Tuesday - Harmony College - Showmanship and Expression

SHOWMANSHIP (Gina)

Gina gives us a handout which is the Showmanship judging scoresheet. Notice that the judging criteria are listed under the headings of Performance and Preparation, and some appear under both headings.

Performance (what actually happened on stage):

• entrance/break/exit - choruses entrance is when the lights go up so they are not judged on walking on, but quartets are
• vocal skills - must support everything else
• unit - unit look of chorus - anything you can do that helps this (eg if just one person's hair is down and everyone else's is up, and it draws the judge's attention)
• audience rapport is assessed by the judge based on what she feels, not what the audience does - so if the judge is bored and loses interest, you lose points for audience rapport

Preparation (what was planned):

• costume is only one of five criteria under preparation so don't get your knickers in a twist over costume. Costume is assessed objectively on fit, style, suitability, fabric, colour under stage lights, allowing focus to be on face: it's not assessed on judge's personal preferences
  
• check makeup and grooming in advance to identify wardrobe malfunctions, eg pantyline showing
• scoresheets say 'glimpses of creativity' - take more risks - your scores only last until the next contest
• makeup - it's not makeup but the application that is the usual problem - read the Judging Categories Book - if possible, check under stage lights in advance
  
• Director can wear anything as long as it complements the chorus
• Judges don't want to see anything they shouldn't be seeing from Director or front row so check beforehand
• The front row and people on the ends of rows should have uniform shoes, but the judge won't notice shoes on people in middle and back rows.

EXPRESSION with Karen:

Karen loves the Expression category, which includes everything. Expression is about how we add humanity to our music. She looks at the emotional content of songs, suitability, degree to which we produce sound, how story connects with audience

• Sound category is about vocal production
• Music category is about what we do with the music
• Showmanship is everything visual
• Expression is about the words

Exercise:
See Spot
See Spot run
Run, Spot, run.

Gina asks volunteers to read this:

• as a beginner reader - focus is on consonants and vowels - C minus chorus
• as a second grader - focus is word by word, on pronunciation, enunciation and dipthongs - C plus chorus
• as a fifth grader - focus is on inflection and phrases - B chorus
• as a librarian reading to children - focus is on story, visualisation, inflection, texture, dynamics, energy, drama, tempo and rhythm - A chorus

On top of this, as ensemble singers, we need to synchronise what we do

Speaking the lyrics together is a great way to see where the phrasing and synch issues are.

Music is what drives us, lyrics are secondary to music.

Comments on synch are related to lack of synch within parts or across the chorus. Usually the problem is with word elements not being unified, but there are lots of reasons why this might be happening.

Karen says it makes her day when singers do something that expresses the feeling of the music.

To improve Expression points:

• work on unity
• sing lyrics on the same chord all the way through
• listen to recording without looking to hear synch issues.

Gina says it's hard to get chorus members to listen to their own recordings. Her chorus does a lot of things live, and treat it as coaching rather than pass/fail. It's done during rehearsal because people may not do it at home. They have a three step readiness program:

• every member sings her part in a quartet with the music team, who give praise and constructive feedback. Members feel they are being coached raher than judged, and welcome the opportunity. Music team keeps track of who has done it. Notes, words and breathing are assessed. Some people need to be reassessed.
• The Director and Lead Section Leaders sing the contest pieces the way the Director wants them interpreted, for the chorus to practise against at home.
• Visual assessment.

They are trying to cut out extra Section rehearsals except when a new song is first introduced. If members haven't learned it, they are asked to go out of rehearsal and practice in a separate room during rehearsal time.

We want all chorus members to improve (;increase the percentages') and then the chorus will get better.

Each chorus and Director have their own culture and way of doing things. Whatever works for you!

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