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Sunday, August 10, 2014

Getting back into the swing of things!



When I was learning and rehearsing Poppea this spring, I sometimes got so tired of singing the same things over and over again that I'd stop and sing something else, even though I knew I still needed to practice Poppea, as it was so hard to learn in the first place. 

I'd sing a little Mozart, Puccini (I’m working on my first Puccini aria as a little "project", if you will, with my teacher) and Grieg. But I couldn’t do it. They were all placed in this uncomfortable tessitura and I just couldn’t sing them. So finally I just said to my self "Fuck it!" 

I thought, I'll just focus on Poppea and by the time I’ve learned the music and finished my performances, that tessitura will no longer be a challenge.

And so it became. Suddenly all the soubrette Mozart arias lay comfortably in my voice. Because I took the time to just focus on one thing, instead of trying to impress and not be singing anything well, my voice has developed.  I know, I know it's all in our minds, but it's also about being smart when you're a young. Take the smart and easy route, don't make it harder than it already is. 
That is why this summer I haven’t booked any singing gigs. I didn’t audition for any roles in little productions, even if they could have given me a small income over the summer. I'm invited to several wedding celebrations and I haven’t offered to sing, because I want to focus on getting my entire range stabilized. I'm almost "there" and I don’t want to mess up all the hard work I've put into my technique. 

I promised some more personal pictures over the summer, but I was unfortunate with the blogging from my iPad, so I'll be sharing some holiday pictures now instead. 
First up are images of Avignon where I spent two weeks of my holiday. The first images are of the beautiful Pope's Palace followed by images from the quaint little shops and beautiful atmosphere of the little town and finally images of Le Pont de Avingon ,The Avingon Bridge.












































xx Erika Grace

All pictures by Erika Grace