Masterclass at SSCM's Summer Vocal Institute

Congratulations to everyone who sang in this class. You were all "performance prepared" as requested. First a few general notes:

- Almost every time I give a masterclass I divulge the million dollar secret to my success: practice. Practice every day. To elaborate: practice every day under guidance of trusted teachers / mentors who will help develop a routine that keeps things fresh, efficient and enjoyable. "Never toil." Sometimes it can be a challenge to find a way to keep working on that same song or that same vocalise so that it's still gratifying. Just like they teach in acting school: "find the love." Sometimes it's hard to remember why you love this song, but when you do rediscover that thing that makes it so wonderful, you love it even more. It's the same way with people.

- Introductions: good job everyone:

1.) Enter smiling as if you are happy to see us.

2.) Arrive at the place on stage where you will sing (it is especially helpful to wait until you've stopped walking if your shoes are really loud on stage.)

3.) Stick to the script "Good morning, my name is ________ and I would like to sing ______ ."

- The most important time in your life is now. When a trusted teacher gives you a new song and says "you'll sound awesome singing this song," when do you start singing that song? Now. When your teacher asks you to submit your song title to the master clinician, when do you do that? Now.

Notes on the songs performed today:

1.) "Don't Rain on My Parade" Well prepared, especially considering you've only been singing this for a month. The choreography is well-rehearsed, but needs now to be assimilated. You need to look like the moves are coming from you and your emotions, not the choreographer.

Changing points of focus. You have a great focus on one point throughout the song. Because this song is "all over the place," your focus has to go with it. Move focus with each new idea. Conveniently all your classmates were seated in a semi-circle and so you could sing each line to a different friend.

In addition to a new focus, each line needs a new intention. Chose an intransitive verb and/or action for each line. We came up with

"Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter" push arms out, palms forward ("shut up!")

"Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter" reach one arm our, palm up, fingers beckoning ("come on, it's fun!")

(How cool is it that in two phrases / six seconds you're moving from one action to the exact opposite!)

We also tried just speaking the opening line to a friend and discovered that if you look really strange talking a certain way, you will probably look strange singing that same way. Even if that's not the case, I think that line opening line is a direct confrontation and shoulders should be square to the person you are addressing.

If you haven't seen Barbara Streisand sing this, go and do it now.

2. "Lovliest of Trees" Good legato and solid stage presence. We took a long time to achieve one good [^] vowel but it was worth it. Practice achieving that big, resonant, open, supported and projected vowel again and again.

This is why we practice every day: so you don't forget the sensation of singing.

3. "I Could Have Danced All Night" Your first time through, you began to dance right at the beginning of the chorus. We went back and sang the song again, this time imagining you were dancing, rather than actually dancing. The performance was much more compelling; I believed you were musing about a wonderful time you just had. And after all, the title of the song is "I could have danced all night," not "I am currently in the process of dancing all night."

Changing focus points makes your performance even more engaging. Remember: first the thought happens, then you sing the new phrase.

4. "Adieu" - Faure A few ways to make the French sound more French without actually working on the French. Accents. Two examples: De clo se the more accent you put here, the cooler it sounds because the 'se' is higher than the 'clo.' Fu me e. The more accent you do here the cooler is sounds because of the reason above and because 'Fu' isn't really the accented of the word. For this reason, this is much harder at first. Accenting an initial unaccented syllable is called an 'accent d'insistance.'

5. "Apres un Reve" - Sing through the high note, not to it. Plan out your breaths and chose a tempo that allows you to complete the phrase. There should be virtually no rubato through the entire song. Ditto for "Adieu." When you grow up you can use a little rubato in one spot.

6. "I Enjoy Being a Girl" Diction. The great Broadway musicals of this era have carefully written lyrics that deserve the performers utmost attention. This hall makes it especially hard to get your words across. We tried the exercise of underlining one or two words per phrase and emphasizing those words (one of the 1,000's of tricks to do when you've hit a wall with your song). Emphasizing a word does not necessarily mean singing it louder. It could mean lengthening the initial consonant, hardening the initial consonant, separating the word from the previous word, singing the word softer than the previous, lengthening the word, shortening the word, any combination of the above or 1,000 other different devices. YouTube yielded two good, instructive recordings (and a lot of young singers, some under the age of 5). One from the 1961 film, one an audio of Idina Menzel. I prefer the latter, a great 21st century take on a song written by two men about being a woman.

7. "Someone to Watch Over Me" The student who performed this is a very accomplished singer-songwriter and has a unique, self-taught way of singing heavily influenced by contemporary pop and folk artists. This singer's rendering of this standard was exquisite, with varying subtle turns to each phrase. This singer also "staged" the song with blocking and gestures. For me, the visual worked against the music. I asked the singer to simply stand in the crook of the piano and sing the song. Everyone in the room liked this better.

If someday as you continue your voice studies 1. don't ever lose the way you sing your original songs, no matter what you do. 2. if you're interested in developing a mixed head voice and belt voice, you can then stage Broadway numbers like this and sing them out, if you want.

I searched youtube for folk-pop singers who took on this classic. Every voice is unique and so it is impossible to find someone who sings exactly like today's participant, I didn't find any folk singer-songwriters performing this song. *If you know of any, please share.

Amy Winehouse - a standard jazz approach, though it is a tribute to Ella, she makes this song her own,

Ella - everyone must hear

Allison Iraheta - pop/"white soul" singer another example of give-and-take with words but it's an undistinguished jazz attempt

Blossom Dearie - overwhelmingly beautiful simplicity

Chet Baker - also recommended for its simplicity, for those who don't know Baker, he also plays trumpet.

Traci Hines - very interesting, worth checking out. I thought she was famous but apparently not (yet).

Sting - (I sang a Sting song with our masterclass participant; that may be why I'm including him here.) Sting has branched out a bit ever since The Police broke up, but he hasn't become known as a hard-core jazz singer. You still hear his pop voice and his style in here - informative for any pop singer taking on a jazz standard.

8 "What I did for Love" In contrast to some of the other numbers heard today, this piece needs some real commitment in the body. I'm not talking about dancing or even moving around on stage, but the urgency of the song demands that you plead with your whole body. This could be an opportunity to try the trick of making a note with a part of your body. If you have a difficult note, pretend that putting your foot down makes that note happen, or clenching your fist, or extending your arm, palms down fingers spread and bent (baritones only).

9. "Mi Sueno" How wonderful that our singer speaks Spanish. There also was an intense dramatic commitment to the text. The problem was, that we say inner pain and were not invited to share in the experience. I suggested simply directing the face out (forward) and up and leaving more air between your elbows and ribs and under your arms. Also about gestures: they have a beginning, a middle and an end. At this stage in your performing career we typically have the beginning and middle pretty well practiced, but to paraphrase Charlie Wilson "we f--- up the endgame." A gesture needs a clear ending. You need to decide when the gesture will end and how. Quickly on the rest? Slowly as the phrase tapers? If you find yourself in the middle of a song with an arm hanging out in the air, whatever you do, don't ask yourself "what do I do now with this arm?" Try a.) checking in with your character - what is he/she feeling now? The arm will do what's natural. b.) just do something that will look cool. Quickly clench a fist then slowly retract the arm back, or the reverse, or something else with two different speeds of movement. It may be totally against the music, but at least it will look cool. If it was the wrong thing to do, chalk it up as another learning experience.

Any questions? Feel free to contact me. Thanks for coming to SVI and keep up the good work.