Performance Portfolio: Music 🎤✨

Task 1: Who inspires you?
Choose two of your biggest inspirations and tell us why they inspire you! Include links to music.

My inspiration: Brian Head Welch
Brian Head Welch was a former member of the American heavy metal band, Korn. Growing up in the 80's-90's United States, Welch became addicted to many drugs such as meth, marijuana, and crack cocaine. Suffering an abusive relationship, and the stress of having a child, made life dire for Welch. However, Welch had friends who had found Jesus Christ in bad times, and, following in their footsteps, Welch quit drugs, quit Korn, and is now living as a devoted Christian. All while managing a solo career under the stagename 'Head.' I first discovered Welch's music after reading his autobiography last year. Since then I've really liked his music, which is typically very heavy and not for everyone but I personally really like it. Give him a listen! ↓
I'm inspired by Brian Head Welch because he was able to pull himself out of a bad time in his life and is now thriving as a successfully-accomplished Christian with a beautiful, successful daughter. It proves that everyone has the ability to change their life for the better and I can do the same. 



What would you like your focus instrument next term to be?
Personally I want to work on improving my singing because that's an instrument too! 
Singing actually originated so long ago, it was before the birth of Christ. Singing was an important part of Christian worship, and still is. It was around 4 B.C that 'Seneca' wrote about being interrupted late at night by Christians practising vocal exercises. Christians often sung at church or group prayers.
The first song recorded, however, was recorded by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. He was a Frenchman who also was credited for the creation of the phonautograph, the earliest-known device that recorded sound. 



Wow, that's terrifying to listen to. Remember, music was very different back in the time period this was recorded in - 1860. 

Group performance

1. What is left to rehearse in your performance? 
Honestly I think the choreography is as good as it's going to get, but the singing is the part we need to work on a little bit more. We chose a really hard song in terms of vocals (it gets quite high at some parts and low at others) so it's not going to be perfect of course but we're still working hard to do well which I know we will!
2. What do you need to do during your holiday practice?
Working on singing our own parts separately would be really beneficial, as well as just going over choreography to make sure it's perfect and that we don't forget it. I figure we might meet up during the holidays and work on it. We even have a group chat dedicated to this assessment... we're... very hard-working.
3. Is there anything you are worried about?
The singing is probably the thing that I'm most worried about, it seems like we can't find a good volume asides from soft little head voices to screaming hyenas. Another thing I'm worried about is nerves but the only thing I can do is fake it 'til I make it!
4. How are you feeling about performing in class?
I don't think anyone likes performing in class, so I'm not really excited about it, but I'm just hoping that we do well so we can get the high excellence we're aiming for. 
5. What are you doing to prepare for this?
We've booked the auditorium on Friday lunches, we've made a group chat and we've found costumes/finding costumes in our own time. I still need to find a skirt if possible and organise what heels I'm going to wear, as well as for Nadia. Sam seems to have everything sorted. Good job Sam.