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1. Rent Write up
In the first session of Rent with the music director, we focussed on warming up our
voices so we could learn how to do it correctly without injuring our vocal chords.This
took place in the music room. From here, we were then able to learn the start of the
lyrics to ‘Seasons of Love’. We chose this song because it’s a great way to open our
showcase as Rent is also opened with this song. It’s a simple yet moving piece that
gradually introduces us to the audience and what to expect from our showcase. We
warmed up by blowing tissues through straws and going up and down our vocal
registers while also learning how to look after your voice without warming up. For
example, staying extremely hydrated all the time. Then, we learnt the chorus and
one verse from the song, adding a three part harmony in some places. To do this, we
were split into two groups: the lower and the higher pitch. Rent is about a group of
young people struggling to survive In Lower Manhattan, in the thriving days of the
AIDS crisis. Main characters include: Mark who is an aspiring filmmaker struggling to
find his place in the world, Roger who is a HIV positive musician, Angel and Mimi are
also HIV positive and struggling to find true love and Joanne seeks honestly from her
girlfriend Maureen. Seasons of love is about finding love and hope despite the
struggles life brings. The song teaches people to appreciate the small things and
togetherness as they all stand in a line together during it.
My SMART target for this rehearsal was to project my voice so I could be louder and
hopefully influence others to be more confident with their singing too. I am not very
good at projection anyway so learning to do this will also allow me to gain another
skill. After this rehearsal I know I still need to project more so I need to build up my
confidence so I can sing to my fullest potential.
As a company, we also decided that we all need to project more as our volume as a
whole was very low, with only people like Evie and Ria leading the song with their
confident voices. The harmonies were definitely a challenge for us because we
either had to sing very high pitched or very low pitched and most of us are not as
confident with singing as others are. Sometimes we would forget the harmonies or
accidentally blend in with other harmony so that it was no longer a three part
harmony. So this is definitely something we all collectively have to improve on.
A strength of mine was my open mindedness. I was really open to trying out the
harmonies as I had never done one before which was pushing my limits as I am not
as confident with singing. I want to keep doing the harmonies so I can continue to
perfect them until it is just second nature and I want to sing more so I can have more
career opportunities in the future.
However, a weakness of mine was projection and confidence. I really need to just
push past my head voice so I can sing louder and clearer but I will need confidence

2. to do this. To improve this weakness, I could practise singing in front of just one
person and then gradually add more people. This will make me more confident to
perform and sing in front of my peers, making projection easy because i wont mind
people hearing me.
So, because of this, my target for the next rehearsal is to have better projection
when singing and doing the harmonies as it will make them sound clearer and more
prominent. Also, it will influence others who are also not as confident to do the same,
creating a really professional opening scene.
I think I reached this target because I was more confident with the harmonies so I
projected them more. However I often travel back to my head voice so I need to get
out of that habit for next time.
Here is me partaking in the vocal warm up where we
blew tissue through straws to open up our vocal
chords. I thought this exercise was very beneficial as I
had a sore throat that day and my voice felt much
clearer and easier to use after this. Without it I don’t
think my singing would have been as good and able.
Here you can see us being split into two
groups. The right side is the lower vocal
pitches and the left is the higher vocal
pitches. We did this so we could
visualise when exactly we had to do our
harmonies. This helped me to know
whether I was singing high or low as I
tend to blend with the other side by
accident.