Coaching the Girl in 14G

The final song we worked on (see the previous two blogs) was one of my all-time favourites. The Girl In 14G - written for the vocally talented Kristen Chenoweth.

I've coached this song with so many different people, and there are so many different ways that the song can work for you. The song requires four completely different voices (docile mouse, opera singer, jazz singer and broadway belter). So there is usually one that the singer is most comfortable with. I tend to start from the comfort zone and work outwards.

There are three different characters in this song, and when we began they weren't delineated sharply enough, so I started with the narrator. This self-confessed mouse has three distinct moods - quiet and docile, startlingly angry, and strong and outgoing. The first mood needs a small, childlike, twangy sound that stays pretty much the same whatever she is singing.

The temptation with this song is for her to get too angry too soon, so we worked on keeping the narrator small with varying levels of patience. This helps delineate her against the opera singer, who is completely oblivious to her surroundings and expressing herself in the grand manner.

The physicality of the three characters is also vital. The mouse is physically hemmed in, not moving much and with a very small, narrow body space. This contrasts with the opera singer who has a wide body space and flamboyant upward gestures. They need to be upward, as she lives in the flat below the narrator.

The jazz singer's physicality is the opposite. Into the ground, flexible and funky, and aiming downwards (she lives in the flat upstairs). Once these physical characteristics are sorted out, it becomes much easier and more fun to sing the song. Particularly when they are singing in "three part harmony".

Even within each character there is a lot of detail to be found. For example, the opera singer when we first hear her sings music from (in my opinion) three different operas - Mozart, Wagner and Rossini. Yes, I know in the score it says the third one is Mozart again, but it's more fun if you change it...

So for the Queen of the Night excerpt you can stand in the classic dramatic vengeance pose; for the Wagner, romantic desolation; and for the "Rossini" you want the archetypical coquettish heroine. The more you throw yourself into each physical characterisation, the clearer the story is for the audience, and the more interesting it is for you to do.

And you're not just relying on your vocal skills to pull off the jokes.

My singer loves the new physicality and is singing it with much more clarity and fun.

Job done.

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