Silent practice works

When my coach suggested silent practice last week because my recovery was going a bit slower than I would have liked, I sighed. I knew it was coming. I knew that was what I should do, but I just HATE IT. Afterall, I sing because :

1. I love the way it feels
2. I want to be heard

I'm preparing a new aria for a competition, and have experienced the level of anxiety only a crazy soprano the entire time I was sick, knowing I couldn't practice something that desperately needed practice. So, I had to do the whole speaking the text in rhythm thing, working on it from a dramatic standpoint, watching endless youtube versions to gain perspective.

And when I decided I was finally ready to sing it, and did, it had come a long way. So that's fun. All that wasted time hadn't been wasted...what do you know. It's good, too, because I have so much music to learn in the next two weeks. A fabulous and exciting Duparc duet for a recital, and oh yeah, to brush up Donna Elvira enough to bring back out in public for another show.

My Christmas present-- an Ipad (yippeeee skippeee and so over the gift amount limit we agreed on...but he never listens) has been so amazing when it comes to getting me mobile with all my music and recordings so that I can have a lot of stuff with me wherever I am to work on. I downloaded pdfs of all my pieces, and have the i-tunes tracks to get some work done during all that downtime during the competition this weekend. The only problem is that the Barenreiter Don Giovanni is not really available as a Kindle edition, so that's a drag. But I suppose I could scan various parts of it and download them. I am being rather lofty in my goals for this weekend, really, because of course, it is very possible I could do something stupid during my audition and embarrass myself to the point that I must console myself with food and trashy magazines.

After this next couple weeks is over and I am settling into the idea of only having to worry about Don Giovanni...I really need to go shopping...I think I lost my fabulous.