Audition Ready Part 1: THE BOOK

Many of my "single" vocal coaching sessions are what people think of as "audition prep" -- sometimes a fine-tuning of a song someone knows well, but more often I find myself faced with a person with an "I have an audition next week (or tomorrow!), can you help me find a song?

This is problematic for a number of reasons.  
 First, once adrenaline hits (and you can plan on that in an audition room!), our brains naturally turn off recent learning and we are left with our habits.  Things we have learned within a day or a week will be very difficult to use at this point!  
Second, it takes time to really get inside a song.  I promise, a music director will always know if you are "fishing a bit" for notes, and a casting director will know if you put in the emotional and background work or if you are just singing the words.  You start with two strikes against you if the song is new.  
(Some of you may be saying at this point "but I can learn a song in a week!" Maybe you can, and that's great, you'll be amazing in the callback room -- but I challenge you, how much better could that same song be if you spent a month or a year crafting it?) 

The answer:  If you plan to audition for anything in the next year, professional or community theater, start developing your book NOW.

So, what goes in my book?
Plan on a minimum of 12 complete songs, with well-prepared 16 and 32 bar cuts of each as well.  (Preparing this music for an accompanist will be in a later post.)
These songs should show your best work.  In other words, if you nail that belted C nine times out of ten, don't include it in your book yet, keep working on it, keep working on your vocal technique.  Everything in this book should be consistent. 
Think about what your "type" will be auditioning for and choose songs accordingly from the following list of suggestions.  There used to be a saying that "if Barbra Streisand sang it, don't unless you can do it better."  The same is probably true today for Sutton Foster or Idina Menzel songs.  Be yourself, don't try to be someone else! 

2 traditional musical theater uptempos
2 traditional musical theater ballads
Rodgers and Hammerstein Song
Sondheim ballad
Sondheim patter
Pop/rock uptempo from a musical
Pop/rock uptempo not from a musical
Pop/rock ballad from a musical
Pop/rock ballad not from a musical
2 contrasting 50s-60s pop songs
Comic song
Contemporary musical theater uptempo
Contemporary musical theater ballad
Operetta/art song/aria (if and only if you have classical training)
Country/western song
Jazz standard
Belt (this is probably not your first go-to.  Casting directors are tired of being "yelled at" -- but they may ask for it after your initial song.)
"Novelty" song -- one that is uniquely you or a strong character song.  Comic or not.

There are many resources on the internet for help choosing and finding songs.  
Here are three of my favorites:  
New Musical Theatre (A website dedicated to new MT composers.)
Musical Theatre Resources (Great blog by Kevin Michael Jones with lots of rep)
Musical Theater Songs (A subscription database with weekly freebies. An AMAZING resource!)

Click for printable audition book worksheet in Word:  AUDITION BOOK WORKSHEET
 

Fresno Grand Opera Christmas on Van Ness -- AKA Reaping the Rewards of Teaching Sight-Singing

Waiting to sing in the balcony of "The Big Red Church" in Fresno

My rants about singers needing to learn to sight-read are probably almost become legendary...but my reasons are good and this week the hard work of my students really has paid off! 




Every kid (except one who is a piano student and learning to read music that way!) from age 9-18 pictured above has been making their way through my sight-singing course.  Some are in their third year and can read almost anything in a major key, given a starting pitch.  


This week was an opportunity to test their skills in a real-life situation -- TAA was scheduled to have a group of kids perform at the Fresno Grand Opera Christmas Concert one week after Thanksgiving AND the Nutcracker!  One week of rehearsals only!  


Cannot express how nice it was to say things in rehearsal like "almost perfect, but that's a 6-1, not 5-1, see?" and to turn these kids loose on two 4-part a cappella pieces with almost no note-hashing at all.  

Four rehearsals plus one run-through at the performance site the day before, and here are the results!  



Riu Riu Chiu  

Other two pieces are also on my YouTube, but this is definitely my favorite!
They're proud of their work and were kind of surprised even at themselves and what they could accomplish in very little time!  Really that time is the result of years of hard work -- but SO WORTH IT!

TAA Youth Ensemble:Emma Newcomb
Elise Newcomb
Megan Forgey
Cameron Forgey
Erin Forgey
Samuel Walls
Trent Andrews
Elizabeth Hampton
Kylie Gardner
Autum Monty
Caroline Cantelmi
Josh Peters
Jessica Peters
Katie Peters
Madison Soltesz
Brenna Goodin

New Vaccai Recordings

Bella prova e d'alma forte:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ILFzKoxhnY

Fra l'ombre un lampo solo:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM4FULwCTbc

Some Thoughts on Memorization

Memorizing music is HARD!

No doubt about it, no matter how old/young/experienced/whatever, memorization takes some work, and being shaky on memory is one of the biggest contributors toward performance anxiety.

But I have one thing that has helped me and many other people feel more secure about their memory work:  memorizing "backwards."

Now even though I did have one young piano student take this literally in my early years of teaching (!), I mean it loosely! 

The technique:  Start with the last phrase.  Study, then sing/play, study some more, sing/play again until you can't possibly get it wrong.  Then move one phrase back and study, then sing/play all the way to the end of the piece/song/aria/whatever... until you can't possibly get it wrong.  Repeat this process, going all the way to the end each time, until you have memorized the first phrase.

Why this way?  When people start their memory with the beginning of the song, the beginning is the strongest memory work.  But with the "backwards" technique, the weakest phrase is the very first one.  You can go through the work with the confidence that your memorization just gets better and better as you proceed through!

Good luck with your next memorization work! 

Reading Rhythms Part 3: Introduction to dotted notes

 

 

 The dot is a fickle thing... 

In rhythms, the dot adds half the time (or "value") of the note it is attached to.  






Since we are still dealing with whole beats, the only note we will see the dot on for the moment is a half note.  

 

What is Greatness? Paper written by student Emma Newcomb

Every once in a while I have a student who just seems to "get it..." 
Emma is one of those students.  She is talented, certainly -- but more importantly, she is tenacious.  When I balked at high belting songs, not wanting to push her too far too fast, she threw a fit... and came in the next week with a gorgeous clear belt on "Let it Go."  (Which was followed by a tenuous agreement not to do it too much at home...)  When she reaches a new level in piano, she brings a piece from the back of the book in the next week, "just to see if she could."  
Emma knows what she wants and she knows what kind of work is required to get it... which makes her a complete joy to work with, even (maybe especially?) when she argues with me.  This paper which she is generously allowing me to share was inspired by an article in Fortune magazine 
that exemplifies the work ethic she is attempting to develop.  Enjoy!

Emma Newcomb

Composition

December 19, 2014

What is Greatness?

Most people think of greatness as fame or success.  Your name known by many people, being on TV, or anything like that is considered great.  Maybe some actors or famous people are great, but not all of them are.  Many people are unaware of what greatness really is.  Greatness is a hard thing to achieve and is not extremely common.  So, what is greatness exactly?

Greatness is working hard to achieve your goal.  You need a lot of perseverance to be great at something.  Say you want to be an amazing singer.  You can work your way up to your goal, but it is not going to be easy.  It will take many hours of practice.  Geoffrey Colvin's "Secrets of Greatness: Practice and Hard Work Bring Success" article informs, "Even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established, researchers call it the ten-year rule."  The ten-year rule is a statement that you need at least ten years of practice to be great at what you do.  John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University states, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average."  That means you have to be really serious about practicing.

You can be great and not be famous, but also you can be famous and not be great.  For example, you could be a incredible artist, but not be famous at all, or you could be a famous artist, but not exactly be a great artist.  Some actors and pop stars today are wildly famous, but do not make good decisions.  How would you compare Miley Cyrus to Bono from the band U2?  Bono has been made a knight by Queen Elizabeth II of the UK, participated in worldwide charity events, and won many awards with his band, while Miley Cyrus has questionable clothing and dance moves.

            You may be wondering, how do you achieve greatness?  The answer to that is hard work and perseverance.  Geoffrey Colvin explains, "Nobody is great without work," and also, "You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense."  People who are really serious about being extraordinary at something work at it every day.  They are passionate about what they do.  You have to practice your chosen skill intensely, not just normally.  Bethany Hamilton, after losing an arm to a shark, still pursued her dream of surfing and worked hard at it.  I do not mean just doing it every day, but paying attention to her mistakes and constantly trying to improve.  Her brother videotaped herself surfing, and then she watched it later and critically analyzed herself.  Working hard like that is not easy.  It is time-consuming and difficult.  However, it is essential if you want to reach greatness.

It is not just certain people who can be great.  Any person can achieve greatness.  If that is true, then why is greatness so uncommon?  The answer is that not everybody is ready to commit to the hard work it takes to achieve greatness daily.  "If great performance were easy, it wouldn't be rare," claims Geoffrey Colvin.  You can't expect to be amazing at something so quickly and easily.  All great people have to work very hard.  You are not just born with the ability to do something perfectly.  "It is a skill, not a talent," my voice teacher Chavaleh Forgey always tells me.  Some people believe that great people were born that way.  "You do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist," states Geoffrey Colvin.  I think you can be born with some natural talent, but you still have to learn quite a lot.  For example, Albert Einstein was born not with talent, but instead a learning disability.  His teachers said he would never amount to anything.  Instead, he rose above the average and became great.  So, greatness is not a gift, it is something anyone can achieve.

Just because anyone can be great, doesn't mean that it will be easy.  Geoffrey Colvin informs, "You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful."  This is true, but even if you work extremely hard at it, you still usually have to go though failure first.  Many people have failed or have had to overcome a difficult setback before becoming great.  Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs.  His childhood was very hard.  However, he pushed though and kept a positive attitude, along with becoming an amazing speaker.  His biography observes, “This dynamic young evangelist has accomplished more than most people achieve in a lifetime.  He’s an author, musician, actor, and his hobbies include fishing, painting and swimming.”  Abraham Lincoln failed in business and lost eight elections before becoming a great president.  I think that failure is what motivates some people to keep going, even if they fail multiple times.  In a way, failure is a part of greatness.

Unfortunately, most people give up after failing instead of pushing on.  That is a main reason why greatness is so rare.  You cannot expect greatness to come easily, but some people do, and then are defeated when they find it so hard.  They are discouraged and decide to just give up.  After all, giving up is so much simpler than enormous amounts of hard work every single day.
            Greatness is an uncommon and special thing.  It takes a lot of time and concentrating, and is hard to climb up to.  There are many bumps on the road to greatness, but if you want it you have to get over them.  Anyone in the world can reach greatness, because no one is just born with amazing talent.  It is open to anyone.

Works Cited

"Bio - Life Without Limbs." Life Without Limbs. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Jan. 2015.

"Bono." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 03 Jan. 2015.

Colvin, Geoffrey. "Fortune." Secrets of Greatness: Practice and Hard Work Bring Success. N.p., 17 Oct.

     2006. Web. 31 Dec. 2014.

"Famous Failures (Motivational)." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2014.

 Emma practicing "Shy" from Once Upon a Mattress 

 

Emma as Cosette in the LCA production of Les Miserable

Emma about to sing "Let it Go" at the Tulare County Fair

Vaccai Method -- Spoken Italian Diction

Sometimes the most difficult thing about practicing foreign language material as a student vocalist is not being quite sure that your diction is perfect -- even if you are listening to a singer that has excellent diction it can be difficult to hear every detail!

So as part of our Vaccai Project we have created YouTube videos of the spoken diction in the Vaccai Method. 

Happy practicing!

Click Here to go to Full YouTube Playlist: 22 Video Diction Lessons

Vaccai Italian Singing Method: Lessons 1-4

My daughter and I have begun a project to record the entirety of the Vaccai book for demonstration purposes.  Here are links to the first four lessons:

Lesson 1: Manca sollecita

Lesson 2: Semplicetta tortorella

Megan Faith, generously donating her voice and skills for these videos!

Lesson 3: Lascia il lido

Lesson 4: Avvezzo a vivere






Some advice for authentic Italian diction: click here