April and snowing

Hi everyone! I've been working mostly on homework lately so it's been about a week since my last post. I hope everyone's had a good week, more relaxing than mine anyway! Somehow it's already April 16th and I've had 5 musical practices, a speech at the staff meeting, 2 divisional choir practices, 6 jazz practices, 6 concert choir practices, 1 party and a concert. The speech was honestly a little bit scary but it was also really fun and all my teachers were really supportive. The musical seems to be going along well but we only have about 6 more weeks before the show. That's 12 practices! Divisional choir is fun as always!! Right now we're really working on Cabaret which is a big night to showcase the 3 choirs and some solos, duets and trios. The senior choir is going to be singing Dancing in the street, summertime, let the river run and the girls are singing "new girl in town" from hairspray and the boys are singing "every little thing she does is magic" by sting. It's going to be really fun and just amazing. Our jazz concert last week was so much fun I couldn't believe it! It took about 4 hours of setup and 1 hour of tear down because we had a little trouble setting up lighting and sound but once all that was out of the way we were really grateful to have an evening to just sing as a little group and some solos with our friends there. It was really an amazing night with some phenomenal singing. I'm really grateful to be part of such a great group of singers and friends. Since then, I've been sick and I had a migraine but now all I have left from that is a head cold. Not ideal for singing but i'll live. Today, after class I had a meeting of the teen group at the library and we got significantly farther planning an event. On Thursday May the 16th we will be having a program called Music Mayhem where there will be games and music and snacks and it's basically a music party at the library! really hope people come and enjoy it. So that's what I've been up to lately, I hope everyone has a good rest of their week. Bye!

Musical Theatre

Hi! Aside from all the choirs I am also in the grade 9 musical and This is our first assignment.

1. summarize the plots of 2 musicals from which we are taking music for our production. Be sure to include the name of the musical and the song, key characters in the musical and the beginning, middle and end points of the story.
The two musicals I chose are:
Miss Liberty (we are performing falling out of love can be fun)
Miss Liberty starts with Maisie Dell (writer for the police gazette) and Horace Miller from the Herald discussing journalism and photography at a ceremony where the mayor of New York is to receive money for the base of the statue of liberty. Horace ends up taking the wrong pictures and commodore Bennett fires him. To get his job back, Maisie convinces Horace to go to Paris to find the model for the statue and get his job back. Once in Paris, Horace finds the sculptor who is holding interviews with new models and Horace sees a dancer posing like the statue of liberty and thinks she is the original. Horace takes a pictures of her and sends it to Maisie who tells Bennett who agrees to pay for lady liberty's american tour. Bennett also offers Maisie a job but she declines. Monique (the dancer) takes Horace to her home under a bridge and then invites him on a tour of France. Monique is dancing and Horace tells her he is taking her to America. She doesn't know this is a case of mistaken identity and is very happy! Horace then tells Monique that he loves her and the first act ends. In the second act; Harold, Monique and her grandmother (the countess) come to New York and Monique is horrified that she is supposedly Lady Liberty but pretends she is to protect Horace. Maisie doesn't like that Horace and Monique are in love and when Monique gets back from a tour Maisie gets into her hotel room to talk to her. They are both pleasently surprised by the others honesty. At this time, the sculptor has come to the U.S. and tells Bennett that he has been tricked. Running from Bennett, Horace and Monique pass the policeman's ball where Maisie is selling tickets. By this time she has realized that she has no chance at love with Harold and tells them to hide inside. Once inside, Monique shows everyone her dancing skills and amazes her audience but the ball ends and when Bennett arrives she is arrested. Horace and the countess are also placed under arrest and, once alone, Maisie sings about losing her love. The next day Monique and the countess wait to be deported when Horace comes back saying that they have been released and he has been given a job. Monique is then inspired to sing the final song.
Bye Bye Birdie (we are performing put on a happy face)
Bye Bye Birdie
Rock and roll superstar Conrad Birdie has been drafted into the army, putting agent and songwriter Albert Peterson in trouble. Rose Alvarez (Albert's secretary and sweetheart) come sup with one last publicity stunt, making Albert promise that after this he will give up music and become an English teacher. Birdie is going to sing Albert's new song "One last kiss" and give a girl from his fan club a last kiss before he goes to the army. The lucky girl is Kim MacAfee from Sweet Apple, Ohio. All the teenagers in this small town are catching up on the gossip about Kim dating Hugo Peabody. Kim is very exited to have a boyfriend and is happy with her maturity. Conrad, Albert and Rosie go to Sweet Apple to get ready for the big show and all the teenage girls are extied to meet Conrad. One girl is sad because once Conrad gets out of the army she thinks she'll be too old for him. Albert tells her to be optimistic by singing put on a happy face. Reporters come to ask Conrad questions but Conrad, Rosie and the girls are worried about tabloids and answer for him. In Sweet Apple, everyone looks to Conrad as a hero and Hugo thinks that maybe Kim likes Conrad more than him but Kim tells Hugo he's the only one she loves. Conrad shocks and amazes everyone by performing "Honestly Sincere". Conrad stays with the MacAfee's and Kim's father Harry is annoyed by the guests rude and selfish manner. Harry doesn't want Kim and Conrad to kiss until he's told that they will all be on Tv, including Kim's parents and brother. Hugo notices how much Kim likes Conrad and starts getting jealous. Albert's mother comes to break up him and Rosie, introducing Albert to a blond woman she met on the bus named Gloria. Rosie then becomes jealous and Rosie and Hugo plot to ruin the show. Conrad goes to kiss Kim and Hugo punches him in the face so Conrad collapses. Rosie breaks up with Albert and not knowing what to do Albert starts singing.
In act 2, Plans are made to refilm the broadcast and Rosie and KIm decide to leave Albert and Hugo, mourn about how stupid they were to love the men. Conrad decides to have fun on his last night and convinces the teens to party. All the teenagers except Hugo go to the ice house to party without adults. Hugo heads instead to a bar, wanting to get drunk but the owner can tell he's underage. Mr. MacAffe realizes Kim ran away and Kim's parents mourn about how disobedient kids are. Rosie ends up at the same bar as Hugo but Albert calls her, begging for her to come back. Rosie just wants to forget and interupts a meeting in the private dining room which breaks out in a wild dance. Hugo and Albert rescue her and Albert tells his mother to go home. Hugo tells the parents where the other kids are amd they all say that they have no idea what's wrong with kids. Kim's brother joins in by saying his sister and her friends are ridiculous and immature. The adults and Police find them and Conrad is arrested though he's done no wrong and Kim comes back to Hugo saying Conrad scared her. Rosie then tells Albert's mother that she will marry Albert no matter what his racist mother says and just to annoy her, says that she's spanish, exaggerating a lot. Albert bails Conrad out of jail and finds a way for him to report to the army as scheduled. Albert also convinces his mother to leave at the same time. He then tells Rosie that they're not going to New York. They're moving to Pumpkin Falls where he will be a happily married English teacher.
2. select one of the characters you are playing in the show and comment on:
a) how, if at all, can you relate to the character you are playing?
Kim, expecting tears.
I think that something Kim and I have in common is having good friends. This guy is trying to make her feel better! Also, like me, she seems to go on and keep talking no matter what is going on. I've also had that same feeling of expecting to cry and just not. She also seems to appreciate her friends as much as I appreciate mine.
b) what challenges do you have in playing the character?
a challenge I face in playing Kim is that I have no idea how she feels in some aspects. I have never dated or wanted to date anyone so I wouldn't no what the whole being dumped feels like. Another challenge is her sudden changes of attitude. She can go from so sad to really hopeful in just one line!
c) how do you try and get into character?
Getting into character I try to think how I would feel if one of my friends decided to be really mean to me and I imagine another one of my friends trying to cheer me up and I would start out wanting to be happy for my friend and then end up actually being happy to spend time with my friend.
3. comment on your involvement in the musical theatre course this far.
a) time on task during rehearsals
I think that just about all of my time in rehearsals is spent on task because I realize how valuable that time is when we have such a limited aount.
b) what you are enjoying about this experience
I'm really enjoying musical because it's a chance to sing and act with some friends and I cam have the fun while getting used to high school before getting into a full published musical you can't change a whole lot with a lot more people.
c) specific strengths that you are bringing to the course
I think that I am a strong and flexible singer being able to learn any part and switch if needed and I am also willing to learn these different skills. And it isn't as hard as it used to be because I've been doing this for a coup0le years and I'm used to memorizing things, between other plays and choirs.
d) areas you feel you want to continue working on
One thing I really want to work on is movement. I don't move a lot on my own but it adds so much to any performance and I constantly feel like I need more movement and to a lesser extent, facial expression, although I'm doing a lot better with my facial expression but it could always be improved.
e) time you have put in rehearsing outside of class time
I spend a fair amount of time practicing. Every night I set aside about an hour to talk or look over my scripts and go through all the music I want to/ need to work on that night.

Under Pressure

Hi again!
I want to get some homework out of the way. So I have some more cool jazz logbooks and I've been listening to one of them for a while now and I figured I'd get it done.

Under Pressure- Rajaton with David Bowie (Rajaton's cover of Queen's famous song)
1) The song is unaccompanied (they use their voices as all the instruments they need) like all of Rajaton's music.
2) The song is very similar to the original in many ways and the two are both in a rock style.
3) It is a group of 6 people singing in 6 parts. There are 3 women and 3 men each singing their own parts. Sometimes the words or syllables will match up for a particular part and they will be singing the same thing but with harmonies (different notes)
4) The melody is generally sung in English language but the rest is a random collection of syllables.
6) The part from 3:09-3:18 really stood out to me. It by itself wasn't all that impressive but everything was so perfectly balanced and I could hear the girls parts going up and down like a wave almost and I'm not sure why but that part really stood out for me.
7) the soloing in this song was done by passing the melody throughout the group. Usually there was a soloist wherever the melody was. They were all really well done
8) The group's unity was amazing. Even from the beginning, their snaps and claps sounded like they came from one person. The cut-offs were very well placed and without even looking at each other they were clear.  Their vowels all somehow managed to sound like one person was singing the whole chord sometimes and others you could just really tell they knew exactly what everyone else was doing.
9) The lines built together very well so that you were always hearing what they wanted you to. The dynamic swells were all placed to keep an audience intrigued and, I must say, it worked. There were little smears all over the place in individual parts. They weren't to obvious but they were there enough so that it added a little more color to the whole thing.
11) I loved how they really showed that even a simple movement like the claps and snaps can look really proffessional and well done (even if you're not proffessional) if it's together.
13) I really liked the soprano's big dramatic smear from 2:16-2:26. It was very interesting and helped really emphasize that that was the climax. I'm pretty sure that of all the very interesting arrangements of this song, Rajaton is my favourite. I loved the part from 3:22-3:33 when the bass really sounded like a trumpet in the background.
So that was Under pressure by Rajaton- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NixhQFSJkmU

Life?

I'm still alive, I promise!
Well my music is, as usual taking a fair amount of my time but that's okay because what's more fun than music? So Edmonton was amazing!!! We had soo much fun!! and now we're as busy as ever. This week alone I have practice every day as usual plus musical practice twice a week (it's going pretty well so far) and band every second day. tomorrow I have my normal day of get up at 6:20 and have a bigger breakfast than i'm used to, get everything ready and head to jazz choir rehearsal at 7:30 so that we can have fun as always rehearsing and running through everything one last time. then it's off to gym where I'm learning circus skills. anyone want to help me learn how to fall off a unicycle? oops I already know how to do that. I need to learn how to ride! After that, we head to geography to learn about Food and the earth i believe. Then band to have fun playing my amazing instrument- French horn! And just like after every band practice I eat really quickly and go sing in concert choir. Then I head over to English with the most energetic teacher alive to learn more about writing an essay. After English it's Peace & Conflict in the 20th century. That's actually a really fun course and I get really interesting assignments.  I think, i'll post some of them. After that, since it's Wednesday i'll go to Divisional choir after eating a snack and we'll practice some awesome tunes for Cabaret! Then I come home, finish homework and sleep. Of course Thursday... I get to go to gym, geography, french, jazz, English, peace & conflict and then take stuff out of the band room so that we can fill it with more stuff (lighting, staging, sound system, tables, chairs, etc.) and then I go home and eat and shower and change and possibly do some homework. Then I go and have fun and sing my little heart out!! Then we have to take everything back down... So it's going to be a long but fun and musical 2 days. Of course after that I have a test and some more homework... Let's not go there and just look forward to the music.
By the way, Sleep happens to be a foreign concept to me. Usually I get just enough and then I'm really hyper all day (side effect of being tired) so I hope I sleep well tonight.
Goodnight everyone, have a good week! and please come to our concert if you can.
(poster and details on G+)

I have a life?

Hey everyone!
It's Thursday and I'm blogging because I'm just kinda blogging whenever I can. Of course I won't blog two weeks from now but, whatever. So my life has been absolutely insane lately! I'm just gonna post most of the e-mail I sent people because I send my family and friends a monthly (sometimes more) e-mail just to say what's up with my music. I've even started getting reactions from them such as: "It's great that you found something you love and are good at" or, "I know how great it feels to be successful with music congrats!" or "hey isn't your name funny? Coral's choral endeavors! however did your parents know?" Usually the responses are more along the lines of: "when do you breath kid!?" So this is my life:
The concert choir performed at music festival earlier and got a gold medal. We also had more fun than a runaway horse! The choreography went better than planned and last night we performed at a choral excellency concert to sing Son De Camaguey and Earth Song. Now we are working on new repertoire for the endish of the year. We started seasons of love (third time i’ve sung it!) and Come Sweet Death, doesn’t that sound pleasant? It’s going to be a fun month after spring break and we are continuing to work very hard.
The divisional choir also performed at music festival. We won 2 gold medals, 2 trophies and a standing ovation. Again, this group also got invited to the choral excellency concert. The choral excellency concert features the 6 best choirs from music festival, 2 at the elementary school level, 2 middle school groups and 2 high schools. Right now everyone is really frazzled in anticipation for Edmonton. (Only 7 more days!!!) We are singing at the University, west Edmonton mall, a church service and a nursing home. Tonight we will be singing our two best songs: Wade in de Water and Ka Hia Manu. We have performed Ka Hia Manu 3 times now but it seems like more since we started it back in september. People are starting to a better job of controlling the poles although it’s really hard when you’re in such a tight space and you have to draw your arm back without hitting anyone (someone always gets hit in the face, please let tonight show that there’s a first time for everything!) In Edmonton we are thinking of singing Let everything that hath breath, come away sweet love ka hia manu, wade in de water, bright morning stars and basically whatever we can have ready by then. In practice we have been attempting to get build me up buttercup ready for Edmonton and the general ruling is: any new people can suck it up and just figure it out. We’ve been having lot’s of fun and we are also getting ready for Cabaret. My friend and I are determined to win a spot in cabaret and are working very hard on anything you can do ( I can do better) from Annie get your gun and so far it’s going pretty well. As a group, we don’t know what we’re singing yet, other than Dancing in the street and it’s still in the beginning stages. Divisional choir is definitely a lot of fun and i can’t wait to go to Edmonton with my friends.

Now we know that Our director (Mrs. Avonlea Armstrong) has won a well deserved award for being such a dedicated conductor and we don't know anyone who could be more deserving.

Yay Mrs. A!!!!!

Ok I'm kinda busy right now so see ya next time I blog!

Bye :)

So busy!!

It's March. and I remembered to blog! wow.
So anyway, he everyone! It's the busiest month of the year. some of my friends say that I say that every month but It's only really true for March. It's actually so busy I have 4 calendars so that no matter where I am I can see one of them and I can add to it. I have one in my phone, google, a paper copy in my binder and one on my wall. Just to give you an idea of what I do I have, Musical practice every Sunday and Monday, choir once almost every day, choir 3 times on Wednesdays, i'm singing at 2 concerts, listening to one, going to a musical, sitting at a talking circle, talking at the school's staff meeting, I have 2 tests that I know of, book club, a Youth Advisory Council, some volunteering, a doctor's appointment somewhere in there and a trip to Edmonton with the choir. Oh yeah and I go to school every day. Last week I had one concert and we won a gold medal!!! This week I have one concert with divisional choir and we are going to sing awesomely! and another concert with jazz choir. :)
I hope everyone had a great week and I'll write again soon. Bye!!

Life is crazy

Hi Everyone!!!!
I did not realize that I have been blogging for over a year. not much blogging actually got done but I have been posting once in a while for over a year. Wow. how did I not notice that? oh well. So I realize it's been almost a month since my last post but I've been really busy between music and a new semester (15.1% over!) and just life in general. So I figured I should probably post while I had some time to myself. right now it's the end of the day at school so I took advantage of the last 10 minutes of Peace & Conflict to start a new post. So lately I've settled into semester 2 last week and it's pretty great. I have gym, grade 10 geography, French/Band, Choir/Jazz, English, Peace & Conflict. It's been lots of fun! In gym I just finished playing floor ball which was a lot of fun. I wasn't very good at it but who cares? and I wasn't That bad. in french we finished our book (finally!) and in band we're working on some very cool songs and that's lots of fun. Of course choir is amazing! Right now we're very busy getting ready for festival and that's been a blast. We're going to sing earth song by Frank Tichelli and Son De Camaguey by Stephen Hatfield. (curse you Stephen Hatfield!) Stephen Hatfield is this really awesome composer who writes some crazy songs that we love to sing. It's now Sunday night and i'm sitting at home doing pretty much nothing. So i'm going to continue. in English we just started Midsummer night's dream. I love Shakespeare and i'm having so much fun!! and then Conflict and peace is really interesting so far. We're finished our first unit about defining peace and we're starting a new one tomorrow. i think it might be my favourite non-musical class. So this week I have an hour of volunteering, a concert, a bunch of choir practices and who knows what else. It'll be fun, it always is. Only difference: I managed to sprain my wrist before all this. So as of today I have to keep it wrapped for however long. Whopdeedoo. Have a great week guys!