I am just over two weeks in to my German studies, and thus far am pretty much on track. I am a little behind on my LingQ work, about 300 words, but I am not terribly worried about it, I figure it will all come out in the wash at the end. As I mentioned before this is the first language I am learning on my own, completely from scratch. I have noticed that I have the tendency to get slightly impatient with my learning curve, chastising myself for not being able to say more. Then I remind myself that I am only two weeks in and have another eleven and a half months to go, thusly I should not worry. I can already have some basic conversations and text messages with my German speaking friends.
One thing I have discovered about going at this completely on my own is that it is a little overwhelming at first knowing absolutely nothing and just throwing yourself in the deep end. I am slowly picking up more and more things every day and I am near 1,000 known words on LingQ. Overall I am comfortable with where I am and feel like I am on a good pace at this point.
I have not written anything about my vocal journey in a while. The fact is that I do not have much to report. I continue to progress towards my goal of being able to sing tenor repertoire comfortably and convincingly. I was supposed to have a lesson yesterday, however those plans fell through, so I now am looking forward to February and my next potential lesson. There have been some important milestones in my singing though in my time between lessons. The most important one being that more of my top notes have begun to show glimpses of themselves to me when singing. I am still struggling with endurance however. I sense that this will be a very important year for my singing career, one way or the other.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Der Plan
As we have started a new year, I have already put in two days of study on my new language for the year, German. I figure I would outline my basic plan for the year with regards to my acquisition of German.
Resources:
German with Michel Thomas
German with Ease by Assimil
German on LingQ
In general, my goal is to spend ten hours a week studying German over the course of the next year. As I do not study on my days off from work, that equates to 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. I will go through one lesson/track per working day with MT and Assimil. On LingQ, I plan to add approximately 100 known words to my vocabulary every working day. This is a little bit slower of a pace than I would like on LingQ, but I think it is the best plan for the amount of time I have available to devote to this study. As I go along I will have to read more and more material to acquire 100 new known words, so ultimately my exposure will grow exponentially as I become more accustomed to the language.
On the side, I plan to watch a German movie every month and listen to some German radio programming every week. Also, I am going to start praying the Rosary in German and hopefully I will get to the point where I can spontaneously pray in German by the end of the year. I also have a number of friends and acquaintances who speak German, so I will be practicing my spoken German from a very early stage, as soon as I start to know some more relevant material than: Der Tee ist kalt.
Based on my previous work in French, I anticipate that I will get to a pretty comfortable place with German by the summer, at which point I will have finished both MT and Assimil. The rest of my year in German will be spent focusing on listening comprehension and vocabulary building through LingQ.
German does present me with some challenges, the most striking one being that I have practically no previous coursework or study of the language outside of the one month I studied it last year. With both French and Italian I had taken actual classes prior to my self-study, so I had a little bit of a head-start. I am excited to see how I do with my first completely self-taught language and hope to be able to use this working plan as model for my future languages.
Resources:
German with Michel Thomas
German with Ease by Assimil
German on LingQ
In general, my goal is to spend ten hours a week studying German over the course of the next year. As I do not study on my days off from work, that equates to 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. I will go through one lesson/track per working day with MT and Assimil. On LingQ, I plan to add approximately 100 known words to my vocabulary every working day. This is a little bit slower of a pace than I would like on LingQ, but I think it is the best plan for the amount of time I have available to devote to this study. As I go along I will have to read more and more material to acquire 100 new known words, so ultimately my exposure will grow exponentially as I become more accustomed to the language.
On the side, I plan to watch a German movie every month and listen to some German radio programming every week. Also, I am going to start praying the Rosary in German and hopefully I will get to the point where I can spontaneously pray in German by the end of the year. I also have a number of friends and acquaintances who speak German, so I will be practicing my spoken German from a very early stage, as soon as I start to know some more relevant material than: Der Tee ist kalt.
Based on my previous work in French, I anticipate that I will get to a pretty comfortable place with German by the summer, at which point I will have finished both MT and Assimil. The rest of my year in German will be spent focusing on listening comprehension and vocabulary building through LingQ.
German does present me with some challenges, the most striking one being that I have practically no previous coursework or study of the language outside of the one month I studied it last year. With both French and Italian I had taken actual classes prior to my self-study, so I had a little bit of a head-start. I am excited to see how I do with my first completely self-taught language and hope to be able to use this working plan as model for my future languages.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Linguaphile - Lover of language
This is a rather impromptu post, however I said something in an early conversation today that I wanted to discuss here.
"In becoming a linguaphile I have become a lover of language."
This statement seems redundant I'm sure. However let me explain what I mean. One of the things that I am striving for in my journey of learning languages is to be able to have musical moments in which I find myself transcending language and music and finding a deeper connection. I had this occur on Christmas eve while singing "Oh Holy Night" in the original French text. While everyone thinks that the song is beautiful in English, it was only through my knowledge of French that I found the true beauty of the song hidden in the real text of the song. My French is at a level where I no longer need to translate what I am reading or saying, I just intuitively know what I am saying or reading. This enables one to experience the culture of thinking in the language you are using. I have found it to be true that people who speak different languages see the world differently. Let us take a look at the text of Oh Holy Night to see what I mean. The order will be French (original), then a literal translation and then the sung English version.
Minuit, chretiens, c'est l'heure solenelle, ou l'Homme-Dieu descendit jusqu'a nous.
Midnight, Christians, is the solemn hour, where the God-Man descends among us.
Oh holy night, the star is brightly shining, it is the night of our dear Savior's birth.
Pour effacer la tache originelle, et de son Pere arreter le courroux.
To erase the original stain, and to stop the wrath of his Father.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
Le monde entier tresaille d'esperance, a cette nuit qui lui donne un Sauveur.
The whole world trembles in hope, on this night which he gives a Savior.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Peuple a genoux, attends ta delivrance, Noel, Noel voici le Redempteur.
People on your knees, await your deliverance, Noel, Noel, here is the Redemptor.
Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices, oh night divine, oh night when Christ is born, oh holy night.
For me, in performing the French version of this song I finally felt the true emotion of the piece and was free to perform it with the integrity it deserves. I found the real text to be considerably more moving and inspiring and that was channeled through me as I was singing. This is the real reason I learn languages, so that my performances may be truly genuine. Because I know French at an intimate level, I was able to connect to the music. My love of language grew tenfold that night, because I learned experientially that speaking a different language really does give one a new way of thinking about a topic. Only through a thorough knowledge of the language one sings in can one truly give an informed and accurate performance.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
End of the Year Update and Next Year's Plans
LANGUAGE: Well, the year is coming to an end and I think I can successfully say that I have accomplished my goal for French. In my two reading test at the end of this year I have averaged a 97% comprehension rate. I do have one more test planned for next week so I can have a three score average to more accurately rate my ability. Additionally, I feel pretty comfortable in conversation in French and feel as though I can express myself pretty well. I am very pleased with the last eight months of work in French. Admittedly, I was not always as consistent in my work as I would have liked to be, but it provides me with goals for the coming year.
2012 brings in an entire year devoted to German for me. My system will be similar to what I did for French, since it seems to have been the most effective for me. This includes working through Michel Thomas, Assimil and LingQ on a daily basis during the work week, taking the weekends off from studying to allow things to work themselves out subconsciously. In addition I will again be consulting my friend Ernest for conversational practice beginning early on in the process. My goal for the coming year is to be more consistent in my studying - making sure that I get in all three phases of my work, five days a week. Based on the results I saw with French after only eight months, I am hoping to be even farther along in German by this time next year with the extra four months of work.
MUSIC: This has been an enlightening year for me musically. I have grown much as a singer and artist, however I also encountered some setbacks that varied from minor annoyances to things that made me step back and think about what it is I am undertaking. Overall I am better for all of my experiences as they have led me to discover new interests and paths in which I can explore my own artistry.
The most difficult part of this year was the culminating recital, my first as a tenor in nearly ten years. I had some successes and some failures throughout the performance which I meant to talk about here but never got around to it until now. The positives from the recital were that I made it through all of my repertoire without feeling fatigued at the end or ever really feeling in danger of cracking. The negatives were that I never really loosened up during the entire performance and thus my singing came out pressed and my artistic performance suffered for it. I blame these issues mostly on nerves from not singing that high in public in many years. I remember as a baritone that I had similar issues for a number of years until I had enough performances and faith in my voice through performing that I no longer suffered from the fright.
The other challenge this year has been that I do not feel I have progressed as much as I should have this year. I take the sole blame for this and have already begun to plan how to address this issue in the coming year.
After my recital, I began to contemplate if this was really the field for me to focus on and began taking choral conducting lessons with the plan of going to grad school for choral conducting. Much to my delight, I have found that I really enjoy the study of choral conducting and have found myself doing what I do when I become truly interested in something: researching and absorbing as much information as I can about the subject. Ultimately this has not pulled away from my desire to perform and performing is still my primary goal, but I am still considering a MM in choral conducting, since an MM in vocal performance is not necessary for my goals.
For the coming year I really need to focus on more directed, intensive practice. Difficulties abound due to my schedule, namely that I work overnights, however I have to figure out ways to be more productive and push myself if I want to make my dreams realities. It is a challenge only being able to have lessons once every couple of months, but I cannot let that be an excuse for my not progressing. This year I truly have to take my fate in my own hands and constantly remind myself that achieving my goals is a responsibility that rests solely on my shoulders and nobody else.
I am looking forward to 2012! I can already tell that it will be a year of great growth for me as a person and artist. Highlights of the coming year include planning a recital for the fall and my wedding, as well as figuring out where I will be relocating to in 2013. Have a happy holiday season and I will be back in January!
2012 brings in an entire year devoted to German for me. My system will be similar to what I did for French, since it seems to have been the most effective for me. This includes working through Michel Thomas, Assimil and LingQ on a daily basis during the work week, taking the weekends off from studying to allow things to work themselves out subconsciously. In addition I will again be consulting my friend Ernest for conversational practice beginning early on in the process. My goal for the coming year is to be more consistent in my studying - making sure that I get in all three phases of my work, five days a week. Based on the results I saw with French after only eight months, I am hoping to be even farther along in German by this time next year with the extra four months of work.
MUSIC: This has been an enlightening year for me musically. I have grown much as a singer and artist, however I also encountered some setbacks that varied from minor annoyances to things that made me step back and think about what it is I am undertaking. Overall I am better for all of my experiences as they have led me to discover new interests and paths in which I can explore my own artistry.
The most difficult part of this year was the culminating recital, my first as a tenor in nearly ten years. I had some successes and some failures throughout the performance which I meant to talk about here but never got around to it until now. The positives from the recital were that I made it through all of my repertoire without feeling fatigued at the end or ever really feeling in danger of cracking. The negatives were that I never really loosened up during the entire performance and thus my singing came out pressed and my artistic performance suffered for it. I blame these issues mostly on nerves from not singing that high in public in many years. I remember as a baritone that I had similar issues for a number of years until I had enough performances and faith in my voice through performing that I no longer suffered from the fright.
The other challenge this year has been that I do not feel I have progressed as much as I should have this year. I take the sole blame for this and have already begun to plan how to address this issue in the coming year.
After my recital, I began to contemplate if this was really the field for me to focus on and began taking choral conducting lessons with the plan of going to grad school for choral conducting. Much to my delight, I have found that I really enjoy the study of choral conducting and have found myself doing what I do when I become truly interested in something: researching and absorbing as much information as I can about the subject. Ultimately this has not pulled away from my desire to perform and performing is still my primary goal, but I am still considering a MM in choral conducting, since an MM in vocal performance is not necessary for my goals.
For the coming year I really need to focus on more directed, intensive practice. Difficulties abound due to my schedule, namely that I work overnights, however I have to figure out ways to be more productive and push myself if I want to make my dreams realities. It is a challenge only being able to have lessons once every couple of months, but I cannot let that be an excuse for my not progressing. This year I truly have to take my fate in my own hands and constantly remind myself that achieving my goals is a responsibility that rests solely on my shoulders and nobody else.
I am looking forward to 2012! I can already tell that it will be a year of great growth for me as a person and artist. Highlights of the coming year include planning a recital for the fall and my wedding, as well as figuring out where I will be relocating to in 2013. Have a happy holiday season and I will be back in January!
Friday, November 4, 2011
A Response
Today, I read a blog post by my teacher, JRL, which dealt with faith. I found this post to be very poignant, and to a certain extent I felt like it was directed towards me. With out going to much into the specifics of the situation, my last lesson with Ron was a challenging one for me, and I sense for him as well. I came out of the lesson questioning whether I had the ability to make this all consuming dream of mine a reality. Ultimately, my faith in myself got the better of me and a reaffirmed myself to my work ethic and the knowledge that my own perseverance has won out in the past and will ultimately win out again. It seems to me that things always must become more difficult before they get easier. Such is the case currently as I am struggling mightily with my voice.
Things I thought I had finally overcome have come back and new struggles have accompanied them. This is particularly disconcerting as I am singing in a recital in less then ten days, and I feel that I will not be as well prepared technically as I felt I was going to be originally. The difficult aspect of this situation is that I am presented with two choices: 1.) Allow myself to go back to what I was doing prior to my lesson so that I can get through the recital, or 2.) Work as hard as possible with these "new" concepts that I have been struggling with and hope for the best when I get to the recital. Ultimately the choice is an easy one to make. Option number one serves a solely selfish purpose and does not benefit me in the least, or my audience. Option number two, while considerably more difficult at the moment will be more subservient to my final goal and a step in the right direction, even if my current level is mediocre. In general, one must always move with forward progress, even if it feels backwards at the time.
In his post, Ron talks about the time it takes for a singer to develop their instrument. In fact, this is a common theme in Ron's writing which more singers need to hear. The truth of my situation is that I am in no rush to get out and perform, outside of the fact that I really dislike my day job. My main goal is to become a complete singer who can be the best at his art. At 27 I am still on the young side of this business, but I am beginning to feel some pressure as young artist program age limits are beginning to creep nearer. However, if I develop my instrument completely, I can still forge a career without the help of these stepping stones.
The Kashu-do mantra that heads Ron's blog is the perfect statement about my life and my path in music throughout my musical life. I believe wholeheartedly that I will make it as a singer, and even though I have faced many tribulations in this field already my faith, patience and hard work have always paid dividends in the long run and will continue to do so into the future.
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