Sarah Brenay - SS - Ch. 11

Chapter Summary: Smith gives readers career advice. His main belief is that a singer must be true to themselves and follow their own path to success. What worked for someone else will not necessarily work for you. In choosing repertoire, Smith advises readers to choose music that the love and that they want to sing, rather than focusing so much on the fach system. The important thing is to infuse the piece with your own personality. To have a successful audition we need to be poised, focused, and have a positive mental visualization of how the piece will go. The goal should not be to impress or to prove anything. Instead, our focus should be on what we want to communicate and create in each moment. Smith also mentions that having an over enthusiastic or apologetic attitude in auditions is selfish and can be very obnoxious. Give every performance everything you've got, not holding back or apologizing for anything. Auditions are no different from performances. Smith's 5 step process for learning repertoire is: study the text, speak the text, speak the text in rhythm, get the pitches down mentally, then sing. A note he made on marking was that if you don't know how to do it properly, never do it. He did say that a singer should mark dramatically until they know their staging, so that they avoid contradictions in interpretation and mess themselves up. As singers, we can't express ourselves in the way that actors do, or else we may tighten the body and voice. We need to stay free while we express emotion. It's important not to do strenuous exercises before a performance so that we don't tire the voice. Sigh's and wobbles are good for performance warm ups, as is talking. We need to know ourselves, and know what it takes for us to be prepared. Showing up unprepared for rehearsals is a great way to get fired and earn a bad reputation. We also need to be good managers of our time and our finances.
Key Concepts: Be true to yourself. Sing what you love and what you like singing. Give your all in performances. Be prepared. Think positively, visualize positively. Manage your time and money well. Know yourself and your voice.
Key Terms:
Fach - assigns singers specific roles and wardrobes
Making Connections: Woah. This was another loaded chapter. So much good stuff! The tips for performance really resonated with me. I'm realizing all that I've been doing wrong when I perform, and some things I'm doing right. I also like his advice for picking repertoire. There are a lot of aspects to singing that I haven't thought about before, and Smith gives a great introduction to these concepts and gives great advice.