Singing Development

At our first meeting for Ashcroft, we had to sing a short solo so Rob could assess our voices. I have never been a confident singer and find it hard singing by myself in front of people so I really struggled with this and didn't at first feel comfortable singing at all. However, after Rob explained a few things about the type of singing we would be doing (character signing) I panicked less and started to relax. We did some pirate singing which I really enjoyed and gradually throughout the day my confidence seemed to grow. So when it came to first rehearsals after the holidays I was prepared to throw myself into learning the songs. 

As I'm not as confident of a singer as some other people in the cast, I didn't really participate in organising any vocal warm ups because I didn't feel as if I had any experience, but as the weeks went on and as we did more and more vocal warm ups I felt ready to lead one and did on the day of the show in our dressing room. I found the warm ups incredibly useful because my singing voice has never been trained and I wasn't sure what type of singer I was. Rob managed to, probably without even realising it, help me grow in my own voice through doing the warm ups and near the end I noticed I was singing without even thinking. 

The songs tie in nicely with the scenes and dance routines and can all be characterised which is so key for a children's piece of theatre. As Ashcroft is a musical songs are important and the ones which Rob wrote incorporate the stories perfectly. For example the Pooh Sticks song which Harvey sings has text in it from the novel which I think the children will relish. I've added on my character to the songs so they way I sing them will be different each time according to what my character does in the scene. At first I found the songs difficult to learn because I hadn't had much experience, but I just worked even harder and listened to the voice recordings I made to help me with the tune and pace. I found them easier to learn and enjoy once I had found my character for each scene. Having said this, I struggled keeping the energy up, especially after the dance number in If He Were Here and this affected my singing. To fix this all I need to do is practice and make sure every rehearsal I'm putting in maximum amounts of effort because then I will be prepared for the shows. 

Over the past few weeks my confidence in singing has grown immensely and it has been helped by being able to do what we wanted with the songs and with the security of our company being able to try out new things. I have come along way musically from the first rehearsal in the hut and now feel confident enough to be able to sing solo, which was my own personal goal for this project.