I have decided this year to go down to one post per month here. This way, my posts should be of a little more substance. This post is going to be my year in review post, with a brief update on this year, as well.
This past year has been one of great growth vocally. I have become completely comfortable in the tenor tessitura, although the high notes do still give me some trouble in performance, due to nerves. I have built a reliable Ab and A natural in the last year, and I am working currently on solidifying my Bb and working towards the B natural. Every day I feel things becoming more and more comfortable and I am beginning to identify with my tenor voice. The fruits of this year have represented themselves through my first contracted role, a comprimario role which I will be singing in March with Rochester Lyric Opera.
This summer I will be moving out of the Rochester area in search of more opportunities for both me and my wife. In preparation for this move, I will be planning and performing a recital in the late spring or early summer. I have not yet decided what the repertoire will be, but I am leaning towards a mixed program of predominantly French and German repertoire, with some Italian thrown in to pay tribute to the area of Rochester I live in, which is practically all Italian.
My year of German was ultimately a success, too. I did not get to the level that I was hoping to in the language, but I do feel comfortable in basic day-to-day conversation and feel that I would be able to get around the country were I to go there tomorrow.
This was my first language I had studied without any prior knowledge, and I feel that my method worked very well. I have found that it is difficult for me to keep up my studies as consistently as is necessary to really achieve fluency in a year. This is in part due to my schedule and the fact that most of my studying was happening while I was at work between the hours of three and five in the morning. A number of times, it was too difficult to stay awake while studying at this time of day, and this ultimately led me to days and weeks where I would not study. I also found that I do not need to invest in the products I was investing in to learn a language. I am convinced that I can achieve my desired level in a language simply by using LingQ and speaking with anyone I come across who happens to speak my target language. This combination of input and output simultaneously has been extremely useful to me and I believe this is how I will approach the rest of my language studies.
This year, my mission is to reactivate and improve my Spanish language skills. I studied Spanish for three years in high school and was fairly comfortable speaking with my friend from the Dominican my first years of college. I have since not really used the language much. While my Spanish is still passable because of my Italian and English, I would like to become more comfortable in the language so that I may use it to my advantage in the day job market.
My goal for this year is to learn 8,000 words of Spanish on LingQ and reach a high-intermediate level in the language. In following the 1.6 ratio I have discussed before, this would translate to about 5,000 word families known. In order to give a better idea of this level, the average native English speaker knows approximately 17,000 word families; so this will get me about a third of the way to native fluency, and should make me very comfortable in the language, assuming I speak as much as I should with friends and at meetups, etc.
This is going to be a very challenging year for me, but I look forward to it. I anticipate a lot of growth this year, both in my language abilities and in my singing and performing.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Nearing the end of the year of German!
As I move through the midway point of December, I have successfully increased my intensity with my German studies. I am up over 3300 words known at this point, and may have a shot at 4000 by the end of the month if I can keep up the pace. I find German flowing through my brain a little bit easier and I am thinking about trying to get to one of the last meetups for the German group here in town to test my level.
My singing has had ups and downs this month. I sang for a number of events at church that ranged from going really well to me struggling with similar issues that I did in my auditions. I am currently succumbing to the cold that generally marks the end of the holiday season and, with the exception of a family funeral I am singing tomorrow, have placed myself on vocal rest so that I can make it through the Christmas mass schedule next week. My final blog post of the year will be a review of the last year and a preview to the coming year's plans. Have a blessed Christmas!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
A New Phase
I have entered a new phase of my vocal journey this month. I was lucky enough to be able to have two lessons this month as compared to my usual one every other month. During the course of these two lessons, JRL and I worked on a new aspect of singing technique. For the past three years, we have focused mostly on developing the chest voice component of my voice. This was lacking from my singing previously and took some time to develop. Now, we are working on finding the "thin edge" of the voice. This is proving to be very challenging for me, though I am finding success and a certain ease in my singing that was not as present before.
In the past five years or so, I had noticed that I was losing my vocal agility and I could not figure out why. I found this very frustrating, because I used to pride myself on the ease with which I could handle coloratura passages. After a couple of weeks of working to find the "thin edge," I sang through "Ev'ry Valley" from Handel's Messiah today with relative ease and at a passable tempo. The runs felt both clean and under control, not to mention the top notes were easier than they have ever been. My challenge now lies in this weekend.
I have two auditions this weekend and these are some of my last auditions of this season. At this point I have not been terribly pleased with my performances in audition situations this year. I have been becoming more and more comfortable with each audition and I know that this is a process. Singing tenor is still new to me, especially in front of people, and the more that I do it the easier it becomes. I am hoping that some fruit will come from these auditions this weekend.
My primary goal is to sing well and seek the "thin edge" throughout my two auditions. My secondary goal is to be offered a position through these auditions. I am at a difficult point currently in that I am nearing an age where I need to either find work singing, or pursue a secondary plan that is more sustainable than my current day job. This will inevitably lead to me pursuing a graduate degree if I have to go down this path. Following a path towards a graduate degree does not necessarily hurt my chances of singing professionally, in fact, it would probably help me a great deal. The issue I have is that I would rather just get out there and sing rather than go through another two years of academic work. Prayers are greatly appreciated that my auditions this weekend and throughout this audition season lead to an offer to sing somewhere this summer and begin my career.
German is still coming along at a consistent pace. I have fallen into a pretty good groove as of late, though I am a little slow on my goal of 4,700 known words by the end of the year. As we come into December I will need to increase my workload so to reach this level. 4,700 may seem like a random number to want to achieve, however there is a method to this number. There is a study out of Australia (I believe) that found that in English the amount of words known divided by 1.6 equated to the number of word families known, which is a better measure of fluency than simply words known. It is generally accepted that one can be quite proficient in a language once they know 3,000 words. The Australian study points out that this is really 3,000 word families, not words. Therefore, per the equation, I need to know 4,700 words to know 3,000 word families in English. While I do not know the specific equation for other languages, I have found this same equation works pretty well for other languages. If I can reach this number by year's end I will be at a solid intermediate level in the language and be able to have relatively comfortable conversations on a wide variety of topics.
In the past five years or so, I had noticed that I was losing my vocal agility and I could not figure out why. I found this very frustrating, because I used to pride myself on the ease with which I could handle coloratura passages. After a couple of weeks of working to find the "thin edge," I sang through "Ev'ry Valley" from Handel's Messiah today with relative ease and at a passable tempo. The runs felt both clean and under control, not to mention the top notes were easier than they have ever been. My challenge now lies in this weekend.
I have two auditions this weekend and these are some of my last auditions of this season. At this point I have not been terribly pleased with my performances in audition situations this year. I have been becoming more and more comfortable with each audition and I know that this is a process. Singing tenor is still new to me, especially in front of people, and the more that I do it the easier it becomes. I am hoping that some fruit will come from these auditions this weekend.
My primary goal is to sing well and seek the "thin edge" throughout my two auditions. My secondary goal is to be offered a position through these auditions. I am at a difficult point currently in that I am nearing an age where I need to either find work singing, or pursue a secondary plan that is more sustainable than my current day job. This will inevitably lead to me pursuing a graduate degree if I have to go down this path. Following a path towards a graduate degree does not necessarily hurt my chances of singing professionally, in fact, it would probably help me a great deal. The issue I have is that I would rather just get out there and sing rather than go through another two years of academic work. Prayers are greatly appreciated that my auditions this weekend and throughout this audition season lead to an offer to sing somewhere this summer and begin my career.
German is still coming along at a consistent pace. I have fallen into a pretty good groove as of late, though I am a little slow on my goal of 4,700 known words by the end of the year. As we come into December I will need to increase my workload so to reach this level. 4,700 may seem like a random number to want to achieve, however there is a method to this number. There is a study out of Australia (I believe) that found that in English the amount of words known divided by 1.6 equated to the number of word families known, which is a better measure of fluency than simply words known. It is generally accepted that one can be quite proficient in a language once they know 3,000 words. The Australian study points out that this is really 3,000 word families, not words. Therefore, per the equation, I need to know 4,700 words to know 3,000 word families in English. While I do not know the specific equation for other languages, I have found this same equation works pretty well for other languages. If I can reach this number by year's end I will be at a solid intermediate level in the language and be able to have relatively comfortable conversations on a wide variety of topics.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Challenges and Excitements
It begins this week. On Friday, I have my first YAP audition of the year. This audition is for Ohio Light Opera. I am both anxious and excited about this audition. Anxious because of my last audition experience and because I have to have a monologue prepared, which is a new thing for me. Excited because I feel like I have a lot to offer and that this year will be the year my career starts. It has been a challenging last couple of weeks and I have realized some things that I didn't think were going to be such a problem when I started the audition process this year.
I have been denied auditions to a number of programs. To date I have been denied auditions for 56% of the applications I have submitted, with 31% of programs having not yet responded one way or the other. While I cannot say for certain what the reason is behind this, I believe it is due to a lack of experience. When I was younger I was told that there were two ways to start a career in this field:
1.) Go to grad school and make connections through the school's teachers.
2.) Go straight into YAP's out of undergrad and make your own connections.
In that I was tired of schooling after undergrad I choose to take route 2. The problem though, is that I also went through a technical change which led to a reclassification of my voice and three years without any stage credits. So now, I am going to have to travel a very narrow path this year it seems, which may end up including a pay-to-sing opportunity, rather than a true YAP. Ultimately I have faith in my process and in divine providence that I will be successful in attaining my goals.
My German is still progressing slowly but surely. I have adopted a more intensive reading approach based on Dr. Arguelles' method of focusing on texts in which the percentage of unknown words is kept low so that you can focus on them and really ingrain them in your brain faster. There is obvious upside and downside to this. The upside was already mentioned; it is easier to get words to stick in your memory because you only need to focus on maybe five words instead of 20 or 30. The downside is that it slows down the process considerably. At this point my goal is to add approximately 10 new words to my known words total. This may seem trivial but over the course of a month, that ends up being about 2,000 words if I am consistent with my five day work plan. This will put me right about the same amount of known words as I have in French, which gives me a pretty good handle on the language. I was hoping to be able to do more with German than I did with French since I had an extra four months, but with my wedding and auditions this year it just wasn't possible to spread myself out anymore.
I have been denied auditions to a number of programs. To date I have been denied auditions for 56% of the applications I have submitted, with 31% of programs having not yet responded one way or the other. While I cannot say for certain what the reason is behind this, I believe it is due to a lack of experience. When I was younger I was told that there were two ways to start a career in this field:
1.) Go to grad school and make connections through the school's teachers.
2.) Go straight into YAP's out of undergrad and make your own connections.
In that I was tired of schooling after undergrad I choose to take route 2. The problem though, is that I also went through a technical change which led to a reclassification of my voice and three years without any stage credits. So now, I am going to have to travel a very narrow path this year it seems, which may end up including a pay-to-sing opportunity, rather than a true YAP. Ultimately I have faith in my process and in divine providence that I will be successful in attaining my goals.
My German is still progressing slowly but surely. I have adopted a more intensive reading approach based on Dr. Arguelles' method of focusing on texts in which the percentage of unknown words is kept low so that you can focus on them and really ingrain them in your brain faster. There is obvious upside and downside to this. The upside was already mentioned; it is easier to get words to stick in your memory because you only need to focus on maybe five words instead of 20 or 30. The downside is that it slows down the process considerably. At this point my goal is to add approximately 10 new words to my known words total. This may seem trivial but over the course of a month, that ends up being about 2,000 words if I am consistent with my five day work plan. This will put me right about the same amount of known words as I have in French, which gives me a pretty good handle on the language. I was hoping to be able to do more with German than I did with French since I had an extra four months, but with my wedding and auditions this year it just wasn't possible to spread myself out anymore.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Audition Season is Here!
I received some exciting news the other day when I opened my e-mail. I have been granted my first audition for a Young Artist Program (YAP) as a tenor. This is wonderful news for me, especially since the first two responses I got from other programs were declines. I read an interview of Rockwell Blake a few years back in which he stated:
"There’s no cushion. You start out with nothing, you have nothing, and there’s no such thing as an investment in property or something like a dentist would have to go through. You move to New York, take an apartment and go to everything you can go to, and shell out a lot of money to pianists and coaches, which is necessary. One needs to study, regardless, and you have to shell out money for the auditions, and if you are serious about making a career, you go to every audition there is. That means maybe three or four times a week you’re shelling out twenty-five bucks for a pianist just to play three arias for you. So it gets expensive, especially when you have no income."
I have made this into my personal mantra as I begin my real walk into this career. For instance, at this point in the year, I am applying to about 20 different programs. Ultimately more will come up as well as I continue through the season. If you think about it, it is a numbers game like many things in life are. When I first auditioned as a baritone nearly four years ago I only applied to about five programs and, while I managed to be granted auditions at all of those programs, I got accepted into none of them. As an example of some of the odds a young singer faces starting out think about this:
A well-known program may receive 1500 applications from aspiring singers. Out of those 1500, the company will hear approximately 700 auditions. Then, from those 700, the company will pick about 25 singers for their program.
These odds seem nearly insurmountable, until you realize that there are hundreds of programs in this country, some of which are smaller programs and therefore receive fewer applications and hear fewer people for the same number of spots. So, you see, eventually you will find the program that can accommodate you. I am confident that I will find a placement for the summer during this season and begin my career.
My language quest has been somewhat trying as of late. I have lacked time and motivation due to everything going on in my life, as I described above. I am still working however and making progress. I found a new app for my iPhone which is called "Audiobooks." This is literally the entire database of LibriVox made available for iPhone. Any language learners who do not know of LibriVox should check it out immediately, as well as Project Gutenberg. These are invaluable resources for language learners as they provide you, between the two of them, with tons of materials for Listening-Reading.
I hope to get to another meetup or two before the year is out to see where I am at with my German. This will be difficult though due to my potentially busy audition schedule.
On a side note, I noticed an interesting tidbit today when looking at my viewership. I had a considerable spike in my readers on my birthday. I can't imagine this is coincidence, but I find it rather amusing. It's like a birthday gift from my readers. I have also noticed a nice steady climb in readership over the years which is encouraging. Ultimately my blog is gaining in popularity and I hope that it is helpful or informational to some of those who read it. If there are ever any questions that any of you want me to try and answer, just leave a comment and I will answer it in my upcoming post.
"There’s no cushion. You start out with nothing, you have nothing, and there’s no such thing as an investment in property or something like a dentist would have to go through. You move to New York, take an apartment and go to everything you can go to, and shell out a lot of money to pianists and coaches, which is necessary. One needs to study, regardless, and you have to shell out money for the auditions, and if you are serious about making a career, you go to every audition there is. That means maybe three or four times a week you’re shelling out twenty-five bucks for a pianist just to play three arias for you. So it gets expensive, especially when you have no income."
I have made this into my personal mantra as I begin my real walk into this career. For instance, at this point in the year, I am applying to about 20 different programs. Ultimately more will come up as well as I continue through the season. If you think about it, it is a numbers game like many things in life are. When I first auditioned as a baritone nearly four years ago I only applied to about five programs and, while I managed to be granted auditions at all of those programs, I got accepted into none of them. As an example of some of the odds a young singer faces starting out think about this:
A well-known program may receive 1500 applications from aspiring singers. Out of those 1500, the company will hear approximately 700 auditions. Then, from those 700, the company will pick about 25 singers for their program.
These odds seem nearly insurmountable, until you realize that there are hundreds of programs in this country, some of which are smaller programs and therefore receive fewer applications and hear fewer people for the same number of spots. So, you see, eventually you will find the program that can accommodate you. I am confident that I will find a placement for the summer during this season and begin my career.
My language quest has been somewhat trying as of late. I have lacked time and motivation due to everything going on in my life, as I described above. I am still working however and making progress. I found a new app for my iPhone which is called "Audiobooks." This is literally the entire database of LibriVox made available for iPhone. Any language learners who do not know of LibriVox should check it out immediately, as well as Project Gutenberg. These are invaluable resources for language learners as they provide you, between the two of them, with tons of materials for Listening-Reading.
I hope to get to another meetup or two before the year is out to see where I am at with my German. This will be difficult though due to my potentially busy audition schedule.
On a side note, I noticed an interesting tidbit today when looking at my viewership. I had a considerable spike in my readers on my birthday. I can't imagine this is coincidence, but I find it rather amusing. It's like a birthday gift from my readers. I have also noticed a nice steady climb in readership over the years which is encouraging. Ultimately my blog is gaining in popularity and I hope that it is helpful or informational to some of those who read it. If there are ever any questions that any of you want me to try and answer, just leave a comment and I will answer it in my upcoming post.
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