Day 9

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Ran through warm up.  needing to work on relaxing.  I don't think I did that these last couple days
Minutes - 18

Repertoire - Ran Behind These Walls, revisited Calm and looked at pacing,  ran lying there.
Minutes – 13

Successes – Holy Crap.  Behind These Walls and Lying There sounded amazing.

Areas for improvement – Um so, I'm starting to worry that Calm is boring.  Th song is so fast I'm worried that people won't keep up with it and tune out :p

Notes:  Lying There is easy to get too worked up in.  Be careful of that.

Healthy Eating

Meal Description – I'm not sure what was in it, but Kurt was there and he said it counted.

Restaurant or Market – Um, vegetarian that Kurt took me to :p

Rating – 9. sooo good.

Photograph - 

Day 8

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Ran through Warm up CD.  Focusing on a relaxed sound.  voice seems tired
Minutes - 23

Repertoire - Calm, I'm Alive, revisited Purpose
Minutes – 10

Successes – Good.  Didn't strain, but I kinda wanted to in purpose.  Calm is fun and easy for my range so nice when not feeling at the top of my game.

Areas for improvement – Still need to overcome some range stuff in Purpose but that is still my best song.

Notes: 

Day 7

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Mixing and focusing on dopey sound.  Warm up CD.
Minutes - 18 minutes.

Repertoire - I'm Alive and Lying There
Minutes – 14

Successes – I'm Alive is getting better pacing wise. It's a lot of fun and that fun is starting to really be captured.

Areas for improvement – There needs to be more connection.  should be developing that character more.  Also there are a couple rough spots towards the end of the song that need help :p

Notes: I totally did something not happy with my voice. Tomorrow I'm not talking except to sing.  Maybe I'm just tired from traveling

Day 6

So I did practice!  I just was at the damn airport and couldn't blog.

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Breath and mixing.  Ran through warm cd
Minutes - 20

Repertoire - Practiced Calm with my recording of paul playing it as well as Behind These Walls.
Minutes – 12 minutes.  (Had to get to airport)

Successes – I can breathe again, the coughing is down which is great.

Areas for improvement – Gotta get back to working range.  All my current song selections don't challenge range much (except one part in Behind These Walls)

Notes:

Day 5

NY is so much fun!  I'm having a great time!  I have lots of updates for you and will be posting tons of stuff once I get back to NM, because the internet here is soooo slow and I'm hardly in my hotel room.

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts -  Warm up with my vocal cd.  mixing and releasing throat, jaw.  focusing on a dopey sound 
Minutes - 20

Repertoire - Ran through Calm from Ordinary Days and my key of "I'm Alive" from Next to Normal
Minutes – 11

Successes – I'm alive is a really great key now and I'm having a bunch of fun with it.  Calm is really also perfected and is one of my favorite pieces.

Areas for improvement – There are odd breaks in I'm alive that still need to be worked for a lower voice.  since the originally the song is so high some parts of the song are a bit strange now and need adjustment

Notes: Not a pianist in town (NY) is willing to play Calm.  It's too hard to sight read.  Not a good audition piece all round.

Day 4

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts -  Warmed up in hotel room to vocal tracks.  Worked on mixing and breath.
Minutes - 18

Repertoire - Ran Behind These Walls, Calm, Lying There. 
Minutes –  15

Successes – My three numbers are great and really solid for a performance.

Areas for improvement – Voice isn't 100% yet from the cold, but breathing is easier in NY so that's a plus.

Notes: Drink a lot of water today.  I'm a little dehydrated.

Day 3

Daily Practice for Day 3


Technical Concepts - Ran through my warm up CD on my way to airport.  Still focusing on breath and getting it back without coughing
Minutes - 18

Repertoire - Behind These Walls from Keys ran twice with feed back from Christie (also in the car with me
Minutes –  13

Successes – I'm really connecting to Behind These Walls.  The emotion of the piece is really coming out

Areas for improvement – The song still needs to be perfected in terms of ornamentation.

Notes: Run all pieces you plan on singing at the piano bar tomorrow night.  Calm, Behind These Walls, and Lying there.






Landed in NYC!!! Here safe and having a blast.  more updates to come.

Day 2

So Day 2  is here and done!

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts -  Breathing again and a warm up.
Minutes - 18

Repertoire -  Calm from Ordinary Days, Lying There from Edges,  and Behind These Walls from Keys
Minutes – 20

Successes – Calm is memorized as are the other two!  Ran through all numbers before going to see Paul Roth.  Breathe is slowly coming back to me.

Areas for improvement –   Going to be going over some pitches with Paul today.  Need verification on some in Calm and Behind These Walls.

Notes: Still sick, still coughing but less which is good right?




Date/time - 01/02/2011    at 1:00

Instructor -  Paul Roth
Minutes-   50

Repertoire -   Calm from Ordinary Days,  Lying There from Edges, and Behind These Walls from Keys.

Points covered –  Tempo for all three and styling in Lying There.  

Notes: All three recorded for further practice!!!

PHOTOGRAPH:   It's a bad photo, but I only own a camera phone

Day 1: Part 2

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - breathing, moving from voice to voice, letting my letting go of the throat.
Minutes - 30

Repertoire - "Calm" from Ordinary Days
Minutes – 30

Successes – Working on the words in Ordinary Days!  Phew that song has a lot of words.  It's not a challenge vocally or range wise but that song is a massive breathe challenge.  Performed that song for my camera and played it back.  I can act it.  I am so funny somedays I forget.

Areas for improvement –   Breathe!  That Song requires so much breathe.  I got really sick a couple of days ago and since my breathing has been very shallow and breathing deep since raises a cough still.  Once my support comes back the song should move better.   Still need to work on the songs words and pronunciation

Notes:   Tomorrow work "Behind These Walls".  It takes less breathe than "Calm" so it might be safer to practice while sick.






Healthy Eating

Meal Description – Three eggs scrambled with soy milk (instead of whole), bacon, orange juice (with some pulp), and white tea

Restaurant or Market – Sunflower Market

Rating – 7, just because I'm not that great a cook.  I mean it was all done and good and I'm focusing on protein intake during this 30 days so I think it was great.  I just wish I was a little better at cooking.

Photographs -

Day 1: Part 1

So it's the first day of the challenge.   Practice blog will be up with in the next handful of hours
and here is my first video update!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x5IM5CMwzg

Talk to you all again very soon.   I mean really soon.  Like slightly later today soon.