Singing class hit the right notes
1 Mar 11
When I went to the music lesson, I was so excited and a few of my friends were there. The teacher, Nina, taught us some basic breathing lessons, which helps your singing voice a lot when you’re on stage.
Nina showed us how to project our voice and how to sing high. We also did some fun, little exercises. I think it was totally worth while! It was great fun, and I definitely learnt a lot.
I’ll definitely come again next time!!!
Lauren Barnes
FYRE received some funding for its performing arts programs from Shoalhaven City Council this year, and in particular, we wanted to run something over the school holidays when people have more time to do something different.
We were keen on voice development both from a drama perspective and because so many of our youth have identified a strong interest in singing. With so many local youth entering the Talent Quest at the Show and our other events, we felt it was definitely time to run a singing workshop!
The voice workshops were presented in January by Nina Morrison, who is a talented jazz singer in her own right, touring internationally with the likes of James Morrison.
She is also an accredited teacher of many years, particularly with HSC students and aspiring soloists.
Nina has also directed several choirs.
After some difficulty in finding a suitable time, we were very pleased to finally manage to book Nina to come into the valley to conduct a voice workshop. Consequently, the workshop was arranged at short notice to take advantage of the opportunity, and our publicity was limited to those already on our database.
We took a flexible approach to gauge interest and run classes for different age groups dependant on numbers.
We tried to keep costs to a minimum and Fyre subsidized the children and Youth that attended, so they paid only $12 for their two hour workshop! The adults were a still reasonable $22 for their two hours. Good value!
Voice classes ran for the younger (8-12 years) class from 9-11am and some time was left open for people to book 30 minute private lessons afterwards before Nina ran an adult/youth combined workshop in the afternoon, also with time allowed afterwards for private tuition sessions which were fully booked until 6.30 pm.
This format worked really well, and everyone was so engaged that the only problem was that people didn’t have quite enough time to cover all that they wanted (both Nina and our participants). It was an encouraging start and another workshop day is planned for the July school holidays. It will have a similar format with more emphasis on some pre-chosen songs that will be emailed out to all participants ahead of the workshop so they can get familiar with them before working on them in the class. Groupings and cost will again be dependant on numbers attending in each age group.
It is also hoped that at the end of the day/evening there will be a short concert for those who would like to perform a song to an audience, perhaps one that they have worked on in their private lesson or have prepared at home. As it may again work out that the details will be arranged at short notice, if you are interested in singing workshops in the Valley, please register your interest at fyreinvalley@gmail.com or email Karen Harrison on hawkfire@westnet.com.au and we will contact you when we have a set date and have preliminary details.
We are extremely grateful to Council for its support to underwrite this event and to Nowra Youth Centre for auspicing the youth program. It was at a reasonable cost for families and young people and it was great to be able to access it locally with friends.
Karen Harrison and Kerrie McLeod
For FYRE.