Since I performed in the J-Song competition at a daring festival event, I'd have to be able to critique it if possible, and that is made possible by a video recording of it. That's not often possible, but if it does work out, then things may work out in mysterious ways, whether for the performance itself or the recording. Regardless, for that performance, the recording did work out, as I was able to lend my phone to a friend, who did just that for my performance. I am thus able to make this critique with its aid.
Actually, the recording worked out twice over, as a friend and fellow competitor offered to record the performance. However, I was afraid that my friend would lose the recording either to time or data storage problems, exactly the same case as for the preliminary "practice" performance of "XY&Z" before my winning one. Thereby, the other recording served as a failsafe in the case my friend couldn't fulfill the promise. Strangely enough, it turned out that my recording had an "aquarium" quality to its sound, whereas the one by my friend was normal. Both serves equally in this critique nevertheless.
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| Things seemed to go well at the start. |
On to the actual critique of the performance. What didn't work out was, as Ash noted, a small part in the middle of the song. I had actually "blanked out" in the instrumental section before, and a part of the line immediately following that section became incoherent. Even so, I did recover and I proceeded to sing the rest of the song with no lyrical flubs. The performance, however, was still not a winning one; the fault in this performance may lie in some other area, especially considering that this was the very first time I performed this song. Even with the lyrics committed to memory, I may still be in a state of "getting to know" the song.
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| I should have sung: "donna egao de tsutsunde agetara..." |
There are still other positives. "Soko ni Sora ga Aru Kara" is a mellow song and suits my musical tastes, as my friend also noted. I showed understanding of its lyrics by gesturing in the middle of the song toward the sky (the song title means "because the sky is there"). I also added my own twist towards the end, where "tsukuru yo" is repeated once in the original song, but I repeated it once more to fill out the rest of the song with added vocalization to demonstrate my vocal skills. This has the makings of a great performance at another opportunity where I can sing the song.
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| "aruite yukou... soko ni sora ga aru kara..." |
I felt somewhat embarrassed after my performance, having thought to make an egregious error. Yet as another friend noted, and if my winning performance is of any indication, I can gloss over errors like these with experience. Further, when my friend went up on stage to perform, my friend committed an even more egregious error by starting with the second verse of the song instead of the first - and it was for a more very well-known song; after that, my embarrassment decreased, and predictably, my friend didn't win either. And so we made errors in our performances that ought to be resolved next time.
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| "tsukuru yo... tsukuru yo..." |
While memorizing the song for these is half the battle - or perhaps more than half in my case and for some other people - as a concluding remark, it may serve well to pay attention to as many performance aspects as possible and not to worry too much about the little things, although the little things are and remain important. I can stand to apply quite a bit for whenever this song gets performed next time.
Meanwhile, I'm now left with two recordings of the same performance, but from different points of view. I can do something with these two recordings, certainly for the YouTube channel for this blog, but that will take quite a bit of time. At least the possession of these recordings can open up the critique further, in addition to what I've fleshed out above in the first place through the videos.
One year ago: The 2022 Pokémon Anniversary Week
Two years ago: (Pokémon) Songs as Advice
Three years ago: Cosplay: Beat Launch Party
Four years ago: Local EX Raid (in a Frenzy), 2/22/2019
Five years ago: Trainer Caps, and a Teaser
Six years ago: Back in the Park
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