Week 1: The Inner Artist
Day 1: Signature Aria
Start with your go-to piece. What do you love about it? Where are you in your journey with it?
Day 2: A Capella Phrase
Share one phrase—no piano, no accompaniment. Focus on breath, phrasing, and intention.
Day 3: Lied or Mélodie Moment
Sing a short excerpt from art song repertoire—German, French, Spanish, English. Keep it intimate.
Day 4: Early Music Exploration
Post a phrase or line from a Baroque or Renaissance piece. Explore ornamentation or purity of tone.
Day 5: Text First, Then Tone
Speak the text of a piece you're working on. Then sing it. Notice how intention changes everything.
Day 6: Recitative Realness
Post a recitative (or a short dramatic monologue). Focus on storytelling and delivery.
Day 7: Sacred Sound
Offer a moment from sacred repertoire—chant, hymn, or oratorio.
How to Participate
- Post daily (or as often as you can!) in the Tonebase Voice Community Forum
- OR post on social and tag @tonebase.voice with #TonebaseVoiceChallenge
- Watch others, leave encouragement, and build your artist circle
68 replies
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Day 3 is art song repertoire, which I do not have. But I'm posting to hold myself accountable to the challenge.
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Day 4: Still no voice. Today, I had planned to sing the first stanza (bar 1-23) of “If Music be the Food of Love” [First Version] by Henry Purcell. I hope to be able to record that music, too, at a later time in this Challenge.
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Here is my day 3 submission-"Whither Must I Wander" by Ralph Vaughn Williams.
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Day 4 submission: https://youtu.be/n8L9g0G4XkI
Beginning of "Dido's Lament." I'm new to classical singing, so don't know much! I posted a very short part of a phrase since I haven't yet worked on singing this with my teacher. He gave me a step-wise plan for learning, and today I'm on "speaking in rhythm" (first get familiar with it on the piano, then hum it, then sing it on a vowel, and now today speak it in rhythm - I didn't want to work ahead of his plan, so I did only the first 3 1/2 measures for this challenge). I've also not sung in English. It was a strange experience not to sing in Latin or Italian! I'm also just starting to explore this mezzo-soprano world that I never thought I could live in.
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Day 5: I cannot sing yet, but at long last, enough of my voice has returned to speak the text of my (chosen, but not-quite-yet) go-to aria ("O tu, Palermo" from Verdi's "I Vespri Siciliani"). I have attached the text and its translation below as well.
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Posting Day 5: https://youtu.be/Qv2zbfDd0Nk?si=DPDvgygZ7F0J5OtU
Oh, my r’s! Here is my speak/sing submission.
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Day 6: My voice is back! But not quite smooth and steady enough yet to record anything; it cracks too much. Today, I did sing just for myself the recitative (bar 10-29) from "Il lacerato spirito" (Verdi, Simone Boccanegra). At least I "got the voice going" a bit so my vocal cords remembered what it is like to sing. This one, too, I'll try to record next week.
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For day 6 I chose to read a short, dramatic dialogue (Queen Gertrude from Hamlet:
https://youtu.be/dwdjyGEeTfY -
Day 7: My voice is 80-90% back, I would say; I did sing a pretty big service in church this morning (including “Let the People Praise Thee, o God” by William Mathias, composed for the wedding of Charles and Diana), although I didn’t quite have the stamina yet for some the hymns. Today, my plan had been to sing the A section (bar 17 through 65) of J.S. Bach’s aria “Eilt, eilt” from his St. John Passion - I recently watched and listened to Alex Rosen’s new tonebase tutorial on it and fell in love with the piece, so now I want to learn it! 😀 But even for just the opening section, which does go up to an E4 😬, my voice isn’t quite ready yet today. I’ll make an attempt next week when my vocal cords have settled and smoothed a bit more; I promise!
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Day 2, Addendum / Late Entry
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Day 3 Addendum / Late Entry