Song Title: Mary Had A Little Lamb

Name : Fellicia Pamella Francis

Matrics Number : D20161074198

IC Number : 970908-13-5480
1.1 Introduction

Based on Caro Mio Ben, it is an Italian song. This is one of the most

beautiful song because of its solid dynamic. At first, I have difficult times with the

articulation which is pronouncing the Italian words and also phrasing technique for

this song was poor. What I can describe about this song, briefly it was played with a

common time which means four crotchet beats in a bar. Also, the composition

marked to be played Larghetto. Meaning that we need to sing it in a slow tempo.

From what I can observe from this piece, we need to sing this piece very carefully

and accurately because we need to be aware of the tricky tempo and the rhythm.

1.2 Breathing

So, the most important thing to produce a good singing is the breathing by

doing vocals warm up before singing so that we could increase the air capacity in our

lungs. Firstly, is that standing up straight in a right position. I slightly open up my

legs to form a “V-shape”. After that, I do some warm ups. The first warm ups is I

start with taking a deep breath and exhale with a ‘hiss’ sound. I repeated this step 3

times and then I proceeded to my vocal warm ups. I started with singing “do re mi fa

so la ti do” from low octave to the highest octave then I sing it again in opposite

ways. I then proceeded to consonant warm ups which are labial consonant which is

‘Ma me mu me mo’, dental consonant which is ‘Ta te tu te to’, proceed with sibilant

consonant which is ‘Wa we wu we wo’ and lastly palatal consonant which is ‘Na ne

nu ne no’. At the end of each warm ups I always end it with inhale a deep breath and

exhale with a ‘hiss’ sound. This warm up must do at least 3 till 5 minutes.
1.3 Pitch control

Pitch control is rate of vibrations of vocal folds and the sound of the voice

changes as the rate of vibrations varies. The pitch depends on air pressure, the

stretching of vocal chords ,the vocal muscles stiffness and the joining strength of

vocal chords. To do pitch control while singing Caro Mio Ben while singing the

highest note for example like in bar twelfth and thirteen which contains low notes

increasing to highest notes we must

 Overall, every correct pronunciation of Italian words in this song is quite

important. For me, I didn’t quite having so much difficulty in pronouncing those

words, the difficulty was quite average. There’s only some slight words I wasn’t able

to pronounce it correctly for example like the words “Presso almorir” and

“Ancorche”.The vowels and consonant of the words of this songs was quite alright for

me but I still need to polish my pronunciation on some of the words because the right

articulation for this song was crucial. The most important I still have trouble in

phrasing.

1.5 My opinion based on the phrasing

About the breathing technique of this song, overall it was quite challenging

for me because I have a short breath. I was still unable to control my breathing

through my when it come to a higher note for example like in bars eleventh

and twelfth. I realized that my breath ends on every two bars and I have to take a new

breath on the every next third bar which along the way I have trouble in my phrasing.

However, I was able to control my breath with my diaphragm which act as a support

while singing a higher note. I was very aware of to not singing this song using the

chest because it is very difficult to control the breathing also it will unable us to sing

the right note accordingly.

However, I was able to sing the song in Adiago which is in a slow tempo

but unfortunately I found it quite tricky when it comes to sing each of every words on

the exact note due to the rest and sing it in quaver for example in bar eleventh, twelfth

, fifteenth and also sixteenth.

1.6 Body posture

 Another important vocal technique is the body posture from the

beginning till the end of the song. I found it that it would be a lot easier for me to sing

this song in a standing posture with my legs opened up in ‘V-shape’ look instead of

sitting. Also, when singing there’s should be a slight distance between the opening of

the legs to support my body weight this is to ensure stability of the body besides, it

makes me look more confident. With the right posture also ,I was able to sing with

the pitch, the notes , the voice and control the breathing better.

1.7 How I can improve myself

At the end of the lesson, every time I sing this song I realized that I need to

practice more on my breathing technique so that I can hit the right note precisely. To

achieve my objective, I must do more singing exercises with my diaphragm which act

as my breathing support. Also, I need to improve a lot more on my articulation by

doing more lips and mouth warm ups before singing. I realized it is also singing this

song while standing with a correct body posture. I hope by doing all these exercises

and practices consistently will help me improve my singing so that I will be able to

present this song very well.

1.8 References

In conclusion, for the accurate meanings of all the Italian words I have done

some research in the internet at http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-

italian , http://www.wordreference.com/enit/ and more. Mostly important, since I

never heard about this song so I listened to it’s in the form of ‘mp3’ and also I did

watch its video from the ‘youtube’ for several times. From that useful sources, I was

able to learn how to sing the song correctly with correct pronunciation and melody. I

also have watched several videos on ‘youtube’ on how to improve my phrasing ,so

hopefully with more practice I will improve myself from time to time. Also i have

gone through some Italian dictionaries at the library which translate all the words to

English words .One of the dictionary that I have gone through was entitled “Oxford

Essential Dictionary Italian” there was more but I only managed to go through a few.

Doing some researches of the actual meanings of the words was crucial so that we

can understand a lot more about this wonderful song.