spring break which I'm thinking should be pretty easy. So far I"m not freaking out so that is a step in the right direction! Well buenos noches beautiful people. I got a show to watch.

Foreign languages. Blah.

This week in my lesson I was sick. Boo. I started taking vitamins because I seriously have the worst immune system of all time. So we went through la conocchia and even sang through it. I had most of the words correct, and we smoothed out a couple spots. I still need to work on notes for that one because I've been focusing so much on the language. I can't forget about the most important part! We also finished reading through Chanson d'amour and then sang through it. Dr.Hepworth said I actually did a good job, but I still feel like I'm not quite getting my mouth around the words like I need to. Practice practice practice. Once again I still need to work on the notes though. I've been neglecting my actual singing practicing a little bit because I've been so focused on score study. That's something I probably shouldn't admit in a blog, but I promise that now I'm getting the words and I'm feeling better there is going to be a ton more singing going on! But I have been listening my butt off to all my songs. I am just so happy with all my rep! It's a great feeling. We also kind of sang through Nacht und Traume. This song worries me the most out of all of them because it's my favorite but the rhythm and tempo just kind of really confuse me. It is supposed to be taken sehr langsam which means very slow and Dr.H told me to think of the eighth note as the beat which might make it a little easier to practice. I think once I get Mr.Phil to record the accompaniment for me it will make things a lot easier too than just trying to sing it by me counting. Dr.Hepworth says that I'm ahead of schedule from where I need to be at this point in the semester so hopefully I can stay ahead of the game. I CAN'T GET SICK ANYMORE. And I'm not planning on it. I need to get all my foreign language pieces memorized by spring break so I better get on that.

French is hard.

In my lesson we went over a lot of diction stuff. We hadn't actually sung yet, but that's okay because I think the actual singing is going to be the easy part of a lot of my rep this semester. La Conocchia's ipa isn't online so we went through and figured that out for that. Thank goodness it's Italian so it's semi easyish so it wasn't too painful to figure out. Then we went through the french in Chanson d'amour. It's such a beautiful song and I can see how people say that French is such a beautiful language. The song and the words together are just stunning when put altogether. However, French is very very difficult I think. There seem to be so many little sounds you have to be sure you get in for each word. I think being in diction this semester is really going to help me out with that though. Already reading ipa source is just a thousand times easier because I recognize symbols and know what they mean. My assignment for the week was just to speak through la conocchia and get the words down real well and speak through the first part of Chanson d'amour. I also borrowed Dr.Hepworth's Italian dictionary because I couldn't find the translation online for la conocchia and it's always nice to know what you're singing about. I'm really excited to get back into the swing of lessons and start singing again. I am really excited for barriers at the end of the semester because I already feel like I'm on the right track for being prepared. Just have to work on my languages!