Today was the first official rehearsal for our unit eight production of the Putnam County Spelling Bee.
In my opinion, this rehearsal was successful. This is due to how well we (us first years and second years) as a collective were able to work together through this singing rehearsal of the opening number.
In the rehearsal we were sat in our vocal groups: Sopranos; Tenors; Altos and Baritones/Bass. While in our sections we were introduced to our harmonies, the timings of when to come in and out and whether we would be singing certain sections in our vocal groups or in our gender groups.
During this rehearsal I struggled with timing, a point in the song I was having difficulty with was between bar 112 and 116 where our tutor had us boys all singing together. My mistake was that on bar 113 we sang the lines “hear the word.” The individual word of ‘word’ is held for three beats and goes from an F to F after lowering then rising in tone. With holding ‘word’ for the correct time, I was holding it longer than others and I was accidentally holding it while heading into the brief rest before the girls sang their line.
As you can see in the photo, bar 113 ends with a crotchet worth only two beats. I was holding it for longer.
Like all things within Performing, repetition gets you used to what you’re doing and helps you learn how to do it correctly. In this case, after going over this section a few times which is natural in any rehearsal/practice. I was indeed able to understand and grasp this little section. It was vitally important that I did learn the timing as coming off at the wrong section can make a performance look more mediocre rather than professional.
Aside from timing within that small section, the rest of the rehearsal went sufficiently spectacular for me. The song sat very comfortably within my range and had me singing to the best of my ability as it was a song that required belts at certain moments like most musical theatre songs do.
One aspect of this song I love is, the fact it is a giant ensemble song that relies on us chorus members coming in at the right time and being able to supply supportive tones and really give the song some kick in certain areas. For instance, through bar 41 until the end of bar 45, we as an ensemble sing for the first time just after Schwarzy has a solo line. This makes our appearance that comes out of nowhere much more theatrical as we are going from a quiet small solo line into a big group singing piece.
Here you can see highlighted, the areas I sing with. These are the Tenor sections as I have marked my Tenor areas with yellow and the boys only sections with Orange. The reason I have annotated the Tenor sections in a different colour to the boy sections is because of how in future songs the relevance of performing in different parts will be much more relevant. It is also a great idea to have the score laid out much neater so that reading it is simpler.
After this first rehearsal I am feeling fabulous and excited for the Final Major Project! I feel the song is setting in fantastically and it is so much fun. It’s generally easy for me and is a great test of what I can do vocally.
Here is the link to the video of us all performing the opening number all the way through.
We are all starting to work together quickly and successfully while having fun with the singing and in my opinion, the song sounds great for our first time performing it all together for the first time. I am hoping through rehearsal and team work we can keep the quality of this song on the up!
Bibliography!
- QUICK NOTE. – All the music terminology and what they all mean was learned from these links and this book.
(1) – Ukulele. A beginners Guide for Absolute Beginners.
(2) – https://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com/music-note-values/
(3) – http://www.piano-keyboard-guide.com/music-note-names.html
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