Week 2: The Complete Singer
Day 8: Artistry in Practice
Share a clip of yourself rehearsingâlet us see the process, not just the polish.
Day 9: Language Challenge
Choose a language youâre less familiar with and sing a short line. Share what you learned.
Day 10: Master the Mezzo Forte
Not everything needs to be forte. Share a moment of vocal restraint and intimacy.
Day 11: Duet Day
Sing with another tonebase member, a friend, or duet with a past recording of yourself.
Day 12: Staging in Small Spaces
Use gesture or movement to enhance your deliveryâeven if you're in your living room.
Day 13: Composer Spotlight
Sing something by a composer you admire. Introduce the piece and why it matters to you.
Day 14: Showcase & Reflection
Wrap it up with a performance you're proud of and share what youâve discovered over 14 days.
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
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Addendum / Late Entry Day 10: https://vimeo.com/1087291071/a4fce1773c?ts=0&share=copy
I chose the aria "O Isis und Osiris" from Mozart's The Magic Flute a my entry for "mezzo forte" because the character who sings it, the High Priest Sarastro, is such a wise, mature and equanimous personality seemingly without emotional extremes, so although the accompaniment is marked "p", the aria is probably to be sung in a full, balanced mezzo forte. However, there are limits to how softly a bass can sing in this register; one needs a certain amount of power to let the voice resonate in these slow, sustained lines. Anyway, it's the best I could come up with for this particular task.
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Day 12: https://youtu.be/zKa7xbrdcbQ
OK, so I had a really difficult time with this. The vast majority of my singing has been for church (and we are not a dance and sing like David before the ark of the Lord kind of church), so I'm not accustomed to this! And I was singing to myself, so it was hard not to laugh - I contained myself until the end. But I did notice that I felt much more free and open in my singing when I didn't stand perfectly still.
P.S. I'm hopeful that my duet partner and I will be able to get a recording done tomorrow. Neither of us are accustomed to singing with a partner - especially with one of us singing in English and the other in Spanish (not exactly a classical piece, but we're attempting to sing the "Cordero de Dios" from Thurmond's bilingual Mass Setting).
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https://youtu.be/joT40JOsg4U?si=aUT-YKpcIu0L_zHR
this is my composerâs spotlight: Franz Schubertâs Wanderers Nachtlied. Somehow many of Schubertâs Lieder deeply move me, this one is a poem of Goethe, it is about the peace everywhere, in the treetops and on the mountains, the German Word Ruhe, which is tranquility, is already peaceful because oh the long closed ooooo, and in the end it says: soon you will rest in peace , too. I sang that at my fatherâs funeral last year.
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It looks like the duet wonât be happening - if that changes, Iâll post it.
Day 13, composer spotlight, I donât have something to sing, but I think it would have to be JS Bach - thinking of the St. John Passion (especially as sung by the Netherlands Bach Society) along with all the sacred cantatas, etc. that he composed on a weekly basis. I find it incredible the vast quantity of music that he wrote (that we know about!), and that it is of such a quality that we play it still today!
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Just wanted to drop a note in here to say just how amazing this challenge has been. What a pleasure to see and hear you all embrace the daily prompts share your amazing work and inspire one another. So grateful for your contributions and hope you will all sign up and sing for the June Recital!!