The Happy Thread III

[Prince Myshkin]

at one point or another i have had a class in,

Afro-carribbean dance, swing dancing, modern, character dance (Dances done by regional groups of people), contact improvisation, improvasation, more modern, hip-hop, musical theatre.

Hhmmm, I've taken a lot of different masterclasses with companies, but it's hard to break different dance types from different companies down into categories. I pretty much dance whenever I have a chance. There are some types I'm more skilled in and have more training in, but movement is cumulative, so the more the better! I'm so new to this dance thing but it's lots of fun!

some of my dance attempts have been pretty funny to watch though *giggles remembering different attempts*

[Mari]

Haha, I'd love to see it. I always admire people who can move their body without looking like a complete idiot (I'm one of those who always look like a complete idiot ) and actually being able to express a story through dancing impresses me even more. Hmm, perhaps I'm just easily impressed...? Nah~!
Say... you've got an avvie! Congrats on the avvie!

[Mari]

I'm happy because this is post number 2 for me! *beams*
I'd like to thank everyone who supported me and who helped me directly or indirectly to get to this point, blablabla.
I especially like to mention Nautipus, Hector and Sis. Without their help I would never have come to 2000 so fast. More blablabla.
And I'd like to thank Eärniel, Nurv, Tessar, Sane, Nerdanel, GW and many many others for their kindness and help. Even more bladibla.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone on the board for being who they are and through doing so maintaining this board and it's wonderfully pleasant atmosphere and thus allowing me to be the silly weird me we've come to know.

To celebrate, let's have a teaparty! Sis, will you help me bake some cakes and stuff? Anyone else willing to help is off course welcome

[Nautipus]

I am so thrilled! (Congratulations, Mari. Just kinda btw.) I've managed to get the dragonet to eat some mysis shrimp as well as some mixed food designed for anemones, but filled with nutrients. They are difficult to get to eat anything but copepods and amphipods, but this bugger's eatin.
*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* It's good to know that I'm doin right.

[katya]

snow day! And yet here I am at 8 in the morning unable to sleep in. :/ Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I slept until 4 in the afternoon yesterday...?

[Tessar]

Gratz Mari .

I'm happy because I had a fantastic voice lesson today. I was singing this song that I LOVE and I was totally sure I wouldn't get to sing because I figured she'd say it's more of a soprano/mezzo song (usually they sing it) but she didn't know the piece very well .

I finally asked her if she was playing it in a lower key than the one in my book, because dang. The high notes were just so easy to sing. It was fantastic . Now that I don't have to worry about 'high' notes as much any more I can really get into the music.

Of course I kept accidentally 'scooping' a bunch of the notes . The counter-tenor I heard sing this song had a slight pop inflection and I picked up on it and magnified it . Ah well.


I'm just so happy that my voice is back to about 85%. I keep coughing, but hey... it's not as bad as it has been before, and most of my voice is back... so I'm happy to finally be able to really 'sing' and to practice a little. I still feel like I lost a lot of time, though, even if I did still improve a lot while I was sick.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Gratz Mari .

I'm happy because I had a fantastic voice lesson today. I was singing this song that I LOVE and I was totally sure I wouldn't get to sing because I figured she'd say it's more of a soprano/mezzo song (usually they sing it) but she didn't know the piece very well .

I finally asked her if she was playing it in a lower key than the one in my book, because dang. The high notes were just so easy to sing. It was fantastic . Now that I don't have to worry about 'high' notes as much any more I can really get into the music.

Of course I kept accidentally 'scooping' a bunch of the notes . The counter-tenor I heard sing this song had a slight pop inflection and I picked up on it and magnified it . Ah well.


I'm just so happy that my voice is back to about 85%. I keep coughing, but hey... it's not as bad as it has been before, and most of my voice is back... so I'm happy to finally be able to really 'sing' and to practice a little. I still feel like I lost a lot of time, though, even if I did still improve a lot while I was sick.

That's wonderful, Tessar.

I wish you were at my rehearsal. *wistful*

[Mari]

Thanks, and Yay! for the being able to sing.

[katya]

What's scooping, Tessar? Is it just what it sounds like it would be?

[Tessar]

Scooping is basically a pop/rock/jazz singer... 'technique', if you will. It's basically just something they do where they start the note just a fraction below the intended pitch and very, very quickly slide up to the intended note. It's not like where they sing a bunch of notes really fast (a 'riff' or 'melizma'), or like those vocal slides where you start on a lowish note and just slide up really high like a gospel singer does... it's just a tiny fraction under the pitch, and you 'scoop' up instantly to the correct pitch.

Basically it's a pop thing, and due to the prevalence of that style people have it in their ears to sing like that... but it's totally inappropriate for classical singing, and usually for 'traditional' church music.

Actually one guy with a pretty decent voice is (I think) not going to get the solo he auditioned for in choir last week because he hit the high note like a pop note (i.e. scooped), did that thing where you start in straight tone and then slide into vibrato, and then he was just kind of choppy overall... He had a nice voice, but unfortunately the stylistic treatment he gave the piece was totally inappropriate for Bach .

Unfortunately, a lot of opera singers are starting to use it. I know Natalie Dessay and Philippe Jaroussky like to add just the tiniest hint of it when they sing, and... well it's just not really appropriate for the style of music they sing. Typically when they're working with a good conductor, neither of them will do it--but for some of their other work they tend to let it slip in, and I certainly heard plenty of young singers at the competition last semester who needed to smooth a little of the scooping out of their voice. It's not that it's a bad thing in and of itself--it sounds great for pop and broadway and stuff like that... but it just makes the classical music sound cheap and... not really like classical music.

[Mari]

My sis does that. A lot.

[katya]

Is that like, what I find myself doing sometimes if I don't hit the note right at first? (lol) I think I actually tend not to do that much at all... even with pop songs. Funny imagining Bach with lots of scooping though.

[Tessar]

OMG OMG OMG I'M HOME!

SO excited to be back home. Seriously. I was up at 6 a.m. and just now got home at 9:30 p.m. It's not like I haven't had longer days, but I felt totally exhausted all today. Urgh. At least my voice is back.

I also attended an hour and a half long concert. O.o Hawly carpus. If I'd known it was going to be that long I wouldn't have attended. Chamber music is nice. In small doses.


I'M GOING TO GO TO BED NOW!!! ^_^ So... happy... to see... pillow...

[Mari]

I received an email from someone who I thought was my friend. He apologized for what he did to me over a year ago. I was so happy that he finally approached me again! I had tried to show him that I had forgiven him a few times allready, but he always evaded me. I guess now he was finally ready to be forgiven. Yay! Perhaps now I can be his friend too!

[katya]

Yay! I'm happy for you Mari! I love those kinds of stories.

[Mari]

I'm happy because 1) I can post here again 2) the weather was good enough for me to go skating for the first time this year, which means I can start building up my condition again so I might be able to do a marathon this summer. 3) I had a birthday-party from my aunt today and there were a lot of people present I didn't know, but I was able to talk to them anyway! I really might be getting over my shyness and a-social character!

EDIT: Thank you Katya!

[Tessar]

I am, somewhat tentatively, happy because I GOT THE SOLO!!!!!!!!! I was so sure that I wasn't going to get it.



Despite my screwing it up twice, apparently the choir director really wanted me to have the solo... plus I think she was a little disconcerted that when I talked to her afterwards I was able to sing it perfectly without a missed note or vocal crack.

The solo honestly isn't hard for me to sing at all--I just got nervous and so my voice slipped, I guess. Or I might have had something in my throat.

ANYWAYS, apparently she went to my voice teacher and asked if my voice teacher thought I could do the solo. Luckily for me, I was so upset about messing up that I went to my voice teacher after the audition and talked to her about it. We reviewed the solo, and after giving me some tips my teacher said it sounded 'amazing' and said that she knew I would make a good soloist some day, just that I need more experience and to get over my nervousness.

So my voice teacher told the director that yes, I could sing the solo very well... so I have a shot at it . The director said that it was mine, on the condition that she hears improvement each time I sing it. Which I can totally do .

[Tessar]

As a side note, the heavens opened up for me a moment ago and the divine light of, "OHHHHH, I get it now!" shined down upon my dullard head.

Usually when I get a song, I get focused on trying to sing it right, and if I get nervous I just worry about the words... sometimes I focus on the emotion if I can, but... I mean, I've been getting better about that, but it just never fully clicked for me, and I feel like I don't know what I'm doing when I stand up to sing.


But I just realized EXACTLY how I need to portray one of my songs. I didn't even realize it till I got caught up in reciting the verses and comparing them to my English translations that I just sort of realized... Oh my God, this song is so ME. Not because I've experienced what it talks about, but because of how much I want it.

I thought... What if I were standing in front of someone, and really, really just -saying- these things? I almost laughed because... obviously I haven't got anyone to say it to. And I thought, "Oh, geeze. How am I supposed to portray this... powerful, undying love for someone who loves me too when I've never experienced that? I'm 19!" But I thought... if I really did have that, how amazing would that be? How would I have to feel to even be saying these things?

And that light just shined down on me for a second and I realized exactly how I need to do this song. Not just how to -sing- it, but how to show the song for everything it is... I don't know if I can even do it, but I feel like artistically I've just made a huge step forward.

It's a French piece and the loose English translation is:

If it be true, Chloris, that thou lovst me,
(and I understand that thou dost love me well),
I do not believe that even kings
Could know such happiness as mine.
How unwelcome death would be,
If it came to exchange my fortune
With the joy of heaven!
All that they say of ambrosia
Does not fire my imagination
Like the favor of thine eyes.

I've always thought the piece (A Chloris) was beautiful, and the words were pretty, but I feel like I really -GET- the song now. This is a link to my favorite singer performing it, if you're curious about the song: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fNWKnXgrroA

[Mari]

I'm happy because my mum and I will kick my father out so we can watch Around the world in 80 days. (He wants to watch soccer, so he can go watch upstairs. We're not really kicking him out ) And I'm happy because... well I don't know, but I'm just happy.

[Mari]

I may just have found out what I will study after getting my BA Japanese. I was reading the description and things just went *click* in my head.
Open campus is on the 28th this month, so Ill have to check it out! (Ugh, and hand in my thesis two days later... Im going to be so stressed out >_< But for now lets be happy!)
Phew, that is quite a weight of my shoulders for now.