The Moment that Stays: Recording Workshop
For a long time, our musical singing/acting class has taken place primarily online. It’s a format that works well, offering consistency and allowing students in different cities to continue learning together. Late last year, while we were back in Taiwan to host those Open Mic Masterclasses, a small window appeared in between sessions — not long, but perfectly timed. We decided to use that moment to create a special in-person course for a handful of long-term students, working one-to-one or one-to-two, and bringing into the room experiences that simply aren’t possible online.
A Singing Class Doesn’t End, But Stays
At the heart of this special course was a simple idea: allowing singers to experience what happens when their voices are truly captured and preserved. We recorded using microphones on site, followed by basic post-production, so that students could hear their voices as finished recordings for the very first time. Alongside this, we filmed simple MV footage, allowing their singing to exist not only in the moment, but as something that could be revisited and reflected upon.
Leon also joined the performances himself. When teacher and students step into the same piece together, the space naturally shifts — it becomes less about a lesson and more about making something collaboratively. That sense of shared creation brought a different warmth to the process, and gave the experience a lasting, personal significance.
Why Wicked: Two Songs, Two Emotional Worlds
With the release of the Wicked film, we chose two songs from the musical: For Good and As Long As You’re Mine. Though they come from the same show, they inhabit entirely different emotional worlds, making them ideal for exploring contrasting vocal and dramatic states within the same course.
For Good: When Eye Contact Changes Everything
For Good appears at the very end of Wicked, a duet between Elphaba and Glinda. It isn’t a song about vocal display, but about quiet, irreversible change — “I have been changed for good.” During the MV filming, there was a moment that stood out profoundly. When students stopped singing “to the camera” and truly met each other’s gaze in character, the energy in the room shifted instantly. It was completely different from singing solo online. In that brief exchange of eye contact, emotion rose almost uncontrollably — tears very nearly followed. It was a clear reminder that this wasn’t simply singing, but a relationship unfolding in real time, and that learning musical theatre itself had already left its mark.
As Long As You’re Mine: When Emotion Leads, the Voice Follows
As Long As You’re Mine exists entirely in the present. The characters stop analysing consequences and simply commit to the moment. It was within this song that students experienced something particularly revealing: when emotion reaches a certain intensity, belting emerges naturally, without conscious technical forcing. By focusing on intention and connection rather than vocal mechanics, the voice found its own way through.
The Voices We Keep, and the Moments That Stay
When recording was complete and post-production finished, students listened to their voices through headphones for the first time. The reactions were quietly powerful — surprise, repeated listens, soft laughter, and comments like, “So this is what I sound like.” It wasn’t about judging whether it was good or bad, but about truly meeting one’s own voice — capturing, for the first time, a version of themselves in the midst of learning.
Looking back, this special course left behind more than recordings or videos. It served as a gentle reminder that learning doesn’t only happen through technical improvement, but also through moments when we finally hear ourselves, recognise change, and accept that we are no longer quite the same. Perhaps because such experiences require time, trust, and the right alignment of people and material, they don’t happen often. But when they do, they tend to stay — quietly, steadily — long after the final note has faded.
