Practicing new music

One of the reasons I haven’t been as active in my blog recently is that I don’t want to bore you with the common drudgery of my daily life (get up, exercise, work, practice, more work, rehearse, go to bed, get up and start the whole day over again). But it occurs to me that many of you don’t really know much about the process of practicing music, so I thought I’d give you a little sneak peek into the mind of this singer as she learns her music.

This is the music I have to perform within the next 6 weeks:
(N.B. – I am not including any of the music I perform on a weekly basis at St. Mark’s Church, because it would just make the list too long and complicated, but if you would like to see it, you can go to the St. Mark’s website and see for yourself)

*I am familiar with the pieces marked with an asterisk.

Quite a list, isn’t it? Some of the pieces are easier to learn than others, and many of the choral pieces are difficult to practice on one’s own, because of the need to hear other parts. As you scroll through the list, I’ll bet there are only a few pieces on there that you recognize, if any! It’s the same for me, too, which means I have to start from scratch on almost every piece I perform.

So in the next few days, I’ll be sending you updates on how the music-learning process has been going for me: its highs as well as its lows. Hopefully it will give you some insight into the singer’s brain. (It’s scary in there!)