Dr. Marc Reynolds Performing Arts Studio

Sing Easier - Perform Like A Pro

Overview

What is there in a phrase?

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Day 5 Topic 2

Phrases are the building blocks of communication. There are markers in different kinds of phrases that tell us when a phrase is starting, building in tension, releasing tension, and ending. You can find research and literature that discusses prosody and taxonomy for both music and text. The question we are exploring here is, “How does what is on the page or coming from our mouth in the form of music or text translate to what we do with our body?”

We can be thinking amazing wonderful things but if you can’t show it to the audience with what you do with your body then the audience cannot see it. If the audience can’t see it then, as far as performing is concerned, those amazing thoughts mean nothing to the audience. Since body language accounts for the lion’s share of communication, especially in live performance, we should at least give it a proportional amount of attention as we practice. Let’s talk about how to bring the phrases on the page to life in your body.

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Lessons Live Performance Can Learn From Blockbuster Movies.

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DAY 5 Introduction

Cinematography changed the live entertainment business. Our audiences are more visually perceptive than ever before. They are used to watching super realistic fast-paced action where the music and action are perfectly timed and matched. Where audiences were used to using their imagination to fill in the blanks or heighten the experience of live theater they now expect singers not only sing well but act as well if not better and all during a live broadcast. All the ways that cinematography continues to change the live performance arts are impossible to identify. The important point is that it is here to stay and there are some amazing lessons we can learn from the movie industry.

What can we learn from the top blockbuster movie producers who have the time and money to get the timing just right? A lot! Imagine if for a live performance you could rewind, edit, independently slide the music around and adjust the timing of moments until they fit just right. Live performance doesn’t have this luxury, but moviemakers do. In this section, we will learn how to both see and apply some of the principles that emerge from watching these movies so we can better reach today’s audiences.

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MMC in Practice – Performer, Director, Cinematographer, or Designer.

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Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought. – E. Y. Harburg

The tools you have to apply the MMC principle in practice will change depending on what role you are playing in the production process. Let’s talk about how you might apply MMC in practice.

In day 5 we will give you some other powerful tools that will help you apply The Big 3 and MMC so stay tuned.

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MMC in Theory

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Make the Music A Consequence

MMC is an abbreviation for Make the Music A Consequence. The short explanation is that music should seem as if it comes as a result of something a character does or something we see on stage. Music is part of the auditory part of our sensory world. Consequently, like all other sounds in the natural world, something has to make them occur for a sound to be made.

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Big 3 + 1

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The things we judge live performance by on a subconscious level.

You just walked out of the best performance of your life. Someone asks you what you liked about it. What do you answer? You will probably find that what you liked fits into one of these three categories. In Boris Goldovsky’s book “Bringing Opera to Life” the first chapter mentions these three criteria for creating engaging performances.

If you feel like your performance is missing something but you don’t know what this is the place to start. This will guide you to where you need to spend more time refining your skills. This will also help you become more efficient in isolating what works and doesn’t work about any performance you watch so you can help make it stronger.

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