Day 27

Okay, I still have an entire nights work ahead of me so I will be posting early tonight. Thursdays are literally 21 hour days for me since I don't typically get home from the bar until 4 or 4:30 so Fridays are the days that I am genuinely so exhausted that I sometimes don't make any sense when I wake up at 7:30 in the morning. I have to tell my boss not to give me any important tasks that might end up legitimately effecting the outcome of a case if its on a Friday. ha. Today marks the two week point to my NYU and URTA audition and I am starting to feel the pressure. I know I blog about this every day but it's true. I'm not really nervous but I guess I'm starting to feel the reality that if I don't get into grad school I don't know what my future will hold. I know I can't think like that but I know I have to prepare myself for that possibility. I left straight from work to rehearse monologues and felt like I got some good work in and once I got tired, I left. Like Kurt said with my songs, I don't want to over do it.


Charitable Deed Number 3

During my lunch break today I took an elderly woman who isn't able to drive anymore to run errands and also to a dentist appointment. Earlier in the week she had accidentally swallowed her own tooth (crazy I know) and needed desperately to get to a dentist. She had no way of getting to her appointment so instead of going to the gym like I normally do during my lunch break I took her. She lives up on Tramway so I ran from my office downtown and up to her house to get her and took her to the dentist on Eubank. It was a little tricky getting to the dentist because she only knew the office was on Eubank but didn't know the denist's name. I called her son, who was the one who had asked me to take her and told me that it was probably near Candelaria. I just took Lomas down from Tramway and kept an eye out for any dentist office until I got near Candelaria. A little past Candelaria there was a dentist office and luckily they had appointment for her. I waited in the waiting room for her while they looked at her missing tooth. Poor thing, they said they would have to give her a fake tooth that would cost three thousand dollars. While I was sitting in the waiting room I took some pictures... This one just happened to be my favorite...

I had never seen a bible in a dentist waiting room before. In any waiting room for that matter. I had to take a picture and post on my blog because I have really just never seen anything quite like it.

Other pictures of the waiting room in case you were wondering what it looked like...

I might have just been getting out of hand at this point but this is the dentist in case you were wondering what he looked like...

*I asked Kay to take a picture with me for my blog when I told her about my blog and about the challenge and she said "No photos, NO PHOTOS." She was very clear about that. I think she might have been self conscious about having the missing tooth in the front of her mouth? Also she is eighty years old and I'm pretty sure she didn't understand what I was asking her picture for. If getting a picture of the dentist wasn't sneaky enough, I did manage to catch a picture of her scheduling her next appointment for the partial which she will be getting next Tuesday (and yes, I will be taking her). 

By the way, she was wearing some really stylish Jackie O sunglasses and next Tuesday I am planning on asking her where she got them from. All in all it felt really great helping someone get around town who under normal circumstances wouldn't be able to. It made me feel really grateful for being young and able to do things without needing other people to help me. It kind of made me sad thinking about getting old and spending time alone all day and not being able to leave the house. Ah, even writing about it now makes me sad so I'm just going to stop here. 

Healthy Eating Healthy 25!!

Meal Description – Oatmeal with raisins/craisns 

Restaurant or Market – Starbucks

Rating – 8/10, good but not as good as Whole Foods! Yay! Finally done with the Healthy Meals portion of this challenge!! 

My Live Performance

Date/time - Sunday January 23, 2011

Show/Venue - Full-Voice 30 Day Challenge Recital at Marshall's Dance Studio

Program or Song Choice – Sarah Bareilles, Gravity and Spring Awakening, Mama Who Bore Me

What did you most enjoy? – I most enjoyed getting together with other challengers and performing in front of an audience for a put together, planned out, performance. It was nice to challenge myself with a song like Gravity, because I normally wouldn't choose a song like that. I like songs that are "belty" and that are in chest and middle voice range. I mostly enjoyed being challenged. This whole month was, after all, about being challenged.

What did you find challenging and why? – Definitely singing in the mirror. That was sooo weird. It was hard to find a point of focus, because the focus was myself. I also was a lot more nervous than I would have anticipated. Also, I would have preferred to sing "Mama Who Bore Me" first, since I am much more comfortable singing that song. I think I would have felt less nervous singing "Gravity" if I would have sung it second.

Observations and Remembrances – All in all I think that it was great experience and I left with a lot of notes from Kurt that I have already started working on for my auditions in two weeks. The biggest note that I have already started using and have fixed is maintaining a direct point of focus and having a strong slate at the beginning of my song. Watching in my video especially for "Mama Who Bore Me" I am all fidgety. I have since fixed that when I practice my slating for Nothing in A Chorus Line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMTaZLmIBqQ

"Mama Who Bore Me" from Spring Awakening

THANK YOU SO MUCH JENNI for recording, and more importantly uploading all these videos to facebook and youtube for us. You are amazing!!

New Song (Demo)

Song Choice – Sarah Bareilles, Gravity

Approximate time learning and coaching your song – 22 days, 15-20ish minutes each day

Describe your recording experience – This was definitely the most challenging song I have ever added to my repertoire. Sarah Bareilles is an incredible artist and after learning this song I am just in awe of her talent. I recorded this song as part of my performance at the 30 Day Challenge Recital, which is kind of frustrating because I definitely know that I can, and have sung this song much better than when I performed it on Sunday. I was way more nervous than I normally am singing/performing.

General Observations – I did try to keep in mind all of the notes that Kurt gave me our private lessons, and believe me there were a lot of them, so I at least feel good about that in this version of the recording. ha. The slate in this song is much stronger than Mama Who Bore Me, although I feel like the vocals in Mama Who Bore Me are stronger? Frustrating? I don't know, I think I'm still just a much stronger singer in my middle voice. That just means I need to keep practicing in my head voice, and that is why Gravity was such a challenging song. Especially in the "set me free, leave me be" parts. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq1CnCAev7A

Daily Practice Session

Technical Concepts - Usual warm up along with Kurt's recording, trills, scales, mixing, chest, middle, head voice, breathing and strengthening exercises. 

Minutes - 28

Repertoire - Nothing and What I did for Love, A Chorus Line, No Good Deed, Wicked.

Minutes – 22

Successes – I felt really good about mixing today, especially in head voice. I was super into mixing today. It's become my favorite technique, and I really look forward to getting better at it.  

Areas for improvement – I just need to not stress out over think my auditions. 

Notes: I am volunteering at Revolutions tomorrow night, purging my closet and donating all my clothes (which I would normally trade at Buffalo Exchange to the Barret House for battered women) and have one more coaching session tomorrow and I will be done with the challenge! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMTaZLmIBqQ