Today we had 3 main things for the lesson- to go through the assignment brief, to go over singing skills and warm ups and to have our first initial skills audit.
First of all, Lena gave us our assignment brief. This brief contained grading criteria, milestone dates, explanation of the 3 tasks that we have to do and a scenario. The unit has been split into 3 tasks- Task 1 contains P1 and P2, Task 2 contains P3 and Task 3 contains P4 and P5. It's useful knowing what the unit involves and what we need to do to achieve each grade. It also informed us of the 3 milestones for each task- 10/12/12, 11/03/13 and 20/05/13. For example in Task 1, in order to get an overall distinction you need to perform technical singing exercises with confidence and attention to detail AND show considerable improvement in vocal technique. To get an overall pass for this task you simply need to perform technical singing exercises and show some improvement in your vocal technique. Knowing the grading criteria and the milestones is important as it gives us time to prepare ourselves for assessments and gives us the time to improve and get to the standard needed. There is also individual pages for each task within the booklet which talk through each task in more detail.
For example, in task 1 we will be involved in workshops which will develop our vocal abilities through warm ups, exercises and singing games! We need to focus on intonation- how well we hit notes, our tone, our projection and breath control. As time goes on we will lead warm ups and technique sessions for the rest of the class. Task 1 recognises the improvement we make. We need to make a progress log to set ourselves targets and review our progress. To achieve a distinction in task 1 we need to show consistent improvement.
Task 2 focuses on our musical memory. We should be able to tell whether a musical phrase rises and falls, be able to sing back pitches, intervals and rhythms. We also need to be able to speed up or slow down the tempo as well as increasing the dynamics from soft to loud and understand the effective musical shaping. Through musical games we should then be able to repeat phrases up to four bars in major and minor keys with a variety of rhythmic features such as syncopation and in simple or compound time.
Task 3 is about rehearsals and performance. Task 3 is all about our 3 performances and the rehearsal stage. We need to show that we can apply all the vocal techniques we have learnt and show self discipline, commitment to working hard and a cooperative attitude and approach which will help us work with others. We can use any sort of music in our performances so long as we use characterisation. To get a distinction in this task, we need to work with confidence and pay attention to detail and be able to exploit fully the creative and artistic possibilities of the music and be fully engaged.
We then went over singing skills and warm ups which included note bashing to food glorious food!!
Finally, we had our initial skills audit. Lena took us off individually to a room where we were assessed on our singing skills. During this we were assessed on how long we could hold a note whilst using diaphragmatic breathing. We also did the 'vee ay arr oo' exercise which we have been practising in class (and i've also practised this at home!). We also got assessed on our musical memory- Lena played some rising arpeggios and we'd have to hum back in the same key. Overall, in the audit i was assessed on intonation ( how well i hit the notes), voice placement, tone, projection, breath control and my flexibility/ range.
We also spoke about what songs we would like to do for our assessment- Lena told us that maybe, at first, we should choose songs from our past which we know really well. I think this is a good idea as these would be easier to characterise as we will be emotionally attached to them.
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