During one of our rehearsals we found out listening to the track 'Tears Dry On Their Own' by Amy Winehouse that the melody line was exactly the same as 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' by Marvin Gaye. Therefore, we decided to try out singing both melodies at the same time to see if they fit. We got this idea from one of our warm up/rehearsal techniques where we split into two groups and sang two different songs at the same time that fit the same chords and rough melody. We did this in order to show that we could hold our melody line/harmony without getting confused with the other singers. Therefore, we ended up switching the song 'Rockabye' by Clean Bandit to 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' by Marvin Gaye.
So our final running order was:
Human - Rag'N'Bone Man
Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse
Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye
Keeping you head up - Birdy
Human - rehearsal process to performance
We originally started by singing this song all together as a group to become comfortable with the song, its melody, and its pitches as it is a fairly low song. Once we were comfortable with the lyrics we started on characterisation when performing. As it is a fairly aggressive song we started testing out different ways in which we could express the lyrics. For example, through facial expressions, hand/body gestures and emphasising certain words. For example when I performed it I emphasised the words 'human' and 'blame' the most as I felt they held more emotion than some of the others. I also did this because the whole point of the song was that people make mistakes in life but that doesn't mean you should blame them for everything that's going wrong. Therefore, by emphasising 'Human' it states that everyone is human and does the same. 'I am human, you are human, so why am I being blamed for everything. I'm not perfect and neither are you'.
Later, because we established early on that the song itself was very low. Our director Kim suggested that the boys sing the first verse as a ensemble. Then the girls sing the second verse in a higher octave. Meaning that the song stays in its original pitch for the beginning then varies for the second verse. Whilst we were singing some of us were tapping our feet to stay in time and could be heard. We all thought that this was an edgy good idea and therefore added it into our performance. So we all stamped our right foot during the verses to give it a strong beat and added to the darker, edgy vibe we were looking for this also then made it contrast with the other songs we were singing.
Further on in rehearsal soloists were chosen to sing the verses as together it sounded to harsh and loud and didn't create but of a dynamic throughout the piece. Therefore, by adding soloists it created a different tone, a lighter almost more emotional whilst the rest of us hummed a two note phrase and repeated it every four beats. Then when it got to the chorus we all joined in making it sound stronger and fuller. Creating a warm sound that had some attitude to it. In terms of movement we had a simple foot stamp that we carried throughout the entire song and a little freestyle phrase during the chorus to emphasises emotion.
Tears Dry On Their Own - Rehearsal process to performance
When we first started leaning this song, there were only a few people that were 100% confident with the lyrics and melody. The majority of us hadn't heard the song before. Therefore, to solve this we went off in groups for around half an hour to learn the lyrics and sing through the song to make sure we were comfortable with it. Again like with 'Human' we all sang the song as an ensemble until we were all comfortable and confident with the melody. As a group we all had our difficulties as the melody line didn't necessarily fall on the beat and therefore we had to learn it line by line with the accompaniment of a piano played live. This helped us out a lot as it meant we could learn it at our pace and go over each line as many times as possible until we got it. Rather than having to play a backing track find the right place and play it again.
Later, again soloists were added to sing the versus whilst the rest of us clicked and swayed in the background. We then again sang the chorus and added in little movements to make it visually more engaging. I felt this also helped up add more emotion into it as we were visually representing the lines in a way and therefore meant we could understand and feel them more. The last verse all the girls sanf on their own as it related to them more than the boys. During the bridge we all sang it in a hished tone and crouched slightly raising upwards and as we did this we created a crescendo in volume.
Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Rehearsal process to performance
When we started learning this song a lot of us were familiar with it as it a fairly old song meaning many of us had heard before in its original form or from the film 'Sister Act 2'. Many of us took a very positive and lively approach to this song as its an upbeat jolly song in itself. I felt in rehearsal this was the song that needed the least amount of practice as we were pretty confident with singing this. This also then established when we split into two groups to sing two songs as the same time who would sing what. For example, the people that were completely comfortable with this song chose to sing this over the Amy Winehouse one. Also there was a clear contrast in pitches between those two songs. i.e. 'Ain't No Mountain' is fairly high where as 'Tears Dry On Their Own' is quite low. Meaning that people also chose which song they wanted to sing by which one fitted more comfortably in their vocal range.
Again with this song we came up with little movement phrases to perform during the choruses. This was similar to 'Tears Dry On Their Own' but differed slightly. This could be said that we did this because they had similar melody lines but had different lyrics and tunes.
The first verse we sang as a group in a softer tonality to introduce the jazzy/blues vibes it presented in the song and from the era it came from. Then when it got to the chorus we sang it louder with more energy than we previously had to make it sound bigger and brighter compared to the verses. The third verse was then sang by a soloist as it overlapped with the split choruses. This was done so the song could be performed smoothly rather than slightly disjointed and paused to keep timing.
Keeping your head up - Rehearsal Process to performance
Upon initial responses to this song a lot of people were worried about the high pitch the chorus was in as it goes fairly high even for a soprano singer. Many people didn't know the verses either and because it differentiated so much with the chorus people found it harder to learn than the other songs. Early on, soloists were chosen for this song because of how difficult it was melodically to learn. As well, harmonies were established fairly quickly to be able to cater for the people who couldn't sing up to that range. This was the song I felt had the most rehearsal time due to the fact it was difficult in terms of range and melody for us to sing. However, we managed to overcome these obstacles over time and practice.
Originally, I sang the harmony as I didn't want to strain my vocal chords as at the time I was very ill and couldn't see very well. However, upon rehearsals we found that the majority of the class chose to sing the harmony and the melody line was becoming distant. Therefore, I decided to sing the melody line as I could reach those notes in my range, but made sure I didn't hurt myself in the process. I waited until my vocals were better before I attempted to sing the melody line again meaning I would be able to perform it well and to the standard that was needed.
Towards the end of rehearsal and almost on show night we decided to add in some movement. This was simply freestyling around the space in a controlled manner. Which mainly consisted of clapping and swaying/stepping. This was because it was our finale piece so therefore needed to have something different from the others. I.E we moved around the space. We then ended with a run of the chorus A Capella with no movement to create a strong, bold finish to our medley.
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