Garn!

Just finished hosting the Practical Phonetics course for Vocal Process at RADA.

I found it fascinating. I have not studied phonetics before, but am already familiar with the type of analysis and practical application that occurs when using phonetics (the symbols) and phonology (the practice).

As a confirmed patter-song singer, I am used to reeling off strings of words very quickly. When you are singing fast patter (and what other kind is there?) you soon realise that overworking the consonants, or punching every word for "audibility" actually decreases understandability. So you learn where the obstructions (consonants) are made, and make them clearly and with minimum effort. It means you can actually sing faster and work less hard. I call that a result!

I base my own diction on precision of movement of the articulators. Strangely enough, I looked to ventriloquists for my inspiration, as they have to make very clear vowels and consonants inside the oral cavity without showing it outside. Try it!

Anyway, it was a really interesting day for me, and I'm hooked on the diacritics! They are the little additional marks that add flavour to the basic phoneme. They are like oral spices, adding dialectic piquancy to the meal.

In fact I keep copies of the vowel and consonant charts pinned up on our studio walls. We have standard British and American vowels and consonants, and both Gillyanne and I find it invaluable for deciphering sung words. Particularly, it has to be said, precisely what each vowel should be in a diphthong.

It was quite a shock a few years ago when I discovered that in Standard British the diphthong in "say" was not the vowels in "set, see" but "set, sip". Taking the diphthong to the full ee vowel would make you sound too Welsh (or cod Italian), whereas the sip vowel, although weirder to do at first, make you sound more relaxed and real.

And following on from the fairly contentious thought in the previous blog, here's another.

I don't believe that British classical singers sing in British English (standard British). I believe they sing in Italian English - and I wish they wouldn't. Once you start listening out for it, it can be intensely annoying to hear Italian ee vowels when they should be British ih vowels. "I know that my Reedeemer leaveth". It's written as liveth. Shame he couldn't stay.
"Where there's a weal, there's a way"?
And especially for Christmas, "Jeengle baylz" and "Tha farst noalle"

Still, each to his own...

PS The title of this blog comes from the opening scene in My Fair Lady

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)
Constriction and Release (opening the throat on video - the latest endoscopy video download)

Gillyanne and Jeremy give private consultations and one-to-one sessions in London and on the internet. Click here to find out more.

What do they teach them at college?

Been working with a singer-pianist recently. It's reminded me how different it is to work with a musician.

For those singers among you who are about to bombard me with rude emails, let me explain. The majority of singers come to the art form late, precisely because of the massive physical changes that happen to the instrument in teenage. (We're running a day course in March on dealing with the changes in the developing voice.) The majority of musicians have already started their training before teenage (I began playing piano when I was 6), and usually have a fairly solid background in the theory and practice of music. So the language I can use in my coaching sessions changes.

In fact, the whole business of learning music is a fascinating one, and for me it is important to delineate between different genres of music. Anyone who has talked to me or read any of my publications knows that I tend to separate classically trained singers and theatre or pop singers. This is not to do with the training, this is to do with the purpose of the music they sing. I deal on a weekly basis with singers wanting to cross the genres, and the following information often comes as a shock to someone who has devoted much of their training to one musical genre.

Classical singers are taught line, phrasing, matching sounds and arcs of vocal shape. Text and storyline come second to matching beautiful tone. (We still have 45 year old women of a certain weight playing a teenage fragile consumptive, or 60 year old tenors singing student roles, because it's the voice that counts). Opera tends to work with mythology, or "grand design" plots, and recital music tends to focus on the poetic and formal. Classical music can have a long shelf life because of its reliance on legends and historical stories. In fact, when a classical singer gets to sing non-serious topics, it gets called "On the lighter side". [Love the singers, hate the phrase.]

Musical Theatre singers are usually actors first, and so are taught text and characterisation. The singing and the vocal sounds arise from the needs of the text and storyline. (We still have actors who find it tricky to sing in tune being cast in "singing" roles, because it's the characterisation and the physical casting that counts.) Musical Theatre deals with mythology more rarely, but will tackle contemporary issues such as racism, physical and social diseases and segregation of all kinds. Musical theatre has a mid-term shelf life: musicals can have revivals but are often updated during the process. There's an article on the Vocal Process website by Gillyanne and me, first published by Classroom Music magazine on the history of Musical Theatre.

Pop and contemporary commercial singers use "street language", extreme but everyday feelings (ie teenage and hormone-driven) and repetition to carry their message, so recognisable emotion is the most important thing. (We still have singers in their late 20s with children of their own, performing at the bottom or top of their fully-developed range in songs aimed at pre-teens, because it's the image and the feeling that counts.) Much of this music is instantly recognisable (and disposable) because it appeals to the immediate. You could say that this music, rather than taking you out of yourself, takes you into yourself, to help you identify and accept (or reject) the feelings you are enduring. This musical genre (or genres) also has the most tribal background, with million-strong fan bases.

OK, now you can send me emails... jeremy@vocalprocess.co.uk

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)
Constriction and Release (opening the throat on video - the latest endoscopy video download)

Vocal Process is running a day course on Practical Phonetics in November. Click on the link to find out more.

Putting it together - cabaret

Been working hard on a new cabaret with Suanne Braun, for the Lauderdale House cabaret season.

It’s a great blend of stand-up comedy and songs. We’ve had a huge amount of fun putting it together. Suanne already has experience as a stand-up, and I slotted in various songs that seemed to come out of the topics she was talking about.

I really enjoy helping people to put together cabarets or concert programmes that reflect their strengths – it’s one of my favourite things to do. It helps if the artist already has a fairly strong idea of what they want, or a “database” of experiences that can be worked into a scenario. It’s such a joy when the instruction “give me something to work with here” is met with a torrent of ideas. It doesn’t matter to me whether the ideas are fully formed or just wistful thoughts, it helps me to know what is really going to fit.

Ironically, the cabaret has come at a really busy time for both of us. Suanne has just been promoted in Mamma Mia from first cover Tanya to take over the role. She’s the first person in the history of the show to move from cover to leading role, and that happened earlier this week. On top of that, the cast had two extra performances, at Planet Hollywood, and live on ITV’s The X Factor in the ABBA night.

I’ve been racing round the country doing Hatstand opera gigs in Berkshire, Wiltshire and Lincolnshire, publishing the fourth video Endoscopy ebook (Modal to Falsetto 2 – Breathy Speech), writing an eZINE update for Vocal Process, and fitting in new coaching clients when I could. So I’ve been doing crazy hours, working from 9:30am to 11:30pm, and then wondering why I’m a little tired!

We had been discussing the idea of a cabaret for many months, and this one focussed on some of the more extraordinary moments in Suanne’s career, working on three continents. Suanne arrived at our first cabaret meeting proper with lots of ideas, including three songs from Dillie Keane’s album Back With You. Dillie writes excellent songs - catchy, funny, and VERY wordy. As time was short, and as I needed to transcribe the songs, we settled on two, Let’s Hear It For Fake, and Joyce.

I had decided that this was the moment to learn how to use the Sibelius music-writing programme. Dillie sings her songs in very low keys, and Suanne has a higher voice, so for this job a combination of transcription from the CD and transposition of the transcription was needed. The joy (and I do really mean that) of Sibelius is that once the music is inputted, you can do anything with it, including transposition and printing at the touch of a button. In fact part of our rehearsal was deciding in which keys to perform the songs.

Incidentally, when it comes to singing songs in published or non-published keys, there is a difference between musical theatre and cabaret. If you are working towards an MT audition, and singing an MT song, I usually want to hear you sing the songs in the original key, as the writing in that key will often be a “key” to the characterisation. Also, if you are going into the show, it’s no good singing a signature number in a lower key (for example) because (a) the band won’t have the parts, and (b) changing the key may throw the musical and harmonic structure of the show. However, with cabaret, you yourself create the structure and the rules, and indeed the subtext of each song, so original key becomes less important.

We added other songs to the mix including Funny Girl as a poignant number, I Can Cook Too as the finisher, and a snippet of a Robbie Williams number as the opener. The fun part of the cabaret structure is that almost anything goes (as long as it works), so we included musical underscoring, linking completely unconnected songs together, and one-liners woven into the song vamps.

Thankfully, Suanne is organised about her standup material, so it was relatively easy to shift information and stories around to make the sense of story flow. Ultimately, standup (and to a lesser extent cabaret) only really works when it’s being performed, and by gauging the audience’s response you can discover what works in general and in detail, and what needs altering or removing from the script.

Lauderdale House is an interesting venue, with beautiful art exhibitions housed in two main rooms. We were in the upstairs room, which is long and thin. The audience for this series is very warm and open to just about anything, and they took to Suanne’s particular brand of standup immediately. This series is such a good vehicle for musical theatre singers, and I recommend that you go if you are in London. Each Sunday afternoon contains two separate artists, the headliner and the support. Our support act on Sunday was the funny and talented James Adler, giving his first cabaret performance.

Our set went well, with Suanne staying on top of all the material, including the incredibly wordy new songs. We have always seen this performance as the debut of our “work in progress”, and Lauderdale House is an excellent venue to try out new material. We’re meeting in a couple of days’ time to discuss what worked and what needs changing.

I’ll keep you posted.

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)
Constriction and Release (opening the throat on video - the latest endoscopy video download)

Learn a song in 15 minutes

During the new client's session (see previous blog) we worked on "Funny".

I took him through the whole "Learn a Song in 15 Minutes" routine that appears in the Successful Singing Auditions book.

Reading the words as text does not normally hold any mysteries for an actor, but it is astonishing how few actors actually do it. Many are seduced or alarmed by the singing aspect of a song, so forget to use their current skills on the material.

Reading the words in rhythm is an interesting one. Even with actors who read music (and many don't), it is rare to find someone who reads EXACTLY what's on the page. As an accomplished sight-reader and accompanist, it's what I've done for a living for a lonnnnng time, so it's really "second nature to me now" (a round of applause if you can name the song that contains that line - answer at the end).

The purpose of reading the text in the rhythm of the song is to discover what changes to the natural speech cadences of the text the composer has made. So watch out for long words, stresses on weak syllables, and normally short vowels that are attached to long notes. The only way you can do this is to speak the words in exactly the rhythm that is written, including holding all the long notes for their correct values, even if it sounds odd!

Humming or sirening the melody is the next stage, and for this I prefer an ng to an mm, because it keeps the lips open and flexible (you'll see why in the next stage). I prefer the client to slide around between the pitches, rather than moving cleanly from one note to the other, because it seems to train the voice to negotiate the leaps in pitch more accurately. Also it is best to keep the ng sound small - it's not singing, so think of it as sirening quietly to yourself.

The next one confused my client temporarily - it's mirening. This is sirening (humming) the melody while mouthing the words using the front of the tongue, lips and teeth. The ng sound is continuous, but the lips teeth and tongue can still make all the movements necessary for the consonants and vowels in the text.

When clients first try this out, the temptation is to keep the mouth as still as possible, meaning that the bilabial consonants (m, b, p etc) simply don't happen. This just means that you have not yet isolated the separate areas of the articulating mechanism. There's a demonstration of mirening on the Vocal Process website if this description is too confusing. Click on this Mirening link to go to the relevant page.

And finally, we put it all together. As the client pointed out, by this time, most of the words and the melody structure will have started to go into the memory anyway, even though from my point of view learning and memorising are different things.

One thing that does become clear having finished the process is how few errors you are likely to make in memorising. Anything that might be a problem - complex words, strange rhythms or difficult pitch leaps, have all been dealt with in the separate stages of the learning process. With a short song, it is perfectly possible to complete the process in less than 15 minutes.

The client was able to sing the song accurately by the end of the session, and I have left him to go through anything that feels uncomfortable, ready for the next time.

Incidentally, the quote comes from "I've grown accustomed to her face" from My Fair Lady.

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)
Constriction and Release (opening the throat on video - the latest endoscopy video download)

Vocal Process is running a day course on Practical Phonetics in November. Click on the link to find out more.

Matching the song to the casting

Had a new client coming for a consultation session.

He is an actor comfortable with comedy, and is often cast in comedy roles. He was looking for repertoire that would suit both his physical casting and his voice.

Having found out what sort of comedy types he would play (wry, dry, physical, quirky) I asked him to sing something he was already comfortable with. He chose "On the street where you live" from My Fair Lady. He has a smooth, rich bass-baritone, which comes as somewhat of a surprise, as it doesn't really fit his physical casting. Watching him deliver the song, I am immediately struck by the fact that he is comfortable portraying physical extremes - his movements are clear, precise and definite. He is one of those actors who is physically funny to watch (think Rowan Atkinson or Charlie Chaplin).

My first thought (within three bars of him starting) was the song "Funny" from City of Angels. The song is normally done as a type of rant by the leading man, but I thought we could make something interesting of it by taking it out of context. The client has the voice-type and range for the vocal writing, and his willingness to go towards extremes could be very useful.

In general, I felt keen to work with what are essentially standard songs, but to give them a twist that would fit his physical and comedy/pathos persona.

I also came up with several alternative suggestions which could be used as well as or instead of the "Funny" song. I always suggest a classic-book type song, and in this case, Gershwin songs such as "They All Laughed" and "They Can’t Take That Away From Me" came to mind. Sondheim songs include "Good Thing Going" from Merrily We Roll Along, and the highly unusual "Invocation and Instructions" from The Frogs. The latter is a complex (and long) front-cloth song telling the audience how to behave, and I thought that it would suit his quirky MC persona well (with a lot of judicious cutting).

Walking into an audition with songs that he knows suit his casting and persona gives an actor tremendous confidence, both in his ability as a performer and in the auditioning process.

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)
Constriction and Release (opening the throat on video - the latest endoscopy video download)

Vocal Process is running a day course on Practical Phonetics in November. Click on the link to find out more.

"My chickens just ooze"

The second song (see the previous blog) proved a little more difficult to find. We were looking for something that was a little more character-based (rather than lyrical), so after discarding several songs (and composers) I suddenly thought of Bernstein, and his Broadway period.

"I Can Cook Too" comes from On The Town, and is a tour-de-force for a character actress. I have played this song for only two other people, but thought it would fit this client extremely well. I played and sang a few bars and I could see she was really excited by the prospect of learning the song. It's very wordy, but it is based around only a few musical patterns. This makes it fairly easy to learn, if not to memorise!

We started with what I think of as the main section. This client picks things up very quickly, and it took only about 10 minutes to teach her all of the patterns and their small variations. We did a stagger through to check progress, and she was 90% note perfect.

Incidentally, I use the stagger through in much the same way as a theatre director uses it in rehearsal. You have done the movement blocking and learned the lines, but things are very much "work in progress". The stagger through gives you a rough idea of the shape and size of the piece, and the areas that need either checking or serious work.

I knew that my client would be dedicated in her learning at home, so we moved on to the characterisation and voice qualities. In this particular case, the piece in the key we were working sits up around middle B (a seventh above middle C), and needs a slightly higher larynx position than my client was giving.

I worked with her on the possible speaking voice and patterns of the character, and we started with a young New Yorker, ditzy and blond to get the high energy and vocal height. We then made her slightly older and more "brunette" but keeping the high energy and presence. Using the characteristics of a speaking voice/dialect/vocal fingerprint helps in getting an actor into a different singing mode.

We also played with the idea of flipping into falsetto on certain notes or words. This client's background is classical-type training, which tends to focus on the beauty of sound and line. She is now starting to get really excited by the idea that sound is only one part of the musical theatre equation. It can be much more fun to experiment with dramatic characteristics and different, even "unattractive" sounds, if they serve the text and drama.

This song will work really well, for both auditions and for her song portfolio. She is coming back on Monday for a wash and brush up before the auditions (they're both on the same day). This is a client that I feel can cope with new songs for auditions - but I can't say I would recommend it for everyone!

I'll keep you posted.
PS Just in case you're worried, the title of this blog is one of the lines in the song.


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)
Constriction and Release (opening the throat on video - the latest endoscopy video download)

Vocal Process is running a day course on Practical Phonetics in November. Click on the link to find out more.

"A hungry yearning burning"

One of my West End clients arrived for an emergency two-hour session recently.

She had been invited to audition for not one but two film musical revivals. She needed two songs, ballad and uptempo, suitable for the 40s-60s era. So we needed two songs that we could use for both auditions.

We started with my standby composers for classic book musicals - Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. The Cole Porter songbook seemed to fit the best, and having tried out 8 bars of a few different songs, we settled on Night and Day.

It's a great tune, with a sweeping melody that descends an octave down to (in this key) low G. The casting brief said low voice, so that's what we went for. The song is actually quite easy to learn, and the patterns (albeit chromatic) repeat through the chorus. Even though the song is in reality an up-tempo song (the accompaniment tells you that), the feel is that of a ballad, since the melody line moves slowly and smoothly. It's a useful song because of that.

We decided for this particular show that we didn't need the verse. It's an unusual decision for me, as normally in this style of music, the verse sets the scene (fact), and the chorus contains the emotion (feeling), and I like to include both. Also with many of these "standards", the verse is not well known, so the chorus when it arrives comes as a welcome surprise. In this case, the role she has been invited to audition for has songs that are similar to the writing of this chorus, so it seemed better to omit the verse.

Since the style of singing in this particular show can be slightly exaggerated, we played with singing the song "straight" and a-la-Shirley Bassey, complete with back-phrasing, forward-phrasing and any other phrasing we could think of. Going to extremes often brings a performance to life, even if you wouldn't dream of actually performing it like that.

We then brought the song back to "normal" but kept the feel and fluidity of the exaggerated version. This seemed to fit the character's slightly heightened flavour. The client was happy with the song and the style, so we moved on to the second song.


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)
Constriction and Release (opening the throat on video - the latest endoscopy video download)

Vocal Process is running a day course on Practical Phonetics in November. Click on the link to find out more.