Final Exam

Monet Monterroso
June 18, 2012
Period. 2

    When I think about my school year in Select Choir I think about your BLONDE hair. No really, I reflect about how I was able to convey the lyrics of a song to an audience. I knew how powerful lyrics could be but I didn't know that I could do that, I thought that was only for the professionals like you. I knew music was powerful but I didn't know that I had the ability to do that when I sang. This finally hit me when we were performing at our Spring Spectacular and we were performing "Perfect" you said to sing it to someone, and I sang it to my mom. She got really emotional and I knew that I accomplished in sending the message that I wanted to.
    The best thing about this choir year is the group we had. We were all very responsible and we all understood that all of us needed to work together to make a perfect performance. Also, the Sopranos in my section, especially Ashley, really helped me improve in my performance but they critiqued me in a nice way. One of my faults is that I take things way too personal and so when somebody can critique me and not make me feel inferior I very much appreciate it.
   A challenge this year was trying out for a solo. It would've been so much easier if you picked songs that stunk like last years songs, "Ciyahamba", but no you had to pick songs like "Man in the Mirror" songs that make you feel good (and on a second note I want to say the songs you chose for us had a lot of impact on how we performed it). Then, you chose the song "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" and I couldn't resist anymore. A big battle was fought inside of me on whether I should try out for it and I was about a half of a centimeter to not trying out but I was like "I will never know unless I try. Y.O.L.O". You probably don't understand why it was such a struggle to try out for a song I loved so much but thats because I'm really rusty compared to the other people in Select. But I got over that fear and went for it and I'm glad I did even though I didn't get the solo.
    The reason why I chose the song "A Whole New World" by Aladdin is because like I said in my video you gave this song to me when we would do our vocal lessons, and those lessons meant so much to me and I'm going to miss them so much next year (I get no study hall next year). I really like this song because it's a fairytale musical like you know "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast" *cough cough wink wink*. Anyways, I really like this song unfortunately I couldn't do it justice: I lost my pitch through out the entire song, my jaw wasn't dropped, I had really bad breathing and diction.
    Next year I hope to be able to get a solo and I will deffinately work harder on perfecting on my techniques like breathing and dropping my jaw.
    Thank you for being my teacher this year you mean so much to me and I hope that your Summer goes as you plan it to.  : )



Link to video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQe48hHOV00

Choir CFA

Monet M

Choir Midterm

Monet Monterroso

January 16,2012

Select Choir

Period 2

At the beginning of this year I just loved to sing but wasn’t great at it. Then coming into Select Choir I learned that I can be the greatest singer in the world. I’ve learned so much so far. Especially, when it comes to blending. I can now make my voice match any other person’s voice that is next to me. Then there’s the breathing technique, I used a lot while singing Silent Night, when you breath from your belly button and it really helps getting your sound out there clearly and on pitch. Everything I learn in class I now use it in my everyday of singing.

My favorite performance this Semester was performing for the schools in Stratford and the Holiday Concert. Going to perform in front of the kids in all the schools of Stratford was first really nerve racking. The reason I felt the nerves because they were all young kids and don’t really care about something as magical as music. So, I was scared they were going to make fun of us or just talk through the whole performance but the best thing is they didn’t. When we opened are mouths and sang Hallelujah and Man in the Mirror we grabbed there attention and kept it through the whole thing. They loved it and they applauded and clapped during Man in the Mirror. The best part was when you saw them grinning. They wanted to be able to sing just like we did. And it felt great to know that I put that spark inside them. Our choir lifted them up and made them want to join in and sing with us.

Then when we performed at the Holiday concert, we were just off the charts. We knew these songs backwards and forward and we were ready to show the people of Stratford what Bunnell’s Select choir got. It just went so perfect from the song selection, to the blending, then the chorography. We just had it all. We knew exactly what we had to do. We had our space and we were breathing correctly. It just went so beautiful. And then to top it all off we also received a standing ovation by our audience. I just couldn’t stop smiling. I’ve practiced all this time for that one moment and it was completely worth it. I am now looking forward to the next concert and what we’re going to perform.

I must conclude with stating that the First Semester went very well but I know that Second Semester will go even better. My ability for reading music will increase and with that my music vocabulary. I can’t wait to also begin again with the blog’s I really enjoy seeing what the question is and trying to answer it. My favorite blog post from First Semester would have to be the one about choosing a song and defining the meaning of it.(“Select one song from the repertoire rehearsed in class. Examine the lyrics closely and explain the underlying message of the music. How does the accompaniment part, the developed harmonies, and the melody line support the lyrics? How will choir communicate this to the audience?”) It made me analyze all our music and remind me that music is about having a special message to share with the rest of the world. Can’t wait for Second Semester!

The link to my singing video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFTBdYbKXlY&feature=g-upl&context=G261d7a2AUAAAAAAAAAA