Solo Ensemble

Well this week our school is having the Solo Ensemble Festival. They have it for choir, orchestra, and band. In choir I'm doing a solo and an ensemble. An ensemble is a group instead of just one person. The song I'm doing for my ensemble is called, "900 Miles". It is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. There are four girls in my group: two sopranos and two altos. I'm a soprano. Another cool part about our song is that in some parts the sopranos and altos all split so that there are four different parts, and it makes it sound kind of like a train. The song is about someone who is 900 miles away from home, and they're trying to get back on a train. The song says how they think that the train whistle sounds lonesome because they're so far away from home. The four of us have been working on this song for a really long time because we were in a special district choir called Select Choir. I think we're going to do really good, and the song is going to sound amazing!

For my solo I'm singing a song called, "Danny Boy". It's an old Irish folk song, and it's a song that I've liked for a really long time. It's about someone telling someone named Danny Boy that he has to leave them. But they tell him that someday he's going to come back, even if they've already died. Then he can come see there grave, and they'll be happy just knowing that he's there above their grave because they love him so much. I love everything about this song. It has a beautiful melody, and there's just something different about it because it's not like the music that comes on the radio. I know this song pretty well because I did a group singing workshop with my voice teacher in January. Pretty much the point of the workshop was to prepare people to audition for choirs and to get ready for Solo Ensemble. Everyone has a private lesson where they choose a song, and she helps them with it and gives them some tips. Then there are 3 group lessons where you work on a bunch of different things, including your song. At the end there's a recital where everyone sings their song. So I'm pretty confident about my song and hopefully I'll do well.

Solo Ensemble isn't technically a competition, but it sort of is. First you're competing for who gets to go to District, and then at District you're trying to be better than the other schools. At the festival there are two judges. They watch you sing and grade you on different things. They also write comments about what was good and what could be better. Then they give you an overall score. A 1+ is the best score you can get. Then 1, 1-, 2+, etc. Last year I did a solo and I got a 1-. I almost got to go to District, but a 9th grader in Rhapsody got a few more points than I did. From what the judges said last year, my main problem was that I forgot to smile. Sometimes I'll be singing and I don't realize that I'm not smiling at all. So this year I've really been working on having better facial expressions for whatever I'm singing. I'm really excited, and I hope I do good! It's on Wednesday, and I can't wait!