by Seunghun Song
The main idea of choosing the song to record was to express the full emotions of the song when I sang it. To do so, it was necessary to fully understand the lyrics of the song, and also to think of the method about how to express the emotions. It took me a lot of time to find songs that met those conditions. As a result, I decided to choose ‘Falling Slowly’ as my song. The reason why I chose this song was that it was an insert song of a movie that I was deeply impressed with.
The lyrics and melody of this song well expressed the sorrow of the two main characters in the movie, and each other’s emotional feelings were well expressed through the song. In the film, the song “Falling slowly” was made while the two main characters encountered on the road and played music together and shared their feelings with each other. In particular, I liked this song because the figurative and metaphorical expressions in the lyrics of the song well describe the emotional state of the main characters through their voices.
Korean karaoke has characteristics. You can sing with a singing machine and microphone in a little space for up to four people, and you can sing three songs for a dollar. And if you want, you can record it and send an e-mail to your phone. At first, I tried to record using zoom, but I used to sing in karaoke since I was young, so I felt comfortable when I sang in that place, and singing alone in a quiet room without anyone interfering helped me concentrate more on the song. I have often sung and recorded alone. At that time, I searched and practiced how to sing high notes well, so to speak, I used to practice how to sing skillfully. At that time, the purpose of the singing was only to sing well, and I was the only one who listens to the recording, so I wasn’t nervous or scared.
However, this time was the different ball game, I was really scared when I recorded this time. I was quite ashamed to record my singing in front of the camera, but on the other hand, I was curious about whether the feelings I was trying to convey through the song could be fully conveyed or what emotions I would experience through my song. Through this song, I wanted to express feelings such as love, joy, and sadness, and to understand and empathize with the feelings I wanted to convey to the listener. What I learned from many performance activities is that music, it can be delivered from me to the listener through emotion. The nature of music can vary depending on the listener. However, there is no denying that listening to music makes us feel some emotional change. Through music, the listener can feel sadness deeper than the sadness I feel and feel their emotions in terms of their internal and external side of feeling.
Katie Hickey’s ‘song by heart’ session motivated me a lot to have this idea. Her song was impressive. Through her beautiful and harmonious songs, I moved my mind to bring out some deeply hidden emotions, to face them, to look into them, and to solve them, giving me the power to change them into a positive side. As I listened to her song, I felt a delicate, warm, and peaceful feeling that comforted my hard heart. Based on what I saw and felt in her session, I tried to sing as much as I could in the way she did. But it didn’t work out. When I heard my recording, I sang like I was reading a book. I couldn’t feel any emotion in the song. Since then, I have found some ways by experiencing class activities and readings. What I found is Using the physicality of singing when you sing. Through several singing practices and several consultations in break-out room during the class, I realized that the form of breathing and body reaction was different depending on my feelings. I realized that the form of breath varies depending on how I feel, such as joy, cheers, sadness, sadness, joy, etc. I thought this was the most important part of how to put emotions into a song. In other words, the state of breath should be changed according to emotions when singing. It is not just through thoughts, but through physical expression, which must change one’s breath.
On July 8th, We had an activity of talking with the other person only using the lyrics of the song. Xinyue and I repeated the same lyrics and said different tones and volumes. At first, I was not sure if I was following this activity properly, so my pronunciation was quite clear, and most of them were spoken in a low-pitched voice. My verse was “games that never amount to more than they’re meant will play themselves out”. As I repeated the same lyrics, the tone and volume changed every time I did it. Later conversations, It sounded like we’re arguing. This was very interesting. By changing the intonation and speed of the words and vowels spoken, it changed into a completely different emotional signal despite the same lyrics. The first feeling I felt about the lyrics was regret and regret, but by changing the tone and speed of my voice, I changed to a feeling of being angry at the other person. Different meanings can be given to the same word depending on how it is expressed, or different interpretations can be made depending on how it is spoken. In addition, even if the same lyrics are said, the difference in the way people express and interpret them was clearly revealed.
After this activity, I listened to Falling Slowly repeatedly. Then more elements began to be heard than the first time. The singer was expressing his feelings by emphasizing certain words in the lyrics, singing in a strong genuine voice, or handling the ending notes in falsetto. But there were many obstacles for me to imitate the singer’s style of performance. In the end, the conclusion I came up with was that I sing a song that I was satisfied with myself (sing my own version of the song). Trying to imitate the original artist’s song similarly only means conveying the feelings what the singer felt. I wanted to convey the feelings that I felt while singing in my own way. Singing is my expression of emotion, but it is the power of “others” to empathize with it. So I tried to sing with the aim of delivering my voice as much as I could. While I was singing, I closed my eyes and reminisced about the experience of listening to this song and tried to be as faithful to the basics (pitch, beat, pronunciation) as possible.
Meeting a lot of people and experiencing a lot of activities in this class, I learned how to express my feelings through the song, I also learned that how one’s voice can affect many people. Through the voice, I learned that there is a potential to change someone’s feelings as well as mine. It was the first time in my life that I heard my recorded voice this many times than ever. When I first recorded the song, I was very nervous and scared just to hear my voice, but I overcame a lot of fear by sharing each other’s songs and opinions in class and actually teaching the song to special guests. Furthermore, through this project
