2. The focus for today’s rehearsal was to successfully learn the lyrics and melody lines to both ‘Summer
Nights’ and ‘You’re the One that I Want’, additionally add harmony and backing vocals where they are
needed.
Therefore, my target for today’s lesson is to be able to learn the songs off by heart, be able to sing
‘Summer Nights’ with successful high notes, and learn the backing vocals to ’You’re the One that I
Want’ with an effective alto harmony.
Today’s lesson was held in the Music Director’s room around a piano. As a company we chose two songs to focus on
which were ‘Summer Nights’ and ‘You’re the One that I want’. The first song that the company looked at was
‘Summer Nights’ this is an important song for me as I play the role of Sandy, therefore I will sing all solo lines from
the song. I was given, lyrics for the song and asked to sing with the company. From this the Music Director was able
to pick out my faults they were: my posture, articulation on certain words and the accuracy with the final
harmonies. As a result of this feedback I immediately considered my posture. The correct posture for singing is to
have my feet shoulder width apart, my arms down by my side, my chest open and my head held high as if someone
was pulling one piece of hair on your head. This is so the sound of my voice can travel and project properly whilst
creating a pure vocal tone. Consequently, as I changed my voice this improved my articulation with my lyrics.
Originally my peers struggled to hear me sing the lines ‘He showed off splashing around’ and ‘summer fling don’t
mean a thing’. However, after I had rearranged my posture my articulation had improved.
Another fault I was chose for was my final harmonies as I struggled to hit them. Summer Nights is renowned for the
final two notes that John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John incredibly sang in the film version. This became a small
problem as I am an alto and struggle to hit high notes. I came up with a solution, that I would hit the high note and
hold for a brief time whilst the ensemble hit the same note, as they hit the same note and sustain it, I would
harmonise with a lower note to create a three part harmony. Once every member of the cast was happy with which
harmonies and lyrics they were singing, we started to keep singing Summer Nights. As a result I was able to sing the
song without any lyrics and start to consider characterisation. However, rehearsal time was running out and we had
not started ‘You’re the one that I want’. For this song Betsy is playing the role of Sandy, so I am a backing singer.
Again like Summer Nights we were given the lyrics and we sang through the song, and feedback was given about our
singing. My feedback for this song was to have a confident and accurate entry for the backing vocals because there
were times I was unsure therefore stopped projecting as I was afraid of going wrong. After a few rehearsals of this
song I was confident that I knew my entries and harmonies for the backing vocals.
3. A skill I felt was a strength this lesson was my projection whilst singing my solo parts for
summer nights. I believe this is because I attend singing lessons and know how to support
myself whilst I am singing. I make sure my body is wide and open so that there is plenty of
room to fill with oxygen. I successfully hit the high notes and was able to sustain the big
note at the end whilst projecting and not being too ‘breathy’ by having breath control.
A weakness within this rehearsal was my articulation and diction. I struggled to
articulate certain words and lines within the song summer nights. I know this is
because I did not properly warm up my voice before I began to sing. I will work
on this by doing vocal warm ups so that my mouth is able to move and open for
articulation. Additionally I will change my posture so that the diction and
articulation is clearer to hear.
Review of my target: my target for today’s lesson is to be able to learn the
songs off by heart, be able to sing ‘Summer Nights’ with successful high notes,
and learn the backing vocals to ’You’re the One that I Want’ with effective alto
harmony.
I believe I have achieved today’s target by using effective techniques such as
memorising lyrics, harmonising, articulating, considering my posture etc. to
enhance my singing performance. As a result of these skills I have been able to
achieve my target and will be able to focus on a different song for next the
next rehearsal.
