Doing Vocals In School House
The range of musical talents of boys in School House is very large with boys playing instruments ranging from the cello to the piano and guitar. But we also have an unusually large amount of singers in the House and I am proud to be one of them. The singers of School House include Wyatt Belotti and Charlie Cross who are in Year 12 and are doing voice for their HSC (Charlie Cross is also Vice Music Captain), as well as this we have Finn Hancock in Year 11 and 2 Year 10’s (Hunter Black and me). All of us learn from the same brilliant tutor, Chris Richardson, who is an extremely good singer and amazing teacher.
The great thing about Chris is that he is always willing and able to accompany you in any genre of music and is not committed to only his favourite genre. This makes the selection of songs for his students a very easy process. Voice is a very unique skill to learn as whilst it is difficult it can be practised at any place and at any time, as well as this in School House the boys that also play voice are always willing to listen and give you feedback, and I for one practise very often with Hunter Black and occasionally I sing alongside the more advanced singers in the House in the senior years. It is also very useful to learn another instrument that you can accompany yourself with for a solo performance, but in the Boarding House it is always easy to get a fellow student to accompany you. In terms of practise though the music department is open in the afternoons and is particularly easy to access for boarders as it is only a 100 meter walk. There are also a range of ensembles that involve singing including: Foreshore choir, chapel choir as well as all of the rock bands, and again all of these are very easy to attend for boarders as they take place within the school and the earliest times of practice are 7:00 in the morning.
Overall taking music lessons in Shore boarding and for that matter almost any other co-curricular activity is very easy to do as it is only the commitment of an hours practise each week as a minimum and a half hour lesson each week, as well as this each semester there is what is called a studio which is when all of the students of one music teacher (in my case Chris) come together to perform a piece that they have been practising and learning with their teacher. The studio concerts are a great opportunity to come together with your parents if they are able to come and to them how you have progressed over the course of the semester, this is especially important as a boarder as your parents likely don’t have the opportunity to hear you sing all to often. Not only that but it is also a great opportunity to hone your skills as a performer and it is also great that you are able to do this in front of an audience that doesn’t mind whether or not you make a mistake or for that matter what kind of genre you perform. For instance in the most recent studio concert we had Wyatt Belotti singing Bring Him Home from the musical Les Miserables and Finn Hancock singing New York State of Mind by Billy Joel.
Overall, taking up voice as a co-curricular activity is a great opportunity to enhance your skills as a vocalist, or to just give it a try but being a boarder and especially in School House with very supporting staff and other singers like Hunter Black and I makes the opportunities endless.
Ashton Gresham
