Vocal Strengths + Weaknesses

END OF TERM REVIEW

List of things I have done this term for unit 26:

- Updated blogs about vocal progression

- Vocal audit

- Blogs for Six the musical

- x4 videos

  > Physiology of the voice

  > Clarity of the voice

  > Vocal maintenance and damage prevention

  > Improving and Developing

  > Six performance + tech week

  > Winter concert blogs

Personal opinion of this term:

When it comes to this term I believe that I have made a lot of progress when it comes to my ability to sing in an ensemble like setting and also I now have more knowledge when it comes to the science behind our voice. I personally would have liked to made more progress this term however as this was my first term at Suffolk one I understand that this could have slowed down my progress as I was getting used to the setting of the college.

Vocal strengths + weaknesses so far

 Vocal strengths

One vocal strength that I have improved whilst working on singing this term has been my breath control. I have been able to improve this skill along with my peers during our warm-ups where we would do a number of vocal warm-ups that would help us when it came to holding notes of longer and being able to use our whole lung capacity. For example one of these includes basic breathing where we would breath in for 4 counts then hold for 4 then let out for 4. We would then do this for counts 4, 6 and 8. Doing this improves our ability to use our whole lung capacity and strengthen it at the same time. To aid this warm-up we would then take as big of a breath in and then let out the air on an "ssss" sound. By doing this it allows us to then practice controlling the amount of air that we let out at once.

During this term, I have improved my breath control to the point where I would personally see this as one of my vocal strengths.

Another one of my vocal strengths is projection. Before I joined Suffolk One I already had experience in singing as I have been a part of a company for a while and during this I have done many shows where I have had to sing in ensemble numbers where projection was important and over the years of doing these shows I now have very strong projection when it comes to singing. However, in coming to Suffolk One, I have further improved my projection due to participating in Six and the winter concert. 

So, during this term, I would say that I have further strengthened my projection and would class this as one of my main vocal strengths.

Vocal weaknesses

One vocal weaknesses that I have but am slowly improving is my tone when it comes to singing. As of now I find tone hard to add to songs and find myself singing most songs in the same tone which does not allow me to portray the right emotion in songs that I am singing. I am trying to improve this in my spare time along with during college. I have found that the warm-ups we do in class help aid this, but one way that I am trying to improve my tone is by listening to other singers and how they add tone to their songs and trying to mirror what they are doing with their voice as this I have found in the past has helped me learn certain vocal skills.

Another one of my weaknesses that I have but am slowly improving in is my diction in songs. Diction is important as it helps make what is being said in a song clearer to understand and hear, which aids the song to portray the right emotion of the song. When it comes to my diction, it is ok but could be better and improved. When it comes to what we are doing in class which helps my diction is doing tongue twisters, we have been doing a lot of tongue twisters as of recent which have really aided me in improving my diction. 

There are obviously a lot more skills that I could comment on however I would not class them as strengths or weaknesses as they are of a good quality but not good enough to class a strength, or bad enough to class a weaknesses and these include: 

- Pitch

  > I personally believe that I have good Pitch when it comes to singing, however I need to practice being able to sustain the Pitch over a long period of time.

- Harmony

  > When it comes to Harmony I am able to stick on a harmony line whilst others around me are singing other harmony lines, However I do have a tendency to switch to the higher harmony a lot so this needs to be worked on.

- Vocal support

  > I believe that I have good vocal support, However once moving is involved I find that the support decreases, so this will need to be worked on to improve it and make it stronger.

- Posture

  > When it comes to signing posture, I have a very good posture but sometimes can forget and fall out of it, so this will need to be focused on as posture is a main thing that is important in singing.