The Importance of Lyricism

This week in A Capella rehearsal we were working on a specific section of the song I solo on for competition. This specific section is unique because they gave me free range to do whatever I want vocally in order to make the song truly my own version. There are no expectations, yet that is what I feel  restricting me? I know that sounds weird but the pressure all now falls on me to make this part shine. I want to make it special and create a really cool buildup leading into what is my favorite section of the song. I was talking to my music director Sean and bouncing off ideas for potential riffs when he asked me what I felt the lyricist was trying to say in this moment. I hadn't approached it from the writers point of view yet. It reminded me of my musical theatre rep class where before we preformed we would have to turn in an annotated analysis about the character's thoughts and feelings throughout the song. This would help us understand the motivations behind why the song was being sung by the character and enhance our performance. I may not be in a musical but Hozier still had motivation for writing this song, and my biggest clue lies in his lyrics.

I then went did my own little analysis of Hozier and this song, highlighting key words that I could focus on when singing this song. The words that stuck out to me were: puppet, pauper,  sick, news, goal, wrong, fire, nobody, bolder, and solider. Hozier is known for his political statements throughout his songs and his performances. I saw him preform live in concert where he made a power political statements through his song Nina Cried Power and his set which displayed things like the national spending of the US military. He talked about oppression tied to his culture in history and oppression/inequality he noticed in todays world. His creative work is a true reflection of how he feels about the state of the world. When looking at the song "Nobody's Soldier" you can see rebellion written all over his lyrics. They paint a picture of a man struggling to find freedom in a power hungry world and who doesn't want to conform to the options he was given. After my analysis I went back to the song with a new perspective approaching it from an angle of how can my voice portray this message rather than howcan it sound the best at this part. I'm still not fully solidified the idea for the riff but I have definitely created something that feels true to the song and message. 

                                                                    

                                                                    (Pic from Hozier's set)

Finding Harmonies In The Chaos of Life

This week is was my cousins 18th birthday so I travelled home with my best friend to go see her. One of my favorite games to play on long car rides is to see how many songs I can find a harmony to. This week for my creative practice I decided to played around with harmonies.

Ever since I joined an A Capella group in college I have trained my ear to at pick out harmonies in songs to help me practice for our sets. This has helped me a lot when learning sheet music for our competitions and I am now more aware of what my part sounds like blending with everyone else. I love the way that two different sounds can mix so beautifully together. I challenged myself this week to find 5 songs that in my playlist to find a harmony too. I picked two Lizzie McAlpine songs because for some reason I find her voice easy to harmonize with. She has a simplicity to her music and a clear tone allows me to easily pick out a chord to pair it with. There was definitely a lot of trial and error but eventually the chords would lock and then you get a really cool sound. This was so fun to do and was a great way to relax my mind off a long day of studying. Playing around with harmonies reminds me of how much I love to sing and how the voice truly is an instrument. 

On the way home in the car on Friday I had my best friend put her playlist on shuffle to see how many songs I could pick out a harmony too. I surprised myself with how many I could find. Even if it wasn't the whole song I was able to at least find a part of the chorus to create a chord. I truly have grown so much since last year and it is a great reminder that your voice is a muscle and the work you put into it will show. It truly has brought me so much joy this week. I am so blessed to be able use my voice as a way to self regulate and wind down from the craziness of school.  

Resonating With Resonance

This week has been pretty hectic, I had almost fifteen assignments and two exams to get through. This meant many late nights at Marston Science Library trying desperately to remember the process of oxidative phosphorylation and the Krebs cycle. On top of this the Gainesville plague had finally got me. I knew that my artistic practice this week was going to be something to help ground me. I struggled for awhile to think of something new besides just singing to release tension. So one day while I was in the kitchen cleaning my dishes I started humming the song "Pictures of You" by the Cure and felt the vibration tingle throughout my face and release some of the tension in my sinuses. I then decided that my focus this week would be on humming.

At the end of my study sessions I would come home and lay a blanket on the floor of my room and proceed to hum. I would close my eyes and just let my mind wander. I wouldn't sing a specific song but rather whatever came to me in the moment. I started with a couple of lip trills to start breaking up any tension or pressure I had in my sinuses. After that I would hum and focus on how it felt from the tip of my nose to middle of my chest. I would go up and down in pitch and see how that affected where I felt the resonance in my body. The lower in pitch I went, the lower in my chest I could feel it.  It was the best stress reliever for the craziness of the week and truly helped me clear my racing mind. It allowed me to reconnect with my body by assessing where I was carrying my stress from the day. It then allowed me to get rid of anything I was still carrying with me before I went to bed. It also helped release a ton of nasal pressure from the sickness I had unfortunately picked up. This is something I will definitely I will be carrying with me for the rest of the semester. 

Next time your stressed out or need to clear your mind, try humming. As simple as it may sound it just may be the stress relieving and grounding technique you need. 

The Art of Singing in the Shower

As the semester is starting to pick up I am starting to see my schedule get progressively busier. One of my commitments is my A Capella group here on campus. My freshman year this was my creative outlet and place where I could come from studying in the library and give my brain a break to just sing. This year I was selected as Performance Director for our group, which means I choreograph our set. I was also given a solo for our up-coming competition season. Going into the fall I was so incredibly excited about these new opportunities that allow me to take on a leadership role in something I absolutely love doing. I have recently started working on the song I will be singing for comp which is "Nobody's Solider" by Hozier. I love this song so much and it gives me the opportunity to show off the natural rasp in my voice which works great due to it's rock nature. The closer we get to working on this song during rehearsal the more nervous I have gotten about singing. The more I started to work on it the more I convinced myself that I shouldn't have been selected to solo on the song. Singing in the group was one of the highlights of my freshman year. They have seen me put in the work and now have trusted me to solo at competition this year. To be honest, I am terrified of letting them down. We also just had auditions for new members in our group and they are all so incredibly talented and amazing. I remember how much I looked up to all the upperclassman last year, especially the soloists. I want to be a role-model for them just like the upperclassman were for me. The pressure was starting to build  and singing recently had started to become an obligation. I wasn't approaching it with the joy and love that I have always had for my gift of singing. I knew that I had to do something to fix this and release this negative energy.

This is where the good old fashion art of shower singing comes into play. Since I moved into my new apartment I haven't sung once in my shower. This is partly because I have new roommates and didn't want to scare them off just yet. Something about singing in your shower is so freeing. It's just you, the soap bottle that is being used as a mic, and the imaginary opening night of your sold out concert. I realized the problem was I wasn't singing for me anymore, I was trying to live up to an a standard that I decided to set for myself. So I prescribed myself a playlist of Adele and Reneé Rapp then sang my little heart out in the shower every night for a week. My roommates haven't said anything yet so hopefully it wasn't too awful. It felt so good to sing for me again, with no expectations, no pressure, just vibes. I think when we create art with the intention of pleasing other people or living up to a certain potential, we restrict ourselves from fully being able to enjoy or be immersed in our work. It's not fully original because it's being modeled to fit the approval of someone other than ourselves. This can often take away the joy that comes from creativity. 

So if your art just isn't doing it for you anymore or it feels like work, go back to why you started doing it in the first place. For the love of it, whether that looks like doodling in a notebook or singing in the shower.