Dear Ensemble,
Thank you for a wonderful night of music making on Wednesday! Each one of you showed up ready to breathe, move, sing and share the joy of learning new music!
This week there is a lot more music to learn. Please see your action items for practicing below:
Breathing meditation, standing position and a Yoga flow
Continue practicing breathing as follows (5 min a day.) This technique will not only relax and center you but will also greatly improve your ability to sing long sustained phrases.
Mind and body are one continuum, reconnected through breath
Standing Pose…
Is the most important pose to learn for anyone who wants to improve his/her singing, posture, health, wellbeing and creativity!
Here is your “template” practice daily and try to keep this posture intact while walking too!
Stand with FEET parallel, feeling “rooted” through the 5 points in connection in both feet
Activate the arches of feet, relax the KNEES with a microbend
Tap THIGHS to activate them but stay relaxed
Tuck and tip pelvis slightly to find the neutral position of the HIPS: in line with knees and heels
Lift STERNUM noticing the space between hips and RIB CAGE
Relax SHOULDERS down and back (shoulder blades tucking into imaginary pockets)
ARMS relaxed and long, by your side
Reach up through sides of the SKULL, CHIN tucked in, JAW relaxed, NECK elongated.
Gentle smile – – feeling calm, present, rooted to the groups and open to the limitless sky of possibilities.
Our first yoga flow…
Singers and musicians of any kind, athletes of all types, and creative people all over the world have long recognized the power, benefits and joy of yoga. Mindful, fluid movement through yogic poses — a flow — is one of the greatest ways to re-align your body with your mind, to feel calm, joyful and energetic. We will spend about 5 min at each rehearsal practicing different poses — monkeys, pigeons, roosters, green dragons, cats, cows, dogs and sphinxes!
Flow #1 (Forward bend/monkey/chair)
Begin in standing pose (as described above)
Hands together in front, slowly raising them to a forward salute (inhale)
Exhale — forward bend: round the back, release neck, head, arms; let gravity pull you down, stretching the hamstrings, lower back, calves.
PLace hands on lower back, bend knees, chin tucked: slowly unbend – vertebra by vertebra- to standing, neck and head come to place last — this takes INHALE and EXHALE
Slowly bring arms up as before, inhaling — forward salute and forward arch
Exhale- forward bend
INhale — monkey (legs straight but relaxed, spine straight and long,hands on knees, back and head make a “table”
Exhale — forward fold, bend knees
INhale — Chair (knees bent, feet flat on the floor, arms raised above head.
Exhale — standing
Exhale into standing.
Sing Legato
This is a great book of vocal exercises that we will study throughout the year.
Each “song” focuses on a particular style of singing like legato, staccato, marcato or a vocal skill such as singing leaps, executing tricky intervals or changing dynamics quickly. Essentially, these are warm-ups and (just like the warm ups we do each rehearsals) they should be sung in several keys — going up and down half steps from the original key. It is called “transposition.”
Once you learn the melodies, simply give yourself a new starting note and continue in a new key.
At the last rehearsal, we learn #1 song: Sing Legato. As part of your homework:
Grace, arranged by Mark Hayes
Homework: learn your part solid from beginning to mrs. 57.
Altos and Soprano 2, mark your score to reflect the changes in voicing (see below)
This is one of the songs that you will perform at the Holiday Concert in December, together with Vocalise and Bravi.
In class, we listened to a great rendition of the piece on Spotify, performed by the Women’s Chorus of Bringham Young University on their CD, “Wonderous Love” (you can hear it again on spotify)
Caverns In The Clouds
You did a great job learning this song beginning to end in one rehearsal! It was thrilling to see and hear!
Homework:
Old Fox Wassail
Homework: learn your part beginning to end
Vindo
(not everything in life must have purpose and make sense — some things are simply for fun and pure joy! Vindo is one of them 🙂 I promise to give you plenty of “serious” songs later!)
Here’s the video we listened to in rehearsal.
If you are unsure of your part placement (Soprano 1, Soprano 2, etc.), you can find them here.
Other announcements and reminders:
Thank you all for your focus and attention throughout our rehearsal. We hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and we’re looking forward to another wonderful Wednesday full of music making!
Elena and Jazmine