Concert Hall Comfort
Hello everyone and welcome to a new month and a NEW YEAR! As I've mentioned in the last blog of last year, instead of doing an entire blog week I'll be doing a blog weekend. That way I can focus more on putting together my music videos and the sheet music for my original songs. Click the links to watch those videos and buy the sheet music, and please consider donating to this website as well. Last month's blogs were all stories about my Christmases during each year at college. Though I did talk about my Christmas experiences in 2021, there's another special experience I had during that semester that I didn't mention in that blog.
I've mentioned many times before that the Music building on campus basically became my home while I was at school, but it wasn't until Fall of 2021 that I started to have a connection with the Concert Hall. During that semester I didn't have any classes until my 11am choir class, but I still got to campus one or two hours before that. I soon found out that on some mornings the door to the empty Concert Hall was unlocked, and I wanted to take advantage of that. My private teacher had mentioned before that it can be hard to adjust to the Concert Hall and perform well if all one does is use a small practice room. The space in a practice room and the Concert Hall is very different and a performer needs to be prepared to carry their voice in larger spaces. So with that in mind, I practiced the solo pieces I had for that semester in the Concert Hall whenever it was available to me. Eventually, I would even ask teachers if they could unlock it for me on the days it was locked. I'm really lucky that I was surrounded by such awesome music teachers. They were always willing to let me in, unless something else was about to happen in there.
Once I was able to get in, I would go to the back of the Hall, take out my phone, open my recording app, and start recording myself to listen to afterwards. I wanted to make sure that my voice could carry itself to the very last row in the auditorium. But since I started the recording while I was in the back of the Concert Hall and needed to sing on the stage, there was a long stretch of silence at the beginning of my recordings. The only sound heard would be my pounding feet across the floor. I tried not to run too fast, but I would still find myself catching my breath for a few moments on the stage before I would sing. It didn't affect my singing ability though, and I would go through my songs as many times as possible.
Each time I went through a song, I would work on a different technique I was learning from my private teacher. These were things like having a warm up version of the song and putting my Hands in different places around my face so I could mentally visualize what I needed to do to sing well. I would put both of my hands in front of my face as if I was singing in a corner and slowly drop my hands as I sang through the song. I would put my hands over my ears because for some reason I sang better when I wasn't so focused on listening to myself. I would put my hands near my cheeks and point upwards to have a brighter sound, put my finger under my chin to keep it from moving too much, and sing with Staccato to practice having steady breathing. Finally, after all the technique I did, I would focus on my character and the purpose I had in singing the song. Ermuntre Dich, Mein Schwacher Geist was my favorite one to practice that semester. It was a Christmas song about the newborn baby Jesus. So like I said before, this was yet another Christmas experience I had that year as I sang that song for my final.
Speaking of finals, there was one generals class I took that semester that was hard at times. The final was the hardest part of the semester in this class. We were supposed to work with another person in class throughout the semester and give a presentation together as our final. Unfortunately for me, my partner was a pregnant gal who felt unwell on finals day and I was left to do the presentation by myself. I felt so scared! My next final after this class was my vocal final and I was more anxious about sharing my presentation to a classroom of about 20 people than I was about singing in the Concert Hall. In fact, I kept looking at the clock, begging it to go faster so that I could leave the classroom and go sing. That's how comfortable I got with singing in the Concert Hall. It's my home. Just like the green room of the Concert Hall, the hallway outside the Concert Hall, the hallway next to the practice rooms, and every part of that building. I'm homesick for the music building and everyone in it. Don't take for granted the wonderful things in your life that give you a sense of home.
I hope you enjoyed reading this first blog of the year! Don't forget to click the links previously mentioned in this blog. Thanks for reading till the end and keep on dreaming!
