S1s: our reflections...:)

Lesson 1 : Mr Reuben Lai
standing posture:
-feet one infront and one at the back
-chest high but body relax
-elastic recoil (blow out air, diaphram from high to low)
-stable acustic space (open jaw up and open)
-manage air properly
-don't change the shape of the vowel too much
-hold the ending (make the sound move)
-think low and sing high
-Hosanna , pronounce the n

Lesson 2 : Mr Arwin Tan
.Psallite
-shaping and phrasing (emphasize)
-lift up the high note
-be prepared and breathe deep for high note
-for the 'o' keep the sound moving like a spinning top and gentle too
-move the long notes
-bounce the sound
-dynamics
.Sanctus
-bounce and spin more the the high note
-phrasing
-the 'ra' must be gentle and soft
-the 'coe' must bounce more
-yawn more

Lesson 3 : Mr Ronaldo Raz
-enjoy and be natural in your smile
-make the sound brighter
-make the audience happy
-lively
-pitch and tune with other parts
-be bold and sing louder
-it makes a difference to smile
-bouncing

~The friendship concert
we sang like an eagle
~SYF performance
we sang sanctus & psallite
we got some praises from other conductors and mr lim treat us ice cream YAY! ^^

People we met in Port Dickson :D

Mr Nelson Kwei :D (Singapore)


Mr Arwin Tan :D (Philippines)

Mr Reuben Lai :D (Singapore)

Mr Ronaldo Javier Raz :D (Philippines)

Uncle Tim :D

How To Get Rid Of Vocal Strain / Vocal Tension

How To Get Rid Of Vocal Strain / Vocal Tension

How can we reduce muscle tension? The first step to reducing muscle tension is quite simple and obvious, although many people overlook this simple practise. Warm up the voice before singing. This is a MUST if you want to sing at your best, and purest tone.

Singing in a way, is just like playing sports. We use certain muscles to get the desired results. Just like running, singing requires the appropriate muscles to be warmed up. It's gets the blood flowing, and the muscles functioning more efficiently.

Singing without warming up will limit the ability to hit and sustain high notes, while causing a tremendous amount of vocal strain.

A fifteen minute warm-up on easy scales, in an easy range, should be effective in warming up your voice and reducing vocal tension.

The biggest (and most common) cause of vocal strain is singing with bad vocal technique. A few years ago, I was a classic example... My technique was so bad that I actually began to develop vocal nodules. My voice would feel sore after ever session. I would actually feel my larynx spasm during, and even DAYS after a practice.

It happened because I didn't know how to shorten my vocal chords in the higher regions of my range. I used to feel intense strain in my throat, and my jaw. The answer to correcting this, is training these outer muscles to relax while singing. The inner muscles of your larynx (the correct singing muscles) can then handle all the vocal chord adjustments, producing the tone much easier. As these muscles are developed, your voice will develop incredible range, and great tone, with no vocal tension at all.

So...

To eliminate vocal strain we must:

1. Warm up our voices before singing

2. Develop a technique that allows the outer muscles of the larynx to relax, while the inner (correct) muscles perform the vocal chord adjustments. This is done using exercises that allow our voice to relax and develop our correct singing muscles. The very best program that teaches this technique in detail is Brett Manning's Singing success program.

information taken from: http://www.become-a-singing-master.com/strain-vocal.html

S2's: Training notes!

Day 1: Mr Reuban Lai & Mr Arwin TanDay 2: Mr Ronaldo Raz
combined notes

Standing posture: (it's easier when you form the "T" shape with your hands)
1. Shoulders straight and relaxed, but not rigid or tense
2. Chest pointing upwards, proud position
3. Chin & face, facing straight
4. Feet: one foot above the other
~ Preferrably, singers standing to the right with your right foot slightly above the left. Likewise for the singers standing to the left.

Breathing:
1. Elastic recoil exercises
~ Breathe out before in
~ As you breathe out, air will enter the lungs automatically
~ Allow the belly to flop out, like a slob of jelly
~ Breathe "recoils" in

2. Flexible diaphragm
~ Moving downwards as you inhale, moving upwards as you exhale

3. Don't breathe with your shoulders moving.
~ As you breathe in, allow your stomach to expand

Stable Acoustic Space:
1. A small grin, exposing the teeth
~ Grin: like a little "hook" behind the back teeth
~ Creates space in the mouth, lifting the small pellet inside
~ Creates a concave and more depth
Note: Vowels should not change to much when singing. Especially when singing words or syllables with vowels "i" to "e".

2. Lerring and vocal cords
~ fluttering sounds (for the long notes)
~ imagine that the long note is fluttering in the air, spinning about and not letting it fall down
~ jaw should drop lower, creating more space in the mouth

Smiling:
~ ALWAYS put on a smile when singing. It helps to create a brighter sound, especially for allegro songs. Eg: Psallite

Voice:
~ In singing, the depth comes from the stomach.
~ Do not strain your voice box when singing, it is the wrong method.
~ Take in a good, deep breath, and use that breathe to control your voice.
~ When singing high notes, do not push the sound to hard. "Leap" from above, and you will hit the note.
~ High notes: it depends on the note before it, so make sure you have enough depth and breath

Phrasing:
~ Do not spilt a sentence into many different vowels. Link them up together.
~ Start from soft. In a sentence, there is an important word that you want to convey to the listeners. It is the climax, and at there is where you should grow the loudest (depending on the volume of the lyric).
Eg: Volume - ff
1. Start from forte, growing louder to ff at the climax. -stress point
2. After the climax, grow back softer to forte. End at the correct note!
~ This creates an "arc" in the lyric. It also makes the song more exciting.

Note: It is alright to let your body sway along with the music, so as to enjoy yourself. But don't forget all this skills! :D

Port Dickson: Jubilate IV

SOPRANO 2's ENTRY
~Day 1~
Note: Posting pictures and training notes separately.

- All of us were excited on the bus! There was a traffic jam, so it slowed us down.
- Some choir members were singing on the bus lol.
- But after we entered Malaysia, everyone soon began to fall asleep on the bus...
- Our Malaysian tour guide told us stories about the history of Port Dickson and Malaysia. We were also familiarised with the palm trees that we saw along the way.

- Expected arrival time: 1pm. We arrived at 4pm @ Tiara Beach Resort.
- We were to stay at Block D; the furthest block away from our training areas (grand ballroom, Kemang rooms, Junior Tiara room, etc.)
- Some rooms had not been cleaned yet! Thus, Li Shan wrote a "note" to housekeeping. xD

- For dinner, we had a nice buffet. Everything was delicious, except for the flies. In the end, everyone was disturbed by the creatures.
(Note: Buffet for all our meals.)

OPENING CEREMONY @ GRAND BALLROOM
Song: Like an Eagle

- We weren't the first ones to perform, so we watched the other school perform first. There were even JCs there (VJC & MJC) and other excellent choirs as well.
- Jinny was crazy 'bout the boys. Very infatuated.

- OMG! And then it was our time to perform. We were really nervous and shaky, and about 700 people were watching us perform. Plus the 5 master conductors watching at us intently at the front. x_x
- We went smoothly at the beginning, but when we came to the bridge of the song, everything began falling out of place...:
1. The pianist lost her place. (She played something random.)
2. We couldn't blend in together, almost screaming at each other.
3. Cannot hear each other.
4. At the end, Mr Lim cut the last note short.
5. All of us went off the stage, very embarrassed.

- Lol, at least Mr Lim wore the reindeer head band that Jinny and Jia Liang bought for him. The master conductors laughed when he put it on (hahaha)!
- After the concert had ended, we followed Mr Lim to the Block D car park for our debrief. We discussed and shared our feelings about the performance, and we knew exactly what went wrong. Kinda expecting Mr Lim to scold us, but he didn't. Phew.

- Mr Lim had a late-night training session with the S2s. Used Yvonne's room (shared by Jia Liang, Hwee Min and Min Hui).
- The other sections went to respective rooms to do their grp reflections. Alto: Lin Ye's room. S1: dunno :P
- We practiced Psallite and Sanctus. Um, we kinda woke up the opposite block, and a few girls peeked out of their window to look at us.
- Well, at least we cleared our doubts about the notes that we were unsure of.

- Everyone else went back to their rooms for the night, to prepare for a very busy day in the following morning.

~Day 2~

- Woke up early, and had breakfast at 8am. Our resort guide (Uncle Tim) was already waiting for us. He's always early. :D
- After breakfast, we headed down to the resort square to play some bonding games. Monster was the best and funniest game! Thanks Li Shan~

- Went for rehearsal (training) with Mr Lim at Kemang Room after that. This was a little warm-up before our first master class with Mr Reuban Lai!
- At first, all of us were scared to respond to his questions. But he was a really nice conductor, so our training with him went smoothly.
- Some S2's: "We were scared of him because of his British accent. But then he's a funny guy."
- Philomena turned out to be his fan xD

- After lunch, there was another rehearsal with Mr Lim before our 2nd master class with Mr Arwin Tan.
- Mr Arwin Tan is a Philippine, and Ming Min was wondering about his surname. She thought that Mr Tan married a Chinese woman with the surname "Tan", and she had the idea that "Tan" wasn't his surname so he followed his wife's surname. ._.
- But, he was the best conductor that had taught us for the entire trip there. He also acknowledged our marvellous singing skills. 8D

- Dinner time: Fly Dance! Jia Liang had enough of flies, so she did some weird movements to scare them away.

- SYF Presentation: Day 1. We were to perform on Day 2, so we were part of the audience for the night. We admired the choirs that had more boys in it. Just to list some of the good choirs (not biased hor!):
1. Commonwealth Sec
~ produces a deep, well-sounding melody
~ exciting and very entertaining
~ good staggering, smile a lot

2. East Spring Coral Sec
~ depth, full-sounding
~ beautiful!
~ Sopranos: able to hold long notes beautifully, sustain well
~ good approach at volume (from piano to fortissimo)

3. Meridian Junior College
~ the entire choir is awesome! :D
~ lively, bouncy, very exciting to listen & watch
~ good staggering
~ Sopranos: very beautiful and mature-sounding (Mr Lim wants this from us)
~ Tenor, Bass & Alto: beautiful blend with Sopranos

4. Catholic High Sch
~ entertaining (lively)
~ perfectly in tune. melody!

~Day 3~

- We had warm-up with Blessing at the square before Mr Lim's training session.
- Mr Lim revised phrasing with us for Psallite & Sanctus

- Our 3rd master class was with Mr Ronaldo Raz. Mr Lim thought that he was a football player xD
- He taught us a lot, so refer to the training notes.
- Also, he's a funny guy that made us laugh a lot :D

- Next was our exchange. We had a fun time with Catholic High(KL), Unity Sec and Christ Church Sec. We were to perform 2 songs and we did Psallite and Sanctus.
- Catholic High was a really good choir. Their conductor was unable to make it, and so their student conductor took over the job. He was awesome, conducting the huge choir like a real conductor. Even better than Mr Lim.

- Went back to our rooms to rest. We had our SYF presentation later, so we had to get some good sleep. It was all exciting.

SYF PRESENTATION: NIGHT 2
2nd to perform
Songs: (Nonetheless) Psallite and Sanctus

- Wore our Choir Tee to perform. Didn't bring our gowns, so we kinda stood out from the rest. (Other choirs wore formal attire; gowns, suits etc.)

- Psallite went smoothly and beautifully. We enjoyed ourselves on stage, singing our hearts' out and following the music. It was fun! :D
- DUNDUNDUN!! Sanctus:
~ Beginning (S1s) went okay. It was until...

S2s ENTERED LATE.
- And so, Mr Lim cut the entire choir off, and turned to the audience apologetically. He figured out that he would apologize, and he said:
"I'm sorry, I forgot my scores."
- Then, we started over again. This time, we entered, and finished without anymore noticeable flaws. Omg.
Thanks Mr Lim!!:D
- After the performance, we went out for another debrief. Mr Lim's face was red from embarrassment.
- We got some treats from the teachers! Mrs Teo and Mdm Sharifah bought us chocolates, Uncle Tim packed for us some fried fish crackers (keropok) and Mr Lim bought us ice-cream. It was all so delicious, and we were deprived of all the snacks because we were to sing on stage. Thank you!! 8D

~Day 4: Our return!~

- This time round, all of us were really sleepy. We slept on the bus, and some of us were so excited to get home.
- It was a fun experience, learning together at the Choir festival. Hope there will be more festivals that we can attend!

We thank:
Mdm Sharifah
Mrs Teo
Mr Lim (whose picture we saw in the yellow book 8D)
Uncle Tim
Our Malaysian guide (which name we forgot)
Tiara Beach Resort (housekeeping, etc)
Jia Liang (fly dance)
Other committee members
The choir members who turned up for the trip and shared the experience together!

Before the trip:
-All of us were very excited as this is the 1st time choir go oversea for a learning trip.

Day 1 : (Alto Loves Chicken Rice)
-We cleared the custom smoothly, nobody was held on by the custom people saying "No, stop
there."
-Suaku me(Blessing) used the machine for the 1st time so I was stuck in the middle of the 2
barrier where I was supposed to put my thumb at the sensor. After clearing it, I was so happy
as it was such a wonderful experience. (Y) Me.

Reached Yong Peng :
-Jia liang brought her own bread instead of buying the food there as she didn't dare to eat the food there as
she vomited the 1st time she went to eat there.
-Sadly, the "Fly Dance" was not invented yet and everyone was harassed by the houseflies.

Reached Tiara Beach Hotel :
-Almost everyone Jinny was looking at the boys at there. Jinny was like haiyo why all sec1
and sce2 only?-Jia Liang :P

Checked into Hotel :
-When we entered the room, the light was yellow and it look quite creepy. Esp-3rd floor rooms were not even
clean at all and Mr. Lim's room still hace a smell coming out.

Preparing for Friendship Concert :
- We were given kemang something to practice.
-While we were waiting outsid the kemang we heard VJC singing and it was very beautiful
-Ms Angel rushed her dinner for us and we were very gratefuleven though something happened later.
-Mr. Lim wore the mask toe us to see. He looks more handsome then his usual way.
-Dinner was awesome as houseflies were accompanying us when we were eating.

Performance :
-The pianist got lost in the middle of the music and started playing something we couldn't recognise BUT we
continue singing even though it was weird. After the concert the audience didn't even know what went wrong
except for the conductors,
-Mr. Lim wore the reindeer deadband for us during the performance, so touched by him!! Even though he
looked funny.

Sectional at night :
-We went to Lin Ye room-D1-11. We went through Psallite and Sanctus and did some sharing about our
reflection of the day.

Reflection of day 1:
- We learnt from VJC that during practices, we must also be serious and treat it like a performance.
-*Practice dosen't make perfect. Perfect practice then make perfect* - by someone
-We learnt from VJC what's the real mature tone that Mr. Lim want from us. Its very hard to explain as you
must be there to witness it yourself.
-We felt that we must really recuit boys as they will really sound nice if they know how to sing.

Day 2 : (Musis is Entertainment)
-A lot of flies accompanying us again. X_X
-We played the monster game and it was not bad. *Thank You Li Shan*
-Then we went to kemang 11 to practice our 2 songs.
-Li Xin was hurt during the trip so Li Xin, get well soon! :D

Workshop with Mr. Reuben Lai ! XD
-He find out from us what we want to improve ourselves like physical part, more mature, elastic recoil all this >.<

Standing posture:

• Legs apart, one feet slightly in front of the other.
• Make a T-shape with your arms and slowly put it down to your body, holding your chest in the same position.
• Head lower, feel the stretch in your neck.

Mouth/ Stable Acoustic Space :

• Cheekbone up-just like what Mr.Lim always does. Or smile to make the tone brighter.
• Drop your jaw.
• Send your voice forward and focus.
• Not much jaw movement for low notes, more space inside your mouth for higher notes.
• Do not change your mouth shape too much for your vowels

Elastic Recoil

• Breathe out and let the air RUSH in.
• Try to hold your notes longer to use up the air inside so air will rush in. *Air that rushed in enough for you to sing your part* ^^

Overall

• Keep the sound moving for long notes.

THANK YOU MR. LAI :)

After the Master class:
-We ate our lunch and went back to rest for about 2 hours.
-After resting we had another master class in another kemang room.

Workshop with Mr. Arwin Tan

Shape of the music

• Must sing in phases.
• After the intense, we must go back to the point where you start.

Renaissance

• The shape of different section is different so you have to feel the music.
• Long notes in beginning, we must let the notes flow.
• Let your notes grow.

Face Movement

• Open your face as in lift up your eyebrows and smile when you sing high notes. :D

Dynamic

• Play with dynamic.

Air

• Have enough air, more air for higher notes.
• Yawn and lift so that you have enough rooms for growing.
• Allow space for growing.

Overall

• Must stagato.

THANK YOU MR. TAN :)

Dinner :
-Fly dance era XD
-Uncle Tim so sweet !><

After dinner :
-Play games "Chop Chillie Chop Chillie Chop Chop" & Mingmin was doing some ridiculous stuff which no one can understand. Hahas ! :D

SYF Presentation (as audience) :
-During the performance only we were taking down notes while the other schools were enjoying the performances. (Y) We're so guai !XP

Notes by us

• Woodgrove sec
• About 25 ppl
• Eyes of girls not focus on the conductor.
• Didn't notice much mistake.
• Deyi Sec
• No conductor still can sing
• neat
• Join together nicely in the 2ne song
• Better when there's conductor
• Christ church sec
• Smile :)
• Not very strong S1
• Commonwealth Sec
• Big choir:D
• Blend wonderfully (Y)
• They project their voices loudly.
• Nice dynamics.
• Awesome
• The second song if we are not wrong its" lightning", it sound really good! :D
• East Sprong sec
• About 30 ppls.
• Good tenor & Base.
• Good blending
• Mature tone
• Confident
• Cute guys(some of them)-Jinny
• Sound good
• MJC
• About 23 ppls. Half guys , half girls
• Nice Blending

After the performance :
-Debrief by Mr. Lim then went to sleep (Y) Blessing :P

Reflection for the day:
-We learnt a lot from the master classes and we must remember and apply it.

What it takes to be a gold choir and what can we learn from them?
-We think that everyone in the gold choir must be dare to sing and be confident, not complacent.
Everyone must be committed so they must come for every practice unless they are sick. They must be ready to learn and remember and apply what they have learnt.Everyone must also be punctual for every practice. Everyone must practice at home too. During the performance or rehearsal. they must engaging with the conductors. Lastly, every details matter and everyone matters.

Day 3: (We Love Mr. Lim and Our Teachers ^.^

Workshop with Mr. Ranaldo Raz! :D

Overall

• Enjoy the music- *SMILE*
• When you laugh your tummy must move if not its called a fake laugh! XP

THANK YOU MR. RAZ! :D

Exchange programme with christ church, unity & catholic high(KL) :
-It was awesome(Y) the conductor from catholic conduct like a pro & he is only 16yrs old, named Tarzan~ :D
-After that we went to eat our lunch.
-Then we had rehearsal at the stage where we tried out our position and sing^_^
-After that we went back to our rooms and sleep. ^_^-*Sleep* I loves the most! :P

Mass Singing with Mr. Arwin Tan :
-We cannot hear the other choirs singing.

Dinner:
-We cannot eat the nice food (fried) cause we were ferpormaning later. Uncle Tim packed cracker for us ( SoSweet (Y) ) !:D

After Dinner:
-We play games.
-Teachers talk to us and tell us that this is our last chance to prove that our choir can sing as we made a blunder for our 1st performance.
-They even THREATHEN us with the crackers they kept for us! :P

Performance :
-2nd to perform.
-We massage our face and hums before and during the 1st performance.
-Did well for Psallite but Sanctus abit off tor the last note.
-We were very TOUCHED by Mr. Lim for taking the blame for our ahem !>< -We listened to other choirs and some of us went to take photos with our MASTERS and Uncle Tim the awesome tour guide. -The performance ended with VJC singing Jingle Bells. :D

Post Performance:
-Mr.Lim TREAT us ice-cream. (one each) So nice of him ecen thouth we didn't do very well, still reward (Y)
-ALTOS really ADMIRE him and filled with gratitude!
-Mr. lim - alto hug you, *HUGE* ! XD
-Mdm Sharifah and Mrs Teo treat us chocolate, so sweet fo them! ^^
-Our teachers and conductor LOVES us , so we should LOVE them TOO! Let's do that with our voices and do our best for everything! :D

Reflection for the day:
-Mr. Lim is such an awesome person & conductor. He helped us a lot and he treat us very nicely. Even if we say a hundred thank you, it's still insufficient to convey our gratitude.

Post Trip:
-We missed the MASTER classes, Ahem Philo Ahem. As it was very fun. (Y)
-Learnt a lot of things about singing or other things from everyone that are there.

Went to roam about the resort:
-We saw 2 rooms opposite each other. One filled with boys and another filled with girls. the girls were doing jumping jacks to attract attention and the boys were writing their phone numbers. So hilarious, sadly there are no boys opposite us ~><

Last day:
-Bye bye Jubilate & Masters! >< -Brought our bags down , it was raining. -Ate breakfast. -Talk abit & do fly dance. -Went onto bus & went back to Singapore. -Debrief. -Sang for Mdm Tay in her office and earned a BIG chocolate bar, which taste really very nice. Thank you Mdm Tay for your Big Nice chocolate! ^^

People to thank:
-Mr. Lim - You are the reason why we went there! :D
-Mdm Tay, Mrs Loong & Mr. Lim- For your support ! :D
-Our Beloved teachers, Mdm Sharifah & Mrs Teo- For taking care of us and the encouragement! :D
-Uncle Tim- For your meticulous Action. ^>^
-3Masters- For your guidance and your words! ^_^
-And EVERYONE that went with us to this learning trip for being such as a great companies.

Finally signing off- Altos
Write & Typer: Bkessubg. ^_^
Authors : Jia liang, blessing, Philomena, Yuan Ling & Lin Ye. ^^