Choosing your song portfolio

At the RSAMD I clarified what I consider to be the necessary contents of the song portfolio:
8-9 songs that you can do immediately, in the right key (or keys) for you, that fit your casting, or that you have an excellent reason to sing.

They should contain the following:
1 A classic book song, or Gershwin/Porter/Kern standard for lyrical singing
2 A contemporary drama song (Les Miserables, Jeckyl and Hyde, Wild Party etc)
3 A pop song (pop, rock, R&B, gospel, anything going back as far as 50s pop, in whatever style suits you best)
4 A standard with a simple accompaniment (for when you hear the pianist can't play!)
5-9 Own choice songs, chosen to show your strengths. If you sing contemporary drama well, add another one to the list. If you sing Dusty Springfield well, add that. If you sing heart-on-sleeve songs, add one of those. If you do power ballads, add another one of those. Anything that you do easily and well.

Even within those first four categories, there are a number of options. If you really aren't a ballad singer (and f0r some character actors a straight ballad really doesn't fit their casting), then find a story song or a patter song of that period (theatre songs from the 20s-60s). The feel is more classic even if the song is for a character. Cole Porter's 'Tale of the Oyster' or 'The Physician', even Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs come under this category. But beware of updates - 'The Sun Who's Rays' from The Mikado (G&S) would fit, but 'The Sun Who's Rays' from The Hot Mikado wouldn't (even though it's essentially the same show), because the feel has been changed to R&B/gospel/pop.

For more information on auditioning and finding repertoire, check out the Successful Singing Auditions book.

Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
Looking at a Voice (endoscopy video download)

Singing coaching - a typical session

The rest of the two days at the RSAMD (see previous blog) were taken up with one-to-one coaching. It's my favourite form of intensive work. As a singing coach I give one-to-one lessons on a regular basis or as a short series, and number of my clients need single-session audition coaching for a particular job. It's actually quite difficult to describe a typical coaching session, as I treat each performer as an individual - I don't think you can do anything else if you want to stay in integrity. During a coaching session we might work on a warm-up appropriate to the song, technical issues with the song lyrics or the vocal tasks, performance anxiety, or clarifying the song journey.

I also ask what the focus of the session is going to be. When you are working with professional actors and singers, it simply isn't appropriate to tell them what they need to learn - they are usually very focussed and know exactly what they need to achieve, even if they don't know quite know how to achieve it.

For audition coaching, we may tackle anything from walking into the room to how the "characters" in the song interact. If the singer needs a warmup in the session, I will work the technical issues of the song into the exercises (calling and yelling for a big belt song, "cry" quality and vocal range for a classic-book piece). I tend to work on vocal technique issues in a context - after all, it's usually in a tricky phrase that you find out what you can't do!

I have the most fun working with experienced singers on moulding their current repertoire to fit each audition. I do not believe that a singer needs a different song for every audition! In the Successful Singing Auditions book Gillyanne and I differentiate between a portfolio and a database. The portfolio is the book that goes with you to the audition - the book of "I can sing this with 3 minutes' notice" songs.That's just enough time to brush up on the words. We recommend eight or nine songs in your portfolio. Your database can have anything from 5 to 100 songs - the ones that are gently simmering in the background.

There are of course exceptions to every rule, and we have one high-flying client who for years had one song that he sang slower or faster depending on what was required. He got the recalls from it. He only came for coaching because he decided that he needed more choice in his repertoire. He still gets the recalls, he just uses a few more songs!


Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
Looking at a Voice (endoscopy video download)

A travelling life for me...

Back home from the Channel Islands, and straight into the next job.

First, the journey back. Fishing boat from Alderney to Guernsey, the Catamaran from Guernsey to Weymouth (arriving at 0250), car to North London (our baritone's excellent and patient partner), then tube and train back home. 26 hours door to door from Alderney to South East London. Then up to Glasgow on the Monday night for two days' intensive teaching at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Tired, me?

The two days at the RSAMD began with a class for the Musical Theatre MA students on casting, repertoire and the FOAL Process. This is the process for finding your Falling Off A Log areas that I created for the Successful Singing Auditions book. I have added a few more questions since the book was published, and now include a question on "what would you be cast as in a non-speaking TV commercial?"

This is a useful question as it relies on your look and your energy-types, rather than your voice or singing styles. For those of you who are interested (and who know me), I would be cast as a vicar, a university lecturer, a musician or a botanist (how true life is). Other examples we had for the students were a gas-station attendant dreaming of higher things, a Disney newlywed, a wacky Human Resources manager, and the man left out of the group in a pub in Malaga. That last one is pretty specific (but apt) and we came up with a great song that matched it. Email me for the answer!

Having got our FOAL words and commercial castings, I then took a song and worked it with different subtexts to fit the casting and the FOAL key phrases. I also introduced the students to an exercise I use a great deal in my private sessions as a singing coach - changing the subtext to fit different types of audition. So Sondheim's "Good Thing Going" became suitable not only for the original (Sondheim show ballad) but also for Les Miserables (grittier, more dramatic, darker, more heightened emotions) and for Beauty and the Beast (more lyrical, smoother, regretful, higher passions).

It's a very effective way of making your audition portfolio work harder for you.

Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
Looking at a Voice (endoscopy video download)