The other day, I got the comments back from the marker on that performance I mentioned in my first "Discrepancies" post. I thought that her notes on Imagination/personal voice (though, as an aside, I thought this fitted better into stagecraft, but anyway):
You are capable of conveying strong emotion in your voice. Bring this out more. The song is slightly angry and defiant; can you be more theatrical in the way you carry this off onstage? There is something about your persona which could gel more with the feel of the song. It feels like you are sitting a little outside of it as you sing. Can you lose yourself more in the performance? Also, think about dress, hair, maybe take off your glasses or wear contacts? It is a raw, tough song and it would be good to see you in a rawer, less safe and controlled state when you sing it.
I'll do a bit of a deconstruction of this, sentence by sentence pretty much. Just to make it easier to follow, I'll put in on a new line for each sentence.
I know; I had a bit of a cold/cough that day.
I intend to.
Slightly? I would have said significantly, but OK....as for being more theatrical, I can do it, but it does get difficult when I'm constantly in that higher register. Whether I will do it or not remains to be seen.
Err....you really don't know me, so you can't really say that. And there really isn't.
Aye, because I don't really agree with it, and it makes me a bit uncomfortable singing it in front of people who are my friends, who might think this actually is me.
I could, but I doubt I will.
I'm not going to spike my hair or something, if that's what you're meaning. And I really don't wear contacts. Taking my glasses off is OK, but I wouldn't do it.
It is a raw/tough song, but I'm neither a raw or tough person. Aye, it is a bit of a mismatch between singer and song, but there you go. I had to sing something, and I didn't get anyone asking me, so I had to ask someone. :P
(/rant)
=) Excellent response. Good deconstruction, and you're right: this assessment is fundamentally flawed in that you might be relying on someone to write you a piece of music. If it doesn't fit your style, well, it's going to be hard. I guess they didn't really think about it. (And thanks for showing up for my performance =D)
ReplyDeleteHmm, the text seems to have gone weird with this...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yeah. The assessment doesn't actually say that the piece has to be written for you; just a piece written by someone else in the course. And that was the case here, they'd just basically done up a piece they'd done ages ago, and I said I'd perform it. So yeah :P
And no prob :)
I had a bit of a giggle that she was actually bold enough to make a suggestion that you change such fundamental parts of your personal appearance! But what this assignment is really about is our performance PERSONA. Not who we are (necessarily), but who we are ON STAGE. They can be quite different things - for instance this song, which you feel is at odds with your personality. I don't agree with the marker that you should change your personal appearance so specifically (unless you feel it actually would help), but perhaps this could be an exercise in performance where you really do step out of your comfort zone and become 'someone else' for the delivery of the song. So long as you mean it it won't be fake - just damned impressive versatility :)
ReplyDeleteQuite so, and I do a bit. But this is one of those cases where I think I wouldn't particularly like to act that. I probably could, but don't know if "angry" is something I particularly want to not fake. :P I dunno.
ReplyDelete