Music Week with Tessa and Emma McGeorge

August 12th to 18th, 2007

The McGeorges describe the week with numerous adjectives...productive, wonderful, brimming with fun, fellowship, laughter, tutoring, recording, downloading, and of course singing.

I add a few more to that: intense, stimulating, exhausting. But I enjoyed every minute of it. It was a challenge to retain my prestige as the "real" singer when I was so busy focusing on them that I didn't warm up or rehearse my part properly. It was a great learning experience for me as a teacher. Not knowing what skill level the girls had, I'd decided to wing it rather than plan all the lessons, which to my surprise worked well (it takes some effort to smother my perfectionist nature ;). It was also a great preparation for my performance on Sunday, seeing as other commitments had diverted me from my music for a few weeks.

We used both audio and video recordings to study our progress. The girls weren't at all happy about viewing themselves, but quickly saw what a valuable asset it was. We had a huge amount of ground to cover, as they needed the basics of support, breathing, projection, stage presence, etc. I pushed them fairly steadily, using "Dona Nobis Pacem" as a training tool and each of them working on one of Carolyn Ballinger's songs. We're all pleased with the progress they made. Here's the link to a video of our best effort:

http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t103/Songuine/?action=view&current=DonaNobisPacem07-070818.flv

The three of us producing a smooth end note to each verse is quite significant, and I am so proud of Tessa for keeping her eyes from flitting to window and ceiling and a multitude of other places and remembering to smile.

We didn't have any lessons on Friday, using the day to just hang out together, going shopping (I believe 4 music disks were purchased!) and watching a movie (guest favourite, "A Walk to Remember").

That evening I took the opportunity to do some serious study with Mum on our presentation of "My Child". I did record a few takes of that which turned out to be a bit of a giggle, but I decided you'd think better of me if I uploaded a 'correct' version. = ) See MY CHILD IN A SHOEBOX post.