Week One: Taking Stock

Overview

Take stock of your vocal repertoire, evaluate what’s still working, organize your materials, and discover new music to inspire your artistry. This intensive invites you to reflect, share, and connect with fellow singers as you refresh your repertoire toolkit.

VIDEO

Week One: Taking Stock

Monday – Start Your Rep List

Let’s kick things off by getting everything down on paper (or screen). If you already have a repertoire list,

update it and share a screenshot or outline. If you don’t, this is your invitation to start one! Include:

- Title

- Composer

- Language

- Genre (opera, art song, oratorio, etc.)

- Era (Baroque, Romantic, Contemporary…)

 

Tuesday – What’s Working, What’s Not?

Now that you’ve listed everything, take a good look at it. Which pieces are still serving you vocally and

artistically? Which ones feel like old shoes that no longer fit?

Post your keepers and let-go-ers with a few sentences explaining why.

 

Wednesday – Find the Gaps

Zoom out: Is your repertoire balanced? Are you leaning heavily on one language, genre, or era? What’s

missing?

Share what types of pieces you’d like to explore.

 

Thursday – Organize Your Scores

How do you keep your sheet music organized? Share your system—binders, Dropbox folders, notebooks,

whatever works for you. Ask for tips or share your own hacks.

 

Friday – Sing Something That Still Resonates

Pick one piece that still feels like home and post a short video or audio clip. Tell us why it’s stayed in your rotation.

 

Saturday – Community Roundup

Engage with other posts—cheer someone on, recommend a piece, or share a great recording or resource.

 

Sunday – Reflect & Reset

Take a rest day. Scroll, listen, and reflect on what you’ve learned so far.

43 replies

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    • tonebase_user.19
    • 2 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Sorry I am a bit late to this, was out of town and a bit ill last few days.  I will send my repertoire around.  It is divided into opera, broadway and art songs.  her is a punch list of what songs that I would love to master:

     

    • Largo Al Factotum from Barbiere Di Siviglia (Rossini)
    • O Du Mein Holder Abendstern from Tanhauser (Wagner)

    • "Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre" from Carmen (Bizet)

    • "Modern Major General" from Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert &. Sullivan)

      • Michelle
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Hi, Michael. I hope you're feeling better. My son, Thurmond, sang The Modern Major General last year in his recital. He learned it primarily to see if he could memorize it, and then found out that it was a lot of fun to sing! Good luck with all of the songs you hope to master.

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Hope you're feeling better! This is quite the list - lots of heavy hitters here (they'll keep you busy for quite some time 😄

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       so much diction work  on that one! 

    • Patricia.1
    • 2 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Thursday :

    I have al lot of sheet music at home !

    First, I have lose-leaf-binders with alphabetic order by composer. There are saveral categories of binders : religious music, opera, french songs, operette, musical, french melodie, Lieder, English songs, Italian songs, Spanish songs, vocalizations, Parisotti arie antiche. I also have separate binders for children songs, and for pop music songs in French and in English. These aren't listed alphabetically.

     

    I also have a lot of sheet music books for several types of voice in different genres mostly classic music, but also chanson française, Walt Disney songs, musicals songs, or English variety, some music for children too. They are some books I never used !

     

    Unfortunately I also have a lot of sheet music that aren't classified yet, or any more...

    Some sheet music I get from colleagues, or sheet music used  with my students that I didn't take time to put away... I began to sort them but this is not finished yet... I plan to separate pieces I already gave to students and pieces I did'nt. 

     

    I also have digital sheet music on my computer and my tablet, since I use a tablet to read sheet music for 2 years.

    I have IMLSP sheet music, I have pop songs that I purchased individually on Musicnotes or Greatsongs for English pop music, or Quickpartitions for French pop music. I also have some collections of scores given by colleagues.

    I also have all the scores I use for playing clarinet in the fanfare. 

    For singing lessons and for the fanfare I use to scan the sheet music with my printer's swallower, but this take some time...

    What concerns the singing lessons, I have, per school year, one folder per student with the pieces he or she sings.

    What is practical with digital sheet music is that you can find it back easily by doing a search in your files. For songs that I have in several keys, I note the key in the title of the file.

      • Michelle
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Wow, Patricia! You have a lot of music to sort and organize! We visited a friend last year who is a retired organist, choir director, and harpsichordist. He had a large music room with floor to ceiling bookcases full of sheet music, CD's, albums, music books, etc.... (plus a grand piano, several harpsichords, and a super nice stereo system). And he had all the music organized and catalogued on his computer so if he wanted to find something all he had to do was look it up on the computer to find where it was stored! I was impressed with his system, but can only imagine how much time it took him to organize it! And then, what if he moves???

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       that is quite a lot to keep track of. I went digital for students about 10 years ago and it has saved me SO much space and paper! I do prefer to sing from paper though, so I always have binders for performing and solo repertoire. There is something about the feeling of pencil on paper that an ipad just can't capture and though some paper tech tablets seem to work for some people, I can only seem to use my kindle scribe for note taking and annotating books that I don't REALLY want to own ;) 

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       He must have a lot of space in his house! I'm always amazed at people who can have rooms with multiple musical instruments and music libraries 😄

    • Michelle
    • 2 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Friday: Here's a super quick recording of "O Salutaris." I usually sing it a capella with minimal warm-up, so that's what I've done here as well. This, along with "Tantum Ergo", I sing each week when I lead Adoration at our chapel. It's something I've sung since I was a child, and will hopefully be something I sing for the rest of my life. It's a beautiful prayer, and the simplicity of the chant helps draw me deeper into prayerful meditation.

    https://youtu.be/1x0Ei_Tpgx0

      • Coffee-drinking soprano, trainer of voices and tonebase voice content lead
      • Heidi_Vass
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       This is so lovely - pure, simple and reverent. I'm beginning to incorporate gregorian chant into my daily routine. It's not just AMAZING practice (for solfege and rhythmic analysis), but it focuses the spirit at the same time. It's so easy to get caught up in the perfection mind set - chant has a way of removing that and reorienting you.  

      • Michelle
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks so much, Heidi. There is a gentleness to chant (even though some of the Gregorian chants can be quite challenging) and I think it is the simplicity and gentleness that draws our heart and mind into a greater focus on what's really important. 

    • Patricia.1
    • 2 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Very beautiful, Michelle !

      • Michelle
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

      thank you!

      • Patricia.1
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       , here is a piece I find very beautiful. It's about the beauties God created. Perhaps this could suit your voice ?

      • Michelle
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you! I appreciate you sending this to me. I'll look at it more closely tomorrow. 

      • Mary
      • 12 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I love Rutter's music! I've sung some of his choral pieces, but I haven't heard this one, so I'm glad you shared it. One of the choirs I sing in is fairly small and singing parts can get tricky, but this is a lovely melody line that could be sung in unison for choir. I'm going to suggest it to our choir director!

    • Patricia.1
    • 2 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Heidi, is my version of The american lulluby of Gladys rich

    https://youtu.be/ZR2kz7QV8pI

    Surely, my English is not optimal... If you have any advice on pronunciation...

    I think this is still good for me what concerns tessiture, and this is a quite light and humorous piece.

      • Patricia.1
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       Lullaby

      • Michelle
      • 2 wk ago
      • Reported - view

       This is beautiful! Thanks for sharing it. This song suits your lovely voice perfectly. I thought your English was quite well sung. 

Content aside

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