Friday 6th February 2015 - I Dreamed A Dream Evaluation

Friday 6th February 2015
I Dreamed A Dream Evaluation

I Dreamed A Dream

Intonation - I thought that my pitching of this song went better in this performance compared to some of the rehearsals, however some of my notes were a bit flat. For example on "But the tigers come at night" i sang it slightly lower than i was supposed to, because of this this verse in the song didn't sound as if it easily flowed with the rest of the song. On the other hand i thought that for the rest of the song i had the correct pitching, in previous rehearsals i had had trouble with the pitching of "No song unsung" as i was singing it too low, in this performance i sang this one note higher than in rehearsals, this made it the right note for the song. In this performance i listened to the music more whilst singing, this is because when rehearsing i didn't listen to it carefully enough and this was the main reason my intonation was poor. 

Timing - During my last run though of this song i missed my cue to start this is because i hadn't had listened carefully enough to the music however because i did my timing was better in this performance, especially in the beginning. I thought that my timing throughout the rest of the song was also good, this helped me as had enough time between the verses to take enough breath to continue singing. As well as this, if my timing was off then it would had have contributed to bad intonation because the backing track would have been ascending and descending and i would be singing the wrong part so my voice would have clashed with the music. 

Breath Control - I didn't think that my breath control was as good as it was in previous rehearsals, especially whilst singing "As they turn your dream to shame". I had to take a breath after "Dream" to be able to sing "Shame" on an ascending scale, however there was only a short amount of time to be able to take a big enough breath to sing it. When i got to the last note of the scale i ran out of breath and therefore i had to sing it quieter and slightly shorter than i planed to make sure that i finished the word. 

Projection - In this performance i thought that my projection was better then any other rehearsal or performance. This is because when practising i visualised singing along a rope to see how far it would travel, each time i rehearsed my voice gradually got further along the rope. This is a technique that i learnt to improve projection, i focused on this because i previously had struggled with this. Specifically i thought that my projection was best when singing words that were at the end of a phrase such as "Time", "Die" and "Thunder", this is because they were sustained notes and therefore there was more opportunity to project these to the audience. I tried to use dynamic variation whilst singing "Made and used and wasted" by singing "wasted" a little quieter than the rest of the song. However if i could perform it again i would develop this further by creating more of a contrast in this section, because although i thought that my volume was good throughout the majority of the performance there wasn't much dynamic variation to make the song sound more interesting to the audience.

Diction - Whilst singing this song my diction wasn't great, i didn't think that i pronounced my "D"s well enough when singing "Dreamed". If i had have had good diction for this then it would have put more emphasis on this word, this would have made the performance better as it would have looked better as there would have been more focus on wishing of something else. On the other hand i thought that when singing "die" my pronunciation of "d" was better as well as my "t"s. I was happy with these parts because i had been working on my diction by singing different tongue twisters, since doing this it has improved so i need to continue working on this to improve my diction further.

Overall Characterisation - I thought that my characterisation was better in this performance compared to my rehearsals however i think i could have developed it further if i had focused on it more. During my rehearsals i had to pick a spot on the wall to focus on, this is because before i found it hard to focus and my eyes were wandering around. If i had done this in the performance, it would have looked as if i was nervous and therefore looked uneasy and under rehearsed. The main thing i need to focus on is facial expressions whilst singing because i didn't think feel as though i had much variation in this performance, if i was able to repeat the performance i would have looked as if i was really sad and desperate at the start and then contrasted it with much more happier and lighter expressions when singing "He slept a summer by my side". This is because the beginning of the song she is singing about how she wishes her life was as it used to be and not how it is now, compared to in the middle where she is thinking about how she was happy before. If i had, had more variation in my facial expressions then it would have portrayed the story of the song better to the audience.

Targets For My Next Performance -

• Breath Control - This is important so that i have enough breath to continue singing a phrase whilst breathing in the appropriate places in the song. I am going to work on this by doing exercises such as breathing in for one, holding it for one and then breathing out for one, i am going to continue to do this up to eight.
• Diction - This is important so that all of my words and phrases are pronounced correctly so that the audience can hear each syllable clearly. I am going to work on this by doing tongue twisters such as "unique New York" to continue to improving my diction. 
• Facial Expressions - In a performance it is important to use facial expressions to convey the meaning and theme of a song to an audience. I am going to work on these by rehearsing songs in front of a mirror so that i can see if i am using enough variation to make the performance look interesting.