Auditioning for Mary Poppins

More on audition coaching:

With the ballad chosen for the Phantom of the Opera audition, we turned our attention to the Mary Poppins song. We were looking for an up-tempo with a classic-book feel.

As well as the usual show songs, Gershwin, Porter and Novello are usually a useful source of classic material.

The client already had a song in her database that we both felt would fit the bill. Don't Look At Me That Way is a song by Cole Porter from the show Paris. It's an up-tempo, flirtatious song saying "I love whatever you do, and I particularly lose control when you look at me like that."

This client is Canadian, and is quite used to singing with an American accent. However for Mary Poppins I felt it best to sing with an English accent. So we spent a couple of sessions exploring the differences between the accents. She is remarkably quick, and after two sessions had the accent just about nailed. The particular dialect for this show is an interesting one - it's not hyperlect, and it's not quite Standard British (as I hear it), but a gentle cross between the two.

Having nailed the accent, we focussed on the character. Mary Poppins is not flirtatious, although she can be "fun". So I made one small adjustment to the song:
The opening lines of the chorus (I think you're great, I think you're grand And I don't mind if you hold my hand) were sung straight, but the change came in the title line (But don't look at me that way). Instead of being sung as a come-on, we changed the subtext to "Bert, stop that at once!" it gave much more of the flavour of the British nanny (think Jo Frost in Supernanny) and worked very well in the song.

This is the kind of work I really enjoy - altering the song subtext to suit the job you are auditioning for. I'll be posting more coaching session descriptions like this in the future.

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)

The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on style, memorising and musical genres.

Auditioning for Phantom of the Opera

Been very busy with my private clients. Audition coaching is the order of the day, as this part of the year is notorious for the recasting of shows.

Had an interesting challenge last week. One of my clients arrived with the intention of auditioning for four different musicals in one audition. The panel she was playing to was ostensibly there to cast Avenue Q, but many of the panellists have interests in other shows. She had decided to aim for the four main shows that they work on - Avenue Q, Mary Poppins, Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.

Now in terms of style, these four are about as far apart as you can get and still be called musicals. OK, granted there are no rock- or pop-based shows there, but it's still quite a mixed bag of music styles. Phantom is operetta/contemporary lyrical, Les Miserables is what we call in the Successful Singing Auditions book a Verismo musical (gritty and dramatic), Mary Poppins is an old-fashioned classic book musical (think Richard Rodgers music, although updated by Styles and Drew), and Avenue Q is a popular, disney-type musical with a cabaret feel and satirical lyrics.

In other words, there are no two songs in existence that will cover all those bases.

This is a problem I often see in my studio. "I need a song that shows everything". Well first of all, there isn't one, and second, if you try to show everything in 3 minutes, you'll end up showing nothing particularly well.

In this particular case, we decided that the client wanted to aim for the more classic end of the spectrum, so we chose songs to target Mary Poppins and Phantom of the Opera.

Phantom is an interesting one. Having played for many thousands of auditions for Phantom in London, I know that there is actually quite a wide range of repertoire that can be used. Successful singers in the past have used opera, operetta and Gilbert and Sullivan, or popular ballads, or standards with a story such as Gershwin or Cole Porter.

With the client aiming at Christine, we decided on How Could I Ever Know, from The Secret Garden. This is a lyrical ballad with a reasonably wide range. The role of Christine was written specifically for Sarah Brightman's voice, and although Christine famously has a high E to sing and a cadenza going to a D, most of the role sits in the middle and lower part of the range. There is quite a lot of narrative writing, and the song from The Secret Garden covers this.

You can often match songs from different musicals (or even decades) by choosing something to focus on. In this case, I chose Christine's dressing-room scene as a basis for repertoire choice. She sings to Raoul about "Little Lottie", a storybook tale that reflects her own life, and tells him of her new teacher. The text style (both narrative and personal), vocal range and the general feel of the writing has similarities to the song How Could I Ever Know.

I will also take into account not just the vocal range but the tessitura. This is the area within the vocal range in which the song sits. So if the total range was, say, low C to upper G but most of the song sits between low D and the D above (with only a few upper and lower notes), the tessitura is said to be D-D. Again, the tessitura of both songs are similar, so this together with the feel and emotion of the writing, makes one a good choice for the other's audition.

More on this in a later blog.

Incidentally, if you're interested in a private coaching session with me, you can contact my PA, Gunvor, to book a session.

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)

The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on style, memorising and musical genres.

To sing or not to sing...

When is it appropriate to sing? At home, in the street, in the bar?

Two lovely stories this week. You would think that a gig with Amy Winehouse and Jamie Cullum singing together would be a fairly hot ticket. Not at the Savoy hotel, it's not! The London hotel is famous for its connection with English comic opera (and in particular Gilbert and Sullivan). I should know, I used to work for the D'Oyly Carte company (the fount of all G&S knowledge) at the Savoy theatre.

However, the Savoy clientele doesn't take kindly to that new-fangled jazz thing, and when Amy and Jamie started jamming together in the American bar they were asked to leave. Now there's a party worth attending.

And talking of not quite appropriate, a woman in Lincoln has been given an ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) for singing in the bath. Apparently she did it to annoy the neighbours. Apparently she could face five years in jail. Apparently she was singing Gary Glitter songs.

Not sure if those last two were connected.

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)

The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on style, memorising and musical genres.

All change!

Interesting comments from Minnie Driver this week on her ability to take on an accent or dialect.

Ms Driver is famous for being able to switch accents or assume a dialect successfully, and believes that her singing background has helped. "It's a trick. It's music. I play music a lot. I play a couple of instruments. I think accents come from the same part of your brain. A lot of this is about commitment, You just commit to it, and you pay attention."

Ironically, I believe that changing voice quality is like changing accents. When you first decide to change voice quality or expand your palette of vocal colours (having not done it before), each new colour sounds and feels odd. you work with a coach to embed the new information, and to make sure that your version is accurate and healthy, and then you start to commit to it, to make it sound and feel your own.

The same applies to changing musical style. First comes the inclination to change, usually from having heard something that you would like to be able to do. Then you find (or are shown) the techniques to be able to make those changes, and finally you commit to making those musical decisions, to believing yourself in that particular musical genre. And you pay attention while you are doing it until it becomes "second nature".

I have posted an article on seven ways to change your singing style without changing your sound on the Vocal Process website.

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)

The Vocal Process website has a series of free articles on style, memorising and musical genres.