Singing

Yaaaay singing! Well, it's all extremely confusing at the moment. I've signed up to sing with a new teacher and I'm not sure how we're going to click. Open mind! :)

Apart from the teacher-finding problem I'm in a much better mental place. I'm reading a great book about technique and tips for coping with being sick and things. (Steam inhalation!) And it's really good to just go back to basics and think about things like diaphragmatic tension in a different way. I definitely pushed through too much air when I was with Hilary. Like, I'm breathy. I hate it. So in my practice at the moment I'm focusing a lot on regulation the flow of breath, keeping my throat open and not holding tension in the stem of my tongue, or in my upper body.

Even just having adjusted a few elements of my posture and the way I use my tongue, I'm able to keep singing for soooo much longer. I think I did a straight 40minute practice earlier. It did include breathing, but I totally think that's a worthwhile investment and it was mostly singing.

Another thing I'd like to change is my visualisation. Definitely with Hilary, the way she's taught me to visualise makes me inclined to be flat. She has always told me to think down when I'm singing up, because the larynx goes down when the pitch goes up.

So I used an exercise from the book I'm reading. It's one we used before in a speech module I did at college. You hum at a low pitch and feel the resonance with your fingers, then change the pitch and feel how the resonance moves. To be honest, I can never feel it with my fingers, but it always alerts me to where the resonance is actually going. So now, I'm imagining the different areas of my face, hairline, top of my head. It seems that when I do this I really do get a more resonant sound on my top notes. And for some reason it encourages me to open my mouth more at the top.

Just going back to the stem of my tongue, it's something that was pointed out in the book. When I studied with Hilary, she taught quite a complicated system of tongue positions. I understood it to an extent and it helped me a lot in my middle register but once I had to go up my upper register I found it constricted my throat. And I realise now it's because I was too focused on what my tongue was doing, and as a result I just tensed the bejesus out of it, which tightened my throat.

It is quite disheartening to come from five years of training to think that you have to go back to the start in many ways. Honestly, I'm relieved this is happening now rather than going on being afraid to sing because of sore throats and just STRESS. I learned a lot from Hilary and I can definitely sing. It's just that I think it's time for some new perspectives.

Wine Lady?

It's nice having neighbours. It's nice to know that if anyone tries to break into your house or murder you there will be people around to call the police or find your body. However, most people will have at least one set or family of neighbours who endlessly amaze with their level of inconsideration.

I have one such family of neighbours.

Last winter we were woken every morning by such trilling beauties as jackhammers and pneumatic drills right outside our window. For four seemingly endless months the house next door was effectively shelled out and rebuilt. In the end we were rewarded with an extension window which faced directly into our living room window. Hello new neighbours.

So, that's all in the past and forgotten, obviously. However, this family has a little boy. He's about five years old and likes to play in front of his house, which is totally fine. He also likes to play in our garden, which is not totally fine. Last week he was playing hurling right next to my car with indiscriminate force. I watched this from inside and the fourth time the ball narrowly missed my dad's car I decided to go out and tell them very sweetly to feck off.

Out I went and in my most teachery voice I said:

"Boys, make sure you stay off the grass here. Go and play in your own garden."

Child: "THIS IS MY GARDEN."

Me: "Nnnoo. This is my garden. That is your garden."

Child: "ALL THIS IS MY GARDEN!!!"

Me: "Play on the green or play in your garden. Don't play here."

Then something quite unexpected happened.


His little friend was mortified and started trying to explain. It just didn't make any sense.



So I was just watching them pick up their toys and move off the lawn when the child turned around and said



I mean, I could understand if he'd actually seen me carrying a bottle of wine or drinking wine. But I don't drink.


My conclusion is that this kid is mad.

WIZARD ROCK WEEKEND and more!

I feel quite bad for not having posted at ALL in the last week. Last week literally nothing happened. I slept for the entire week trying to recover from the weekend before.

The show was EPIC! The only hitches happened in my set, which is okay because I feel I can take ownership over Siriusly Hazza P and Harry and the Potters' successes in a tiny way for actually being the person who organised the concert. It was a great weekend. I just can't stress how amazing my friends are. James and Lucy, Mary and Janice, my family - MY PIANO TEACHER, EVEN? All helped in some way and were there to support me. God. Amazing, really. The actually progression of the day went so eerily smoothly. There were no disasters. Well, my friend Martha has a seizure after my set but like, these things happen. More than 200people showed up. I'm still in shock.

The after party was cool too and culminated in me collapsing at 2.30am. Whimp.

---:D---

Today this happened:

Me:Maybe getting a cat would help you with your paranoia.
Sister: I'm not paranoid!
Me: You called the police on some mice in your house....

---:D---


God I can't believe how long it's been since I posted, really. Here are some photos:


I was in Cheshire visiting my friends a few weeks ago. They brought me to a BOUTIQUE that was NAMED AFTER ME!



Laura and Cathrin also brought me to a bakery which had SUCH tempting confectionary. I sampled 6 cakes and took the rest home to my father. :D


In the bakery I got a hug from Robert, my man cardi who I named after my boo, Robert Downey Jr.


Later I murdered them at the dinner table.


From the show weekend!

On Saturday we went into town with some Wizards and Witches.


Neil, Mel, James, me, Lizzy, Matt on our way to the Opera House


And in the evening I had everyone over for a barbecue at m'house:



THE SHOW!!!


Siriusly Hazza P



Me with a Hazza P on either side.


Harry and the Potters working the crowd!



Me, Cathrin and Ellie doing our thang.



GOOD TIMES!

Pimping the Maids

Words:

Sadomasochism, homosexual, incest.


Moderately coherent thoughts:


'Pimping the Maids' was a multi-media exploration of Jean Genet's play 'The Maids.'

In the original play two sisters, Claire and Solange take turns in role playing the brutal murder of their mistress. It's based on a real story of the Papin sisters; two French maids who murdered their employer in 1933. In 'Pimping the Maids,' the audience was shown a selection from a material from a work-in-progress.

To be honest, it was quite weird. But that's good, to me the original play was weird. The whole concept is weird and it's even weirder when you read about the Papin sisters. It took place in the UCC Drama lab, which is where I expect weird experimental things to go down.

My favourite part was the soundscape. It was a combination of electronic sounds and strings being used in various ways. There was a man sitting to the side of the stage bowing, winding and tapping strings and playing pre-recorded speeches and (once) an opera aria. I found his goings-on pretty fascinating. I spotted what looked like a tiny hammered dulcimer that had a picture of the creepy Papin sisters glued to it.



I REALLY LIKED how they tied in the sense of tension throughout the different media. Over the drama lab's fireplace (yes, fireplace), there was a projected looped video of "Madame" looking down over the audience and actors sternly, portrait-style. The strings in the soundscape played a major part in the creation of tension. At one point the sound guy played the sound of wire strings being tightened, so that the audience is wondering when breaking-point is going to be reached.

Another example of the tension was in what I would like to call "the toilet roll scene." Madame stands on a stereo-speaker/pedestal over the two maids, who unroll and pull sheets of toilet roll. The more submissive maid seems able to break off the paper and bend the sheets, while the more frustrated, dominant maid pulls the sheets taught until they break. All the while a high-pitched whirring noise plays over the rest of the soundscape.

There was some spitting that I'd really rather not think about. But there was some amazing movement by the "Madame."

Different Things.

This morning as surreal. I wasn't at work. Work finished last Friday and yesterday was a bank holiday. There was a weird moment where I'd just cleaned the kitchen and hulled a load of strawberries for jam and I thought "I shouldn't be here." It was bittersweet because I would have been going into a double practical class which I never enjoyed but I sort of missed that sense of very fixed purpose.

So instead of shouting at a load of fourteen-year-olds, I made strawberry jam. :) I used a recipe from out family bible (below) which uses quite a troubling amount of sugar.











This evening I made chocolate chip and hazlenut cookies....




Can you tell I need a purpose?

Vision Board

Yesterday I made one of those lame-ass vision board things. You're meant to find pictures of what you want in life and shtick 'em onto a poster. Or, alternatively flick through magazines and just cut out the pictures that capture you or spark your imagination.

I wish I had a camera so that I could show you what I put in. I'll have to improvise with Google Images.


FOOD:
Muffin with star:


Trifle:


Mackerel:


Raspberries:


Blueberries:


Vegetable soup:


An orange:


Cup of tea in pretty flowery china teacup:


A laattteee:


Woman in apron holding a tray of cupcakes:


FLOWERS:
A yellow flower:


Lavender x2:


Girl with bunch of flowers:


Misc:
Girl spinning in pretty purple dress.


Needle and thread:


1940s lady looking mysteriously happy (Yes. I know this is Grace Kelly. She's closest to the picture):


Paper party streamers:


Cracked Tree trunk:


Flicked Liquid Eyeliner:



Plus the words GORGEOUS CURLS and five pictures of Robert Downey Jr.

When I went to sleep last night I decided that this meant nothing more that I was hungry when I was making it. Which is true, but something is clear here. I like food. A lot. I only recently realised for certain that good food is one of my passions in life. No matter what I end up doing - if I work in SuperValu stocking the frozen section - cooking, baking, growing and eating food will ALWAYS be a part of me. I was brought up around recipes and ingredients. People knew we were about excellent food. It's true that I would like my career to involve food. That is one of the reasons why "event management" is such a positive thing for me to do - it's stretchy. It means I can incorporate my passions (music, food, dresses, people, singing, talking) into my life.

There's kind of a crossover there with nature. Flowers and fruit.

I'd love to let a psychoanalyst analyse this for me and tell me what it meanssssss!

ALSO! Since I pasted all those pictures, my camera arrived from Ebay. :D So I may post one later of the chart! :D

Song of the Provinces

On Wednesday (28th April) the choir I sing in, the Fleischmann Choir, opened the Cork International Choral Festival with the Cork School of Music Orchestra. Under the leadership of our conductor Dr. Geoff Spratt we performed Song of the Provinces, a piece written by Professor Aloys Fleischmann himself.

The wonderful thing about this musical work is that it requires audience participation. After the melody is taught, the audience must join in with the choir several times. It's amazing how it came together on the night. Putting it together with the frankly EPIC orchestral accompaniment in rehearsals was one thing, but to hear the audience join in for the main melody was just unbelievable. It gave me shivers and I couldn't keep the grin from my face.

I think Prof. Fleischmann was there in spirit, singing with us. He had admirable views on the importance of choirs in communities and it's undeniable that the the sense of community in the City Hall on Wednesday was at its strongest while everyone sang together.

Below is the video of the performance. Watch Geoff conduct the audience, I love that!