On Saturday, March 15th, the Squalicum High School Concert Choir had a workshop with Dr. Elena Sharkova. We worked on three pieces - Witness, Os Justi, and Two Japanese Proverbs. She was impressed with the choir on many levels from our attention to detail and focus on warm-ups, to the repertoire choices, to our vocal maturity, and the balance of men in the choir. She talked to the choir on a very sophisticated level which is a testament to the advanced level the choir is at.
At the beginning of the workshop, Dr. Sharkova spoke to the choir on three points that help a choir get to a destination in their journey. The three "D's" as she called them - Direction, Discipline, and Devotion. The first point is that you need good instruction. The second point is two-fold in that you have to have discipline (non-chaotic environment) in the classroom, but you also have to have integrity in how you sing each song. To do something one day musically does not mean that you now "get it" and it will continue to be there. It means you need to have the discipline to continue to sing in the style you just learned everyday. Just as the saying goes, "The proof is in the pudding." Witness needs a darker tone, Two Japanese Proverbs needs non-legato and more of an edgy tone, and Os Justi is in the middle with a legato and warm tone. The last of the three "D's," devotion, means you put your entire self into every rehearsal and performance. Dr. Sharkova made some interesting points about going to the "University of Google" and doing research on your own. She asked the choir about Bruckner and the choir couldn't respond. I told her, "I haven't told them about him at all." She said that I didn't have too. I know that a lot of choir members already do a lot of research by going to youtube and/or downloading songs off of the internet. This is another aspect you can start thinking about if you really want to invest a little time. I got some good ideas from her about teaching about the composer that choir members will start seeing in the near future.
The next point is a great one about the roles of each section in the choir. The sopranos are the color of the choir, the altos are the soul of the choir, the tenors are the passion of the choir, and the basses are the success of the choir.
The last point I'll make in this blog is on diction. I thought her explanation of vowels and consonants was great. Vowels are the emotion of singing. They provide the color, and color speaks louder than words. She made the dog analogy for an audience member. That sounds kind of funny, but the audience, who often are amateur listeners and haven't spent day in and day out listening to you rehearse music, are going to judge a piece immediately on the color of the sound. What kind of message are we sending with our tone colors? By the way, this is the dog analogy: you could scold a dog with a exciting tone and the dog would be excited wagging it's tail and looking for attention. Or you could praise a dog with a scolding tone and the dog would hang it's head. It's all in the color and tone of your voice, not in the words. Consonants are the information. She wrote the following consonants on a piece of paper, "TBRNTB," then asked what it meant. She could've also written "OEOOOE," which would be the vowels that correlate with the consonants written. The saying is "To Be Or Not To Be." Many students got it. She also mentioned license plates, you see personalized license plates use consonants and skip out vowels. Anyways, this is a very good point that I think we need to be more attentive to when rehearsing. How do we want to sing consonants? It will vary from song to song.
Here are some other ideas that came from the workshop:
Os Justi
We live in a time of text messaging...Don't let that happen in our phrasing. Think micro phrasing (i.e. first 3 notes os JU sti), but also MACRO phrasing (first page = 1 long phrase).
How to start singing: 1. Get excited, 2. Hear the note in your head (audiate), 3. Shape the Note, and 4. Take a beautiful breath in.
"Squeeze the 'm' like a Californian Avacado"
Don't get cheap with the [e] vowel, "make it at least Nordstroms, or maybe Saks 5th Ave." We need to work on the depth of the ee and eh vowels.
Keep an open throat (yawn space) for resonance and shape your articulator (mouth). More pucker in ee and eh will give you a warmer sound and more sending power.
Two Japanese Proverbs - Tenor 1's need a warmer, slightly darker sound on the higher "ga daiji"
-we need to work tuning on ending 3 part men phrases at the beginning
-Symbols in Eastern languages versus letters in Western languages. This is represented in the song with the phrases, especially in the 2nd proverb.
-The "wailing" or "crying" of the soprano and alto parts on their entrances to show the adversity.
-More accents throughout
-Never sing a repeated idea or phrase the same, make louder or softer
-The spirit will not move you unless you open up
-Less reliance on the conductor
-Let's explore movement to help get through the 2nd proverb
Witness
-"Music is the vehicle for the text"
-Tell more of the story, more diction (especially on the pick ups)
-Control the tempo, we tend to rush (Os Justi tends to drag)
-You are the narrarator
-Accuracy of voiced consonants, get them to line up
It's difficult to switch characters from song to song, Dr. Sharkova has a sign - hand on the heart, I think I'll steal that idea! Look for it in an upcoming rehearsal.
Great job choir! There are so many good things going on. Let's keep the focus and continue to grow.
Blog Archive
11 comments:
The workshop was awesome. She used some weird references, but it made what she was saying make more sense. I was ignoring the words in Witness, and I didn't understand why it didn't work. Now that I understand, I can fix it. From now on, I'll try to learn more about songs and styles that I don't know. I'm so glad we did this.
I thought is was really fun and useful. Although she was a bit of a strange person, she used her quirky attitude to make us focus and really try to deliver. I thought that her direction of researching the composer was a brilliant idea. If the composer has a certain style that they built the piece around then us, the performers should use that style to portray the idea behind the music. I think this was a fabulous way to spend my Saturday morning.
I loved the workshop. I thought that she had a lot of insight into the songs that we were singing which was good because the advice she gave us regarding those songs only made us sing them better. I do have to admit she was a little weird to me at first but she made things relatable like “ don’t make it sound cheap, make it more Nordstrom” haha. I thought she made a lot of valid points about vowels and the 3 D’s and understanding the composer. She made it fun and I enjoyed it even if it was on a Saturday morning!
You learn so much from listening to different perspectives. The workshop really opened my eyes to different elements of the songs I had not thought about before. I really liked what Dr. Sharkova said about the importance of knowing the composers of the pieces you are studying. I loved her quirky and peppy energy. The metaphors and examples she used really keep me engaged. She had a lot of good things to say about our choir but was also quite hard on us, which I think was a good thing. After the workshop I am so motivated to perfect these songs. Our choir improved our music a lot and I know that we can continue to do so before the concert.
I thought the workshop was really good. The way that she was teaching us was a really cool way for us to step outside of our box and really understand the pieces. She said a lot of the same things Wizness says, but in a different way, so that it came to life more. I really enjoyed seeing what our choir can do when put us to the challenge of having another director for a little bit.I thought the workshop was really good. The way that she was teaching us was a really cool way for us to step outside of our box and really understand the pieces. She said a lot of the same things Wizness says, but in a different way, so that it came to life more. I really enjoyed seeing what our choir can do when put us to the challenge of having another director for a little bit.
so, I really liked the workshop because she really spoke to our main problems - you know? Like she did focus on something lame like breathing but she actually pointed out our weaknesses like vowels and connecting to our texts - the things as a choir that we have the hardest time with. I like that she did it in a way that kept almost all of us engaged with her eccentric personality and crazy analogies - but i think they really helped because she explained things in a way that got to look at the concepts in a different way, which challenged us to actually think and not just sing the same phrase over again for the millionth time - she challeneged us to sing it, see first-hand what she meant, and then fix it right away- I really liked it because I think we benefited a lot and will be better because of her advice :)
I'm pretty glad I was there. I thought it might get a little boring, but I also thought that I'd get something out of it. I was right (on both counts). I really appreciated her bluntness. It was almost mean at times, but it helped. I think we pay more attention when something that's said hurts a little. It also got us to work on it and be more serious about improving. Having someone who's never heard us before and who's a professional come in and tell us what we're doing wrong makes us want to to better so that we're not doing those things wrong. I'm really not sure why Wiz doesn't quite have the same effect, but for some reason, someone we're familiar with doesn't quite have that impact. Anyway, I'm glad I went.
As someone who is pretty unfamiliar with singing, I found her comments incredibly helpful. I didn't know anything about vowels, but Ms. Sharkova made it obvious that they determine how the piece is interpreted. Also, I really liked what she said about the composers and the history behind our three songs. Knowing about each composer seems just as important as singing the song correctly, because then we can truly deliver the piece in an accurate style. And we certainly looked foolish when no one knew the name of the person who composed Os Justi. All in all, I really enjoyed the workshop and her serious yet fun attitude really drove the points home.
I thought that this workshop was very helpful for us as a whole. Coming from a family of music and singing, I have heard alot of analogies and techniques to making a choir, but these were new to me and its so cool to see different aspects and perspectives on things. When she suggested to us to sing Os Justi at a faster tempo, I would have to say I like it at the pace we have been singing it. I did like how she told us that every piece that we sing is a story and we need to be the narrators of the story. This would definitly help on our facial expressions and being more connected with the song. I thought overall this was VERY helpful for us and I'm glad we did this.
Dr. Sharkova was like a mother teaching her child how to be better. Kind of like tough love. She said to a couple of us afterward that the reason she was being so harsh was because she really saw a lot of potential right from the beginning. I really thought that was neat, she immediately saw that she could help us and saw the way to do it. I also liked that what she said about vowels and consonances. We really have lost the meaning of the song. We tend to learn the song to convey the musical part but like she said music is the vehicle for the text. I think we definitely need to focus on the text and then make the music convey the text. I also think that trying to put actions to 2 Proverbs showed us that we need to connect as a choir. The parts need to be more solid as well as the rhythms. I think that we really need to interpret the sound in this song and connect the individual sounds of the parts to each other part and make the whole better. Overall I really enjoyed Dr. Sharkova's advice, enthusiasm and spunk. Her bluntness was something we really needed. Thanks to her!!!
I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed the workshop. I was having a tough morning and Elena cheered me up with her energy. What she said about Two Japaneese Proverbs really changed my outlook on the song. I look forward to singing it more and I'm more determined because of what we worked on and that message that it is supposed to bring. I'm really glad I was able to find that connection with this song. I was able to find a good connection for emotion with Os Justi and Whitness, but I was struggling with this song. So that was a huge thing for me.
~Megan Killough
Post a Comment