Part D: Arts Skills share- Passing on arts skills to others

Teaching a class.

I thought, a great way to share the skill that I'd learnt over the week would be, to teach a vocal class. I've taught a vocal class before, but I've never felt confident with it, I've always felt like I don't know what I'm doing, so going into this, I was a little wary.

Luckily for me, I knew everyone in the class, that made things a lot easier for me.
Before going in, I went over what I had picked up over the week and what I've been taught by my vocal coach. I knew what I wanted to teach, I'd picked up a few warm ups while doing the musical I was in, and I wanted to teach them to the class. I thought of the easiest way to teach it so everyone could pick it up easily.

Going into the class was a lot less nerve wracking that I thought it was going to be, knowing everyone definitely helps. I figured I'd stick to the normal lesson plan and start with breathing exercises.

After we had done breathing exercises, I lead everyone through some stretches and warm ups for our mouths.

After we finished doing the stretches and mouth warm ups, I began to teach them the warm up exercise I learnt. The phase is 'Bella Señora' and it's set to a melody that helps your range, control, diction and pitch, the key goes up after each round. One of the guys in the class is one of my best friends so he already knew it, but everyone else picked it up pretty quickly, and some even harmonized with others, it sounded beautiful!!

At the end of the warm up, I felt really good about the response I got from everyone, everyone was happy with the new warm up and they said they had fun doing it. It was a challenge, but a fun challenge!! After doing this, I feel a lot more confident with teaching. Usually when I'm asked to lead something, I don't want to do it because I feel like I don't know what I'm doing, but planning it before hand and being positive really helped.

Part C: Arts Heroes and Heroines. Chosen Hero: Lisa Fischer

Lisa Fischer is a vocalist and songwriter from New York in America. She is one of the most successful and one of the busiest session vocalists in the industry. She has also toured and been a backing vocalist for such names as Luther Vandross, The Rolling Stones, Chaka Khan and Tina Turner.

I chose Lisa Fischer because she's the artist/singer/vocalist that has inspired me the most. I love to sing and perform, and I'm always looking out for artist who are established and have a lot of experience and I couldn't think of anyone better than Lisa. I remember hearing her award-winning song 'How Can I Ease the Pain' back when I was a child, my mum loved Luther Vandross, so it only makes sense that she would be playing Lisa's songs aswell. I started to listen to and appreciate her music in 2013. My vocal coach re-introduced me to her and I'm so thankful.

Wikipedia says, when she 1st started out in the music industry, in 1983, she was a Latin freestyle artist, which is basically club music. She went under the stage name Xēna and she release a single called 'On the Upside'. Before she started a solo career, she was a backing singer for a lot of big names. She's currently STILL singing back up for the Rolling Stones on their current world tour. The Youtube video of her singing 'Gimme Shelter' with The Rolling Stones has over 1.2 million views... you could say it's popular!!

Her website says that her next performance with The Rolling Stones is May 26th in Norway.

In 1990, she started a solo career. In 1991, her single, How Can I Ease the Pain from her début album, So Intense, reached No.1 on the U.S RnB charts, and if that wasn't enough, it only went and won a Grammy!! In 1992, Lisa Fischer's #1 hit single won a the Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, she won the award joint with Patti Labelle that year. On her website, she's said that the 1st person she thanked when she won that award was Luther Vandross. He was a mentor to her in the time she sung back up for him.























Last year, Lisa joined forces with other well known voices such as Darlene Love, Merry Clayton and Judith Hill to film a documentary about the life of a backing singer, from the 50's to present day. 20 Feet from Stardom!! This movie. THIS MOVIE. This is the movie that really made me admire Lisa Fischer for the amazing vocalist and woman she is. I've never watched a more real movie than this one. It didn't hold back AT ALL!! It showed all the ins and out, the secrets that were covered up and the reality that is the life of a session artist. I have SOO much more appreciation for backing singers, session singers, singers from the early years and real vocalists, because, it's not easy... AT ALL. It's not easy to try and guess when your next steady jobs is going to be. It's not easy to tire out your voice singing for a variety of different artists and it's definitely not easy coming off the high of a tour to come back to your studio apartment and wonder when the next cheque's going to come from because the bills need to be paid.
Well, clearly the Academy thought the same as I did because the movie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

So, clearly, Lisa Fischer has done well for herself. Her name may not be as mainstream as Beyoncé's, but her talent speaks for itself. Her accolades, accomplishments and affiliations are proof that talent is rightly rewarded. This amazing woman inspires me to be better. Her drive, commitment and passion show me I'm not crazy to love singing and music as much as I do, it is worth the struggle and pain.

Part B: Explore the arts as an audience member

A trip to The Firestation and Theatre Royal Windsor to watch Cats.

So, I am a Musical Theatre geek. I LOVE MUSICAL THEATRE!! When I heard that we were going to the Theatre Royal to watch Cats, I was OVERJOYED, 1. Because I love musical theatre, 2. Because I've wanted to see Cats for the longest time and 3. Because I was performing in a musical myself at the Theatre Royal a few weeks later and was excited to see what the stage is like and what the view is like from the seats.

We met at the train station in the morning and took the train to Windsor. Once we got to Windsor we walked to The Firestation. It's called the The Firestation because it used to be a full fledged firestation, they're not trying to be funky haha!!

In the lobby, there are pictures and posters of past and future productions, some of them looked really interesting. We were led up to The Loft that they use for smaller, more intimate gigs. I'd been to The Firestation before, but I'd never been up here. There were modern art canvases on the walls that were amazing!! We had a talk from one of the guys that works at The Firestation, he told us a lot about what it's like working in The Firestation, about the different projects they accommodate, a bit of the history of The Firestation and he told us about what his job role is and how he got started in this industry. I learnt a lot from him in that talk.

Next, he took us down to the auditorium where the bigger productions and performances. There we met a stage hand who had been hired for the latest production. He's a free lance technician, so he's not employed by The Firestation, he's hired when he's needed. He was doing, what is called, a 'Get In'; that's where the staging, lights and sounds are set up and prepared for the current production. You never really get to see the backstage/behind the scenes parts of productions unless you're in them, so this was a real treat, and an eye opener as to what goes into making a show look good.

He then took us down to the Basement Studio. My first impression of this space was 'OMG this is the coolest room ever!!'. There were mirrors on the walls and ballet bar against the mirrors, it was black with dark wood flooring and the ceiling was draped, I couldn't get over how cool that space was. He said the space was used for a lot of gigs and performances... I can definitely see why!! I was captivated!! Then he showed us the mixing table... SO. MANY. BUTTONS.

Needless to say, by this point, I was in love with this place. I wouldn't mind performing in this place!!

We were then taken up some stairs backstage and shown their one dressing room, which was not far from the Auditorium. By the end of the tour, it was clear that everything in The Firestation is well connected and arranged. I definitely enjoyed my time at The Firestation, I learnt a lot about what it takes to start a career in the arts, and how many different routes there are available to you. I never realised there were so many different routes in the arts, I knew there were a lot, but I didn't realise JUST how much.

After visiting The Firestation, we all walked down to the Theatre Royal. By this point, I was a bundle of excitement!! I hadn't been to the theatre for about 6 months, so I was itching to get to my seat. As I walked in, I saw the flyers for the musical that I was about to be in!! That gave me jitters of joy and excitement!!

We got our tickets and went to our seats. I'd been reading up on Cats for years and have wanted to buy the DVD of the musical for so long, so I was prepared for this. I was sitting next to one of my best friends and I'd been saying to him that how much I love the song Memory from Cats, so I was excited for him to finally hear it.

Now, although I had wanted to see Cats for a long time, I didn't know what to expect. I read before hand that this was a performance by The Theatre Academy and that they're all young people, so I was curious as to how they would interpret the musical.

The performance was so good!! I was very impressed!! The kids are so talented, they move and sing so well, they really embodied their characters. The girl who played Grizabella and sang 'Memory' did such a great job, I knew where it came in the musical, so, when I heard the music start, I got REALLY excited!! If there were some things I didn't like about the musical, it was the fact that I didn't get the storyline, partly because it didn't seem like there was a storyline, they were just singing about some of the specific cats in the clan. One thing that annoyed me was the fact that the sound was patchy, it was like the sound guy kept missing his cues so, when someone started to sing, you couldn't hear the 1st few words, or the 1st line because their mic wasn't turned up. I discussed this with my friend and fellow Arts Award candidate Kallel, we had a chat about the musical later that day.

After the show was finished, we went into the lobby where some of the cast was. Me and Kallel just HAD to get a pic with one of them!!

This was the girl that played Jellylorum. She sang so well, she definitely stood out as a high quality performer.

I learned SO MUCH on this day and I had SO much fun. Going to The Firestation and Theatre Royal in Windsor has definitely opened my eyes more to a life in the Theatrical Arts, and that's helped me a lot because a career in Musical Theatre is what I strive for. I also learned that, even if I'm not able to follow the arts path that I want EXACTLY, there are SO MANY other paths I could take, and who knows, I might end up on stage through another pathway!!

Part A: Explore The Arts as a Participant

Music Tech and Performance Skill.

So, we ended up at my workplace, SWIPE.

The day before we went to SWIPE, Jamie, my boss, asked me if I could help with his presentation for the Arts Award. I didn't know what I was gonna do, he just asked that I bring my USB.

So, we leave the Library and head to SWIPE. We go into, what we call, the Live Room, which is the room at the front of the building where most bands rehearse, shoot videos, have photo shoots or even give live performances... hence the name 'LIVE' room!!
In the room, Jamie has set out a few pieces of equipment for us to look at. The 1st one was a old school amp and mixer.

This is what they used to used back in the 70's/80's. You'd plug your guitar/bass/mic, into the little mixer on top, you were only able to plug 4 things into it, and it was limited in what it did, and the sound wasn't the greatest quality, but it had that old school vibe to it that I liked.

The next piece of equipment was a mixer. Now, this is a mixer that you would see on a regular basis. We have a mixer like this in my church. Jamie told us that this model of mixer came in the 90's, so, not that long ago really. The thing with these mixers is that, there are so many buttons and sliders, you don't know what to press!! He explained to us how it works and how they used them for concerts and other events. The sliders can be programmed and saved for a specific program, then they can be change to fit another program and saved, so, for example, if a concert was being held and there were multiple acts that required different settings on the mixer, each setting can be saved to the mixed and brought back when necessary... HOW COOL!!

This last piece of equipment is the latest and most up-to-date type of mixer. Now, at 1st glance, you're probably thinking 'Nope, can't do it, I'm gonna break it', and that's what I thought at 1st, but it really isn't that hard to use. The 1st time I used it was at a Christmas gig, and it's gotten easier since then. You literally plug the instruments and speakers you're using into it and go from there, you can even plug your USB into it for backing tracks... which is where I came in.

When Jamie asked me to bring my USB with me, the 1st thing I thought was 'Does he want me to sing or something??' because he only asks for my USB when I'm going to sing, my USB has all my backing tracks on it. So, he asks for my USB, plugs it in and asks me to use it to show just how easy it is. He plugs in a mic, and asks me to treat this like I'm performing at a gig and to sing a song. I chose to sing Make you Feel my Love by Adele, and I chose the backing track I THOUGHT I usually use; I have 2 on my USB. After singing in front of our group, which was a lot more nerve wracking than I thought it would be, Jamie asked me what I could have done better. So I think over my performance and I'm thinking, maybe I didn't open my eyes enough, maybe I wasn't loud enough, maybe I didn't have enough feeling... turns out, it wasn't anything I'd done on stage, it was my backing track!! Like I said, I had 2 backing tracks of the same song, one in the original key and one a key below. I was, for whatever reason, rushing to get the track, so I chose the 1st one I saw, I could hear as soon as it started that it was the original key instead of the lower key piano instrumental I usually sing along to, but it's unprofessional to stop and start, so I just went with it.

Jamie told us, your tech support can help you as much as you help them, so if I give the sound guy my poor quality backing track, he'll have to bring the quality of my mic down to match and blend with the backing track, and that brings down the quality of my performance, so I need to get a better quality backing track for the original key of that song.

He asked everyone else what they thought were the best parts of my performance, if the fact that he turned on stage lights helped enhance the performance and what could have been better. It reminded me a lot of vocals class haha!!

He then showed us what is needed for a good performance. He gave use some do's and don't's on staging and performing, for example, if you're coming to perform, but you have a bag, or bags, don't leave them on stage, front and centre, hide them behind a speaker or behind the drum kit, that way, they're safe and out of the way and the audience won't be focusing on it. Also, engage with the audience, talk to them, let them know that you are with them as much as they are there for you.You can't sing and expect an applause, you have to earn it!! I learnt a lot from that 1st session, and it helped me a lot when it came to doing the same thing for the 2nd group of people(I didn't do the dance workshop because I was helping with this one). When I went to perform, the same song for the 2nd group, I chose THE RIGHT backing track, and used the tips I learnt with the 1st group to improve my performance; I got a much better response from this group and I enjoyed this performance a lot more than the 1st one, it was a lot more comfortable.

This activity workshop has definitely helped me with my performance skills, stage presence and knowledge and appreciation of the technical side of a performance. I feel a lot more confident in my performances because I know what works and what doesn't.