Lesson 2/8/11

Italian is harder than I thought! It's definatly a challenge. But now I have it all down and really i am not a pro not at all! But with Dr. Hepworths help I have it down for my songs.  A challenge that I have with it is rolling the r's. My tongue just doenst do it! I remember another thing for warming up I really could not buzz my lips at all. But Dr. Hepworth said ok this is what I want you to do I want you to Buzz all the time anytime when your walking or not really doing anything just buzz and I did and it worked. I still can't do it really well but for warm ups it works!

Lesson 2/1/11

Getting all the songs down and getting them learned was a challenge. But really it was great going through the process learning a lot about how I practice and how everything has come together. I am pretty proud of myself. A lot of self discovery in all of that to. I remember batteling the tongue was an issue and getting my breathing down were the worst and still are. They are definatly a work in progress.

Lesson 1/25/11

This particular lesson I was worried because voice lessons are obviously different then just regular lessons because you have a jury at the end of it and its difficult music usually so I was worried about getting all of these pieces together on time be the end of the semester. Well looking back it really isnt that bad! Dr. Hepworth is a great teacher and a great encourager to always keep you on track and keep going.

Lesson 3/26/11

This blog is for Saturday, March 26th, 2011. I remember this lesson clearly because I was going through the process of liking O del mio dolche ardor better than Danza Danza. This is important at least to me because Danza Danza was so awesome to me and O del mio dolche ardor was just so hard to practice because it had so many different parts to it and Danza Danza just had a first middle and end so it was pretty straight forward. But really all of my songs are really pretty and fun to sing. We are so lucky to have Dr. H as a teacher. She does so much for us and she puts her heart and soul into it. I know she has taught me so much that I will use it for years to come! What a blessing WSC music faculty is to us!!

Lesson 4/26/11

This is a blog for Tuesday, April, 26, 2011. This lesson was a relief but a stressful one because I had gotten done with singing on recital. It went very well I remembered all of my words and got all of my pitches correct! So I was very proud of myself. But a stressful one because I was freaking out about how I was gonna memorize all my songs for Jury's and such. But Dr. Hepworth assured me that I had nothing to worry about because I was prepared and that it isnt the end of the world, which she is right.

Lesson 4/19/11

This blog is for lesson Tuesday, April 19th, 2011. This lesson was great because just that last Thursday Dr. Hepworth had awarded me the outstanding Freshman award at our studio's recital. So that was very exciting even though I am not taking lesson's next semester I was very honored! But this lesson was polishing my song When I have Sung my Songs because the next day I would sing it on recital. So she went over bowing and getting some pitches down in some spots. But it went very well I wasnt nervous but I knew it would kick in sooner or later.

Lesson 4/12/11

This is the blog for my lesson on Tuesday, April, 12, 2011. This lesson was difficult because I was suppose to sing on Recital the next day but I had a head cold so it was not fun. But Dr. H said that it was ok and that I could just move it to the next Wednesday. I was going to sing When I Have Sung my Songs by Ernest Charles and I was excited because it is such a beautiful song to sing! Dr. H is a big fan of this song as well so it was a goal of mine to get it down and sing it as beautiful as I could because I wanted to have her be proud of me!

4/5/11

Well another week with Dr. Hepworth and a good one at that! I sing on recital this next week and I want to sing Danza Danza but it depends if I can memorize it all in time and if not then it will be if Music be the food of love. We talked about in our lesson this week about how in the last part of Danza Danza there is a Hemiola and that is when it feels like the song is in a different meter than it actually is. In this case it feels like it is in 2 rather than 3. I just love when Dr. Hepworth tells me all these technical terms. It helps me understand my song better and it helps my brain wrap around what I am singing. O del mio dolche ardor is awesome!~ The End. Toad is awesome.

Lesson 3/19/11

This lesson is a make up lesson for this week that is 3/22/11 because Dr. Hepworth is on the hiring committee for Dr. Clark. So it was awesome seeing Dr. Hepworth on a Saturday!! But a big and epic fail on my part I had just woken up right before my lesson so lets just say when Dr. Hepworth says that its not good to sing in the morning its definatly true!! Well even though I was kinda still waking up or my voice was lol we worked on Danza Danza and it is going awesome!! I am going to sing it this week for studio and I am excited because I love it!! I am also going to sing it on recital on april 13th! But if any of you have any suggestions on how to memorize Italian please let me know I am nervous about messing up and not remembering but other than that all is wonderful in the land of Miranda's Voice lessons!!

Lesson 3/15/11

This Lesson was Last weeks lesson and it was a great one! I mean every lesson is a great lesson when you have Dr. Hepworth as a Voice Teacher! She gave me a new song to work on and it is When I have Sung my songs to you. It is a beautiful piece and I couldnt wait to learn it! Now Ive had it for a week it is absolutly beautiful and I find myself singing it a lot! My other Italian pieces are going well better than I have expected! That is definatly for sure!

Lesson 3/1/11

Ive been getting behind on my blogs!! But this blog is for the first lesson in March. I remember it well because we worked on a lot of my o del mio dolche ardor. We worked on my vowels and making sure everything is getting pronounced right. I was kinda getting frustrated with my Italian and getting worried I would never be able to memorize my Italian songs for Jury's. But now I am getting along with o del mio dolche ardor and now its going really good not quite got it memorized but its getting there!

Lesson 2/22/11

Voice!!! I have learned so much about the human voice from Dr. Hepworth! She and I are alike in the sense that we like things explained in technical terms to help us learn and get the grasp of the situation. Thats why I just love her o so much! On Friday for studio I sang If music be the food of love and it went ok I guess. The night before I had lost my voice from just being plum crazy and so I was trying not to over do it but I did. So the next day it was still a little scratchy but I could talk pretty decent so I warmed up and went for it! It wasn't perfect but my comments were that people liked my dropped jaw and that I was pronouncing the words very clearly. My constructive comment was that I need to keep my tongue down. So in my practice time I have been trying to drop my tongue and its all apart of whipping the tongue into shape! So it just so happens that I would always have the dropped tongue on my mind no matter what even when I am singing in church or even for fun I would just always do it so hopefully I can get used to it even more and hopefully it will improve my singing!

Lesson 1/15/10

Ok, so this is a blog for last week's lesson! There is no other reason for me writing this now instead of earlier only because I forgot and pure laziness which is horrible! But last weeks lesson was really good! I know now how to spell Chiaro Scuro right and I also learned about Prima Passaggio and Seccundo Passaggio. I love learning the terms that correlate with the way I sing. Time out! Can I just say how amazing my voice teacher is! Dr. Hepworth and all of her students that may be reading this have opened my eyes how singing can be such an adventure and true discovery into music Dr. H has inspired me and has taught me a lot, and I am truely blessed to have her teaching me at Wayne State College! Ok Time In! So going on into practicing If Music be the food of love by Henry Purcell is coming along I am gonna sing it for studio this week and am nervous but I have to do it sometime and if its anything like playing piano in studio Ill be fine but I am worried in some ways about my high tones like the high F's and G's that they will just come out really bad. So Ive been focusing on being very open and a lot of air up there to make them sound pretty! Also on the second verse just focusing on the other embellishments that are needed in that area are hard but I have been working on that. And on to O del mio dolce ardor by Christoph Willibald von Gluck I am just getting the melody and working on pronouncing words but it sure is a long song! Well my lesson is tomorrow and I am very excited to see what I will learn from a wonderful teacher!

Voice Lessons 1/18/11

My first lesson with Dr. Hepworth was awesome!! First we started out with warming up, and we tried doing buzz's but I am not very good with that as we have found out! So I have been working on that and annoying people and such its all in a days work! Then when I am going up in warms I need to sing Sing Ahs. I can't remember what I was suppose to do when I go down so that will be in next week's blog for sure! My tongue is the enemy! I need to whip my tongue into shape! I have been doing that such as when warming up I will do duckie duckie duckie, or vowels like that bring the tongue forward then backward. The two songs I am starting out on are If music be the food of love by Henry Purcell and O del mio dolce ardor by Christoph Willibald von Gluck. We talked about the Kiaro Scuro which kiaro means very bright like that annoying eeee in the very top register and scuro is the hollow oooo sound and getting the mixture of both is what I need in If music be the food of love. It is very hard to get that mixture but I have been working on it so hopefully it will come! I am very excited about the future I do believe Dr. Hepworth will whip my tongue and my singing into shape in no time!