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Practise Routine Week 5

This week I changed my second and third solo songs to a slowed down acoustic version of “I Wish I Didn’t Miss You Anymore” by Angie Stone (accompanying myself on piano) and “Riptide” by Vance Joy where I’ll be accompanied by Cameron.  To prepare for these songs I do my normal routine of lip trills, tongue twisters and scales. I really focused on learning the chords for piano as there were none online.

I chose these songs because they suited my voice but also showcase meaning and emotion which I love to sing because it connects you to the song, because of this I take inspiration from various artists like Freya Ridings, Grace Carter, Maisie Peters and Sam Smith. I don’t like Beyonce, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj. Although they’re good artists I don’t particularly like their music because the lyrics have no meaning and personally it’s not my favourite style of music.

Our band song “I Miss You” has improved a lot but we are still working on the dynamics of the song and everyones individual parts.

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Practise Routine Week 4

Technical exercises this week included lip trills and tongue twisters like “Unique New York” and “Minimen” to work on my articulation and diction to use in my solo song as it’s quite slow and has focus on the sound of the words. It really helped me to sing the song better and perform it to my fullest potential whilst also strengthening and learning skills I can apply to other songs.

This week I carried on practising ‘Lost Without You’ by Freda Riding but I decided to also practise “Why Her Not Me” by Grace Carter, which I’ve now chosen as one of my solo songs. These songs are quite similar with the theme of love but also are equally slow and have a similar structure and use love as different meanings. For the song by Grace Carter I have decided to sing a cappella which is way out of my comfort zone but I believe it will boost my confidence.

Our band song “I Miss You” has a lot of work to be done to it, however we’re improving and changing things to fit our style and voices and the idea we have will be great when we can execute it.

For next week my SMART targets are to have picked, rehearsed and near-perfected my first two solo songs “Toxic” and “Why Her Not Me” and also my parts in the band song “I Miss You”.

Another one of my targets this week is to start songwriting for the theme of “Love”.

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Practise Routine Week 3

This week for my technical exercises, I used metronomes to work on my timing and also doing scales using ‘goo’ and ‘foo’ like last week to carry on strengthening my voice and transition. Throughout the week I rehearsed a slow acoustic version of ‘Toxic’ by Melanie Martinez, however I also decided to practice ‘Lost Without You’ by Freda Riding. I practised these songs to an acoustic backing track but then decided I would like to accompany myself on guitar so learnt the chords via ultimateguitar. My practise routine for this week helped me to strengthen, get in time and smooth my transition from my head voice to my chest voice. I think the biggest challenge for me was the “Ba” exercises as I’m not used to using my chest voice at a higher range. One of my SMART targets for the week was to perform infront of family and friends which I did on Saturday to improve confidence.

One of the main things I’ve improved on in the last month would definitely be my confidence, I still get very nervous before performing but now once I start I feel okay and confident performing the song. Our band songs this week consisted of “Breathin” by Ariana Grande and “I Miss You” by Clean Bandit which I practise at home a cappella to make sure I’m using the right notes. In our band, we like to sit in a circle to discuss what instruments are where, who’s singing what bit and plan every aspect of the song to then perform and make changes.

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During my practise routine, I begin by warming my voice up doing vocal exercises like doing lip trills, humming, doing scales and stretching myself out so that I’m fully ready to perform and no harm can occur to my voice. After warming up I continue to set my chosen instrument up (if I’m accompanying myself) and sing the song throughout. At the end, I think about things I may possibly want to change and how I can do that. When I’ve reflected on the performance and decided whether I need to change anything, I go through the song a few more times applying these changes.

A few strengths of mine would be being able to learn quickly, accompany myself and timing however I would like to develop a stronger voice within higher ranges, which I can do by adding more vocal exercises into my routine eg. “BA” “goo” and “foo” sounds to strengthen my voice and improve my range.

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Can I play with the panda?