BlackBird

One of my favourite singers on YouTube is Carrie Hope Fletcher. I look up to her in terms of Musical Theatre performing, as she is amazing and successful. I was lucky enough to see her perform as Eponine in Les Miserables in the west end and I was completely blown away. In a review of this performance, ‘Soliloquy’ said ‘Carrie takes on the role superbly. She seemed incredibly comfortable in the role. Her ‘On My Own’ was sublime. She made me believe in Eponine’s love for Marius. Unrequited love is heart breaking and Carrie portrayed that beautifully.’She is so talented at manipulating people's feelings with her voice and acting abilities. Seashore (1938) said that 'music is essentially a play on feeling with feeling' and I think that Carrie epitomizes this. She is very clear in her words and that is something I need to work on, so is she is an excellent influence.
I had considered doing my solo performance based around Musical Theatre, as I can write those songs well. I like that these songs give you the opportunity to be emotional and sing in a totally different style to popular or rock music.
Soliloquy (2013). Les Misérables Review: New Cast 2013-4. 25th August 2013. Soliloquy's Blog [online]. [Accessed 01/10/2014]. Available from: .
On the other end of the spectrum, my favourite band is The Beatles, as their music is so radical and interesting. The way they play with different chords and instruments is so different, and experimental. I feel like I can relate to them in terms of style as they changed their song style, instrumentation and even their looks so many times through the years. They were often questioned for their bizarre methods; as Levitin (2007) said 'the ending of "A Day In The Life" (..) has a few seconds of sound at 15 KHz, inaudible to most adults over 40! (If the Beatles believed to never trust anyone over 40, this may have been their test, but Lennon reportedly just wanted something to make people's dogs perk up). I have chosen one of their most well known and simplistic songs, and even this is clever in terms of timing and chords. I have covered this song with the vocal group I perform with, Dodici Voce, and the harmonies were so difficult to learn but sounded impressive once put together.
Talking about The Beatles' ‘White Album’, Neil McCormick said ‘But it is still one of the greatest albums ever made. It is a truism amongst rock fans that most double albums would benefit from being reduced to a single but then most bands don’t have songwriters as distinctive as Lennon, McCartney and Harrison (who is starting to come into his own here), and this is one double that really benefits from having the space to sprawl. It is just so eccentric and interesting, even its sketchiest oddities somehow gain power amidst the cornucopia of ideas and performances.’ Their writing style is so peculiar and brilliant that they could write millions of songs and I would still be intrigued and find each one to be different and individual. Their songs don't always reflect real life emotions or events, but their emotions are much deeper than that. Their feelings inspire them to write songs, just not necessarily songs about those specific emotions.

Talking about another album, Mark Richardson said ‘In one sense, "Revolution 9" almost seems like The Beatles in microcosm: audacious, repetitive, silly, and intermittently dull, but also pulsing with life…But somehow, almost in spite of itself, it flows.’ You can pick out things that you don't like within The Beatles' music, but it still works, and makes interesting and beautiful music. It is so passionate and special to the artists, and as a listener you can become so involved with the music they are singing and playing.

Mark Richardson (2009). The Beatles. Pitchfork [online]. 10th September, 2009. Available from: . [Accessed 01/10/2014]. Neil McCormick (2009). 

The Beatles - The Beatles, Review. The Telegraph [online]. 8th September, 2009. Available from: . [Accessed 01/10/2014].

Hide and Seek

One thing I am always working on is covering songs and making them my own. Each song is different in my approach.
My favourite song to sing when I am working at the piano is 'Hide and Seek' by Imogen Heap because it has a large range and it's easy to play but effective. I love this song so much because of its lyrics, its versatility and its passion. My version is quite different to the original Imogen Heap track. David Saposa said that ‘The track consists of nothing but a Vocoder and her voice singing stuff about crop circles and sewing machines. It's gorgeous, it's impressive, it's grandiose, and it's barely there at all-- just Heap's voice darting and divebombing, making itself scarce, disappearing into itself.’
I wanted to really change this by adding in a piano line. I kept the bare simplicity of the chorus and added volume to the verses in the same way the track does. I wanted to use one technique that Imogen displays in her song, where her higher notes are breathy and almost not 'sung'. This was something I worked on for a while. I took a practically a capella song and made it into a performance piece rather than a track. Saying that, I would love to use some of Imogen Heap’s ideas in terms of writing harmonies for group work. I love the overlapping lines and clashing harmonies.
David Raposa (2005). Imogen Heap Speak For Yourself. Pitchfork [online]. 31st October 2005. Available from: . [Accessed 01/10/2014].
 Another song I love to sing is Man In The Mirror. I usually use the James Morrison cover of the Michael Jackson song. The reason I use this version is because I have never heard Morrison's cover, and wanted to use his track in my own way. I sang this last year as part of my solo performance, and I hope that I have improved on it in this recent video. I think it is important to make a cover song your own. I needed to put some of my own personality and voice into this song, and not listening to Morrison's cover helped me to do this. I like to sing turns and twists, and also change between singing in my head and chest voice. I changed a lot of the melody lines, to make the song more relaxed to suit the acoustic backing. I'm not saying this version is perfect, or better than anyone else's, but it is mine.