Excellent advice! To #3, I would add this: as you sing your part while learning and develop muscle memory, be sure to have good posture! If you learn it with bad posture, you will tend to revert to that whenever you sing that piece. If you learn it with good posture, you will do the same! Practice good habits while you practice! :-)
I am impressed to say the least, and it does work as I always sing my parts while learning them and listening to recordings is always helpful. Great job, you must have been a teacher in a previous life..... congratulations !!!
A lot of these are fairly obvious if you sing a lot, a couple I wish I'd known back when I was singing. The mnemonic idea would drive me nuts except I can think of one thing it might do for me is keep the verses straight. I was once learning a solo part (had two in the presentation) and got up to sing one, and sang the words to the wrong one, which my mind actually made fit perfectly to the music, cadence wise. LUCKILY it was a rehearsal. The really interesting part (for me) is when I go to the doctor and get the stupid test of trying to remember three words in order I have a hard time doing it. Start Handel's Messiah, or several thousand other songs or works, and I can sing them end to end virtually without missing a word, without having sung them for MANY years...that is weird, too. Oh, and I have about a dozen of these guys CD's and can do virtually any song from them, as well. You could have started the You are the New Day he gave as an example, and I could have easily done it right out of the blue, and I probably haven't heard it in a year or so. Some neuro-whatever researcher should pin that down, because I'm quite sure that would provide insight into brain function. I suspect it uses a completely different part of the brain. From what I understand people that lose sight often have other senses make use of that area of the brain, and develop far more acuity from that extended usage. I also suspect that so called idiot savants are doing something similar when they can do extremely complex instantaneous math problems the rest of us can't even begin to do, even learned mathematicians, nearly real time, in our heads. I probably never would have known it, but the director just broke out laughing. My mind did one of those 'record scratch' things, then it dawned and I got a good laugh out of it, too. The one thing it absolutely did reinforce was my sitting and thinking about the first couple of words carefully before I got up to sing in the real performance, which virtually guaranteed they would be right. I was also looking carefully at the director to make SURE I had it right. Your mind can do goofy things when something like this happens. I didn't sing within a hundred levels of these guys, but it still mattered for the performance/audience enjoyment. Oh, and completely off the subject, I spelled 'rehersal' wrong above (typo), saw the spell correct notation, and realized for the first time hearse is virtually present in the word (and HEAR, which is probably actually applicable)...weird when that happens. Kind of like seeing pre-judge in prejudice and realizing the REAL basis for the word. I know, I'm weird. Sorry.
Excellent advice! To #3, I would add this: as you sing your part while learning and develop muscle memory, be sure to have good posture! If you learn it with bad posture, you will tend to revert to that whenever you sing that piece. If you learn it with good posture, you will do the same! Practice good habits while you practice! :-)
I am impressed to say the least, and it does work as I always sing my parts while learning them and listening to recordings is always helpful. Great job, you must have been a teacher in a previous life..... congratulations !!!
Amazing how very young Johnnie looked in this clip from 8 years ago. (And Chris B without a beard)! Love them all!
so brilliantly presented, it MUST work :)
Ta Johnny...
Love to all from France; will be listening to you in June in person
Great tips, Johnny!!
Knowing they work for you as well, makes me want to stick to them even more!
Thanks, that might be really useful in the future for me :)
A lot of these are fairly obvious if you sing a lot, a couple I wish I'd known back when I was singing.
The mnemonic idea would drive me nuts except I can think of one thing it might do for me is keep the verses straight. I was once learning a solo part (had two in the presentation) and got up to sing one, and sang the words to the wrong one, which my mind actually made fit perfectly to the music, cadence wise. LUCKILY it was a rehearsal.
The really interesting part (for me) is when I go to the doctor and get the stupid test of trying to remember three words in order I have a hard time doing it. Start Handel's Messiah, or several thousand other songs or works, and I can sing them end to end virtually without missing a word, without having sung them for MANY years...that is weird, too. Oh, and I have about a dozen of these guys CD's and can do virtually any song from them, as well. You could have started the You are the New Day he gave as an example, and I could have easily done it right out of the blue, and I probably haven't heard it in a year or so. Some neuro-whatever researcher should pin that down, because I'm quite sure that would provide insight into brain function. I suspect it uses a completely different part of the brain. From what I understand people that lose sight often have other senses make use of that area of the brain, and develop far more acuity from that extended usage. I also suspect that so called idiot savants are doing something similar when they can do extremely complex instantaneous math problems the rest of us can't even begin to do, even learned mathematicians, nearly real time, in our heads.
I probably never would have known it, but the director just broke out laughing. My mind did one of those 'record scratch' things, then it dawned and I got a good laugh out of it, too. The one thing it absolutely did reinforce was my sitting and thinking about the first couple of words carefully before I got up to sing in the real performance, which virtually guaranteed they would be right. I was also looking carefully at the director to make SURE I had it right.
Your mind can do goofy things when something like this happens. I didn't sing within a hundred levels of these guys, but it still mattered for the performance/audience enjoyment.
Oh, and completely off the subject, I spelled 'rehersal' wrong above (typo), saw the spell correct notation, and realized for the first time hearse is virtually present in the word (and HEAR, which is probably actually applicable)...weird when that happens. Kind of like seeing pre-judge in prejudice and realizing the REAL basis for the word. I know, I'm weird. Sorry.
Marry me Johnny? Kthanksbai.
Can I start my own ensemble with my friends??
Of COURSE, and considering the time since your comment was written...did you? ;-)