results432

                    Show choir, to me is not all about winning. It's about getting up in front of tons of people, performing my little butt off , making great memories with my fellow members, and growing as a person. But I have to admit, winning doesn't hurt.

                    This weekend our freshman and prep show choir competed at Prairie High School. They both seemed to be in a good position for the very first competition of the show choir season. They had sharp choreography and good vocals. Of course there are things that need some practice time in each show. But competition is not just based on how well they do by them selves, but also by how well their competitors are prepared. And after seeing some of their competitors I still thought our prep had a good chance at first or second. Last year they went undefeated and I know many of them wanted to do the same this year.

                    After all the wonderful performances we waited in the gym to find out who won. We waited...and waited....and waited. It turns out we waited for an hour and a half because the judges had technical difficulties. After all that wait we learned that our freshman got first place and our prep got third, which was kind of a shock but it sparks the idea for this blog; how to deal with results, whether bad or good.

                    I would first like to start off by saying that winning is not everything, just as I mentioned before.

                    Okay let's start with worse case senerio, what do you do if you get 7th out of 7 groups? I'll tell you what you do. You accept the ward graciously. You do not act shocked, or insulted or anything. Other groups should applaud you just the same. That basically goes for all spots your particular group considers a "low" ranking. Then your group should go back to rehearsal and work hard to fix the things the critic judge told you after your show.  They shouldn't go around talking bad about other groups. It's bad etiquette.

                    After the announcer tells everyone who the second place winner is, everyone will know who the first place winner is because of process of deduction. But that doesn't mean the second place winner shouldn't get their own recognition. That means the winners should be gracious and give the second place winner their applause and not cheer that they one. They cam cheer after the announcer says they are the winner but not before that.

                 

       

                 

singing405

Today, children, I will be teaching you the art of singing. No. I’m just kidding. But I will be telling you some essentials of producing good singing habits. If you get good singing habits and build a strong base you can work up from there and experiment with your voice to make all different kinds of singing. You would not classify opera and pop in the same category, now would you?

The first tip to know is to sing from your diaphragm not your chest. Your diaphragm in a muscle underneath your lungs it expands downward when you take a good breath in. to explain it to little kids terms; your tummy should go out when you breathe in. your shoulders should not move because that means you are breathing with your chest, instead of taking a “good low breath” ad my teacher would say. Sometimes laying flat on the floor helps with breathing with your diaphragm. That brings me to my point, sitting up straight. If you slouch while singing that gives your diaphragm less area to expand resulting in a shorter breath, which could make holding out a long note, or adding crescendo to a note difficult.

Every time you sing a vowel it adds a slightly different shape to your mouth but in general it should all generally look like an O.  This shape lets the sound come out and makes it sound tall. A lot of the time directors will change the vowel sound of a word to awh. Like in the word amazing, it wouldn’t be uh-mazing, it would be awh-mazing.

During warm ups is a good time to practice vowel shape. Warming up before you sing is very helpful. If you warm up it will help you hit notes well just like a basketball player warms up before a game or practice. If you push yourself during warm ups it can help increase your vocal range, the range of notes you can hit well. But if you push yourself too much you might end up with a sore throat.

If you do get a sore throat or a cold some of the best remedies to get your throat back into tip top shape would be to drink tea with honey, have cough drops with you all the time, and drink soup. All of these things are warm and soothing to your throat.


That’s all for today children, class dismissed.

Don't worry. 523

“There are no small parts, only small actors” is a very famous quote said by Constantin Stanislavski. That quote is said, sometimes, to make people feel better if, say, they got a

“small part.” By that I mean a part that isn’t a lead, maybe someone who doesn’t have a speaking role at all, or even someone didn’t get the solo they desperately wanted. Basically everything that isn’t the super star of a play because that is generally what people aim to get.

            My opinion about this quote is that it’s so untrue! Speaking as someone who has had one minor lead role in middle school, but has tried out for every musical/ play that she could, I think that it is just a false quote. There are too small parts, Constaintin! If someone doesn’t have a direct effect on the plot, I would call that a small part.  Trust me; I’ve had many of them. Including but not limited to; chorus, chorus, and towns people.

            Actually I think the exact opposite! There are small parts, but no small actors. I think that if you gather maybe 15 plays, with 10 characters each, that is 150 parts to cast.  If there were really actors specifically meant to have small parts, then a director wouldn’t be able to picture them in any one of those 30 or 40 lead roles. Now if you look at it the other way, there are 120 small roles. I mean, yes some people might not want a big role but that’s not saying they couldn’t do it if they were cast as one. What I am saying, though, is they could also be so much bigger!

            So here is my own quote about acting; “there are small parts, and also versatile actors.” Maybe that s not the best way to word it, maybe I’ll think of a different way soon. What I’m trying to say from that quote is that; there are small parts and lead parts and of course the one that everyone wants is the large one but if you can be a versatile actor or actress you should be able to play both.

lets do it! (413)

Have you ever had those “oh no” moments? When you elbow that glass of water onto your dates dress, or when you drop your brand new galaxy s4 smart phone on the side walk and when you pick it up the screen is shattered? Oh and that last example actually happened, sadly, to yours truly. That is exactly like the feeling of being behind the stage of almost all performing arts. Maybe not so sad but just as hectic. Before or during every performance something is bound to go wrong. Whether it be something as simple as; forgetting black socks, or something as bad as; the lead lost her voice. The show must go on.

 Now I have done marching band for three years, but for some reason this year has been the most stressful. Perhaps it’s because I am a senior and therefore have more pressure put on me, or maybe it’s because I feel the need to have everything under my control. Whatever it is, it’s very prominent right now, with only our second performance soon and our first competition on Saturday. I cannot speak much for the band, although I think they are in the same boat, the color guard is not prepared. It makes me nervous that we have to go on field with some girls who don’t know the work and some who don’t know their right foot from there left. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying I don’t like them as a person or anything bad, I’m simply saying I don’t like being unprepared. So when it comes to those “oh no” moments I’m not the best person to talk to.

 “Oh no, I dropped my flag.” “Oh no, I missed that set.” “Oh no, what do you want me to do about it?” Just keep going. I only say that because I don’t think I am the cause of “oh no’s” most of the time. I admit I have had my fair share of mishaps but they are not so often that people would think I cannot stand on my own two legs!

Weather I like it or not those moments are basically unavoidable. Someone will step off on the wrong foot and someone is going to hit their head with their flag. All I can is help and then wait for the next person to say “oh no!” 

injuries (426)

How many people get extensive show choir injuries?

I would like to research this question because in my show choir alone there have been broken bones, twisted ankles people passing out at almost every competition. And I’m sure there are other show choirs with more complex moves and dances that may get more injuries per show.

I think it would be interesting to research this subject because of how many different ways people could get hurt, from dehydration to twisting ankles to falling off the stage. Maybe getting answer to this question could cause someone to change their mind about show choir not being a sport or could make someone think more highly of show choir if they didn’t before.

This could be a very gratifying research question

success(414)

Is there a connection between being in extracurricular activities and good grades?

            This is a question I have wondered about very often. I believe that the people in my activities are all smart people. They are intelligent enough to make good decisions. For one, I don’t think it’s a really difficult thing, to get good grades. For me, teachers have never been extremely hard on me and I tend to do work that they have assigned. But me being a good student could also have to do with my back ground. I grew up in a white, middle class family, with two parents who are still married to this day. Could that have something to do with it? I do believe so my friends.

            So what does me, being a good student have to do with extracurricular activities? Well, it is not a rare occurrence for me to leave my school later then nine o’clock at night. This is a long day when you get here at six thirty in the morning. Having such a short amount of free time and a large amount of time makes it hard to be a procrastinating person. You have to get what you have done or face the consequences which would be bad grades.

            One thing that I believe makes the kids in activities such as show choir and color guard and cheer, but also activities such as basketball and swimming and soccer, get good grades, a “incentive” if you will, is that if you are failing a class your coach or director will be notified and you will not be allowed to play or perform or compete in any game or competition or activity. Sometimes they may not even let you practice. You are on the metaphorical and literal bench. Coaches and directors also tend to choose people to be starters or leads if they have good grades or are good students in general.

            I find that if there was a connection, which I am pretty sure there is, background stories of many performers are so sad or unsuccessful. You hear of many performers that get caught up in bad activities such as drugs and alcohol. And because of then getting into such things they become bad students and even drop out! It is a weird concept that many successful people were bad in high school, but successful now, famous even. When there are kids that are great in high school who will never be famous.