Learning to sing while playing the piano has been going really well! I am about halfway to the midterm checkpoint for my musical growth plan and I have been progressing faster than expected. I have been really enjoying the chance to have a creative outlet amongst the business of school. I have been taking advantage of the opportunity to practice playing and singing together… maybe even too much. Thus far, I have accomplished all the songs I originally considered in my growth plan. I can play and sing “Drivers Licence” by Olivia Rodrigo, “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, and “Skinny Love” by Birdy. I have also gone on to learn a few more songs such as “Give Me Love” by Ed Sheeran and “Someone Like You” by Adele.
Reflecting on my journey so far, I started off really nervous and timid with singing. Although I have performed in front of audiences before, I don’t often do both singing and playing piano together. As the time has gone on and I have gotten more comfortable, I have been opening up more and caring less about who in my household hears me practicing. I have even let my significant other hear one of my songs which is a big step for me. I am pretty comfortable playing and singing when I am alone; however, I must admit that I am still pretty self-conscious in front of others. I do not like feeling like I am being judged. Although I have found myself worrying about this (even though it is just my own family that hears me practicing), I do still really enjoy doing it and could see myself continuing to do it even after this assignment and class.
As I mentioned above, I have progressed through my original goal quite quickly. For this reason, I have decided to further my goal and take on something new. I am now going to look into harmonizing. I am hoping that my the midterm deadline I will have a recording of me harmonizing with a recording from another artist. I thought this would be a cool new goal that would continue to push my boundaries!
Harmonies require a good ear and understanding of pitch and chord structure. When harmonizing you are usually pulling another note from the chord to sing overtop of the original note. For example, if you have a C chord, you could take the 3rd of the chord which is an E, the 5th of a chord with is the G, or sing a full octave above which is another C note but higher on the scale. There is also another type of harmony, known as a “close harmony”, which is a note that is very close to the other note on the scale. This is often what you hear when you listen to barbershop quartets and pop groups like the Beach Boys.
Over the remaining time I have before my midterm critique, I am going to experiment with learning harmonies and trying different types of harmonies. I am thinking of taking one of the songs I have already learned (most likely “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran) and instead of singing melody, singing a harmony overtop of the singer himself. I am also hoping to experiment with a few other songs so I can try more harmonies. I am thinking of experimenting with “Anyways” by Noah Kahan and “Afterglow” by Ed Sheeran. My hope is to incorporate multiple different harmonies throughout the course of these songs. These three songs are my new goals for my musical growth plan and are what I hope to display for my midterm evaluation!
In order to aid in my new goal, I have found a couple resources that may come in handy:
Additional Online Resources:
That’s all for now! I look forward to showing you my progress in the near future! Hopefully in a couple weeks I will be harmonizing like there’s no tomorrow!
Photo Credits: Header photo by Michal Czyz on Unsplash